Agricultural News
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 Unanimously Passes Senate Ag Committee
Thu, 25 Mar 2010 4:45:34 CDT
Despite some concerns - and discussion - about the budget offsets proposed to pay for the bill - the Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously approved the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 Wednesday. The bipartisan legislation to reauthorize childhood nutrition programs would invest 4.5-billion dollars in new child nutrition program funding over the next 10 years. Committee Chair Blanche Lincoln called the committee vote a monumental step forward. The Senators did not throw as much money at the porgram as the Obama Administration wanted, which is ten billion dollars in new spending.
Lincoln said she was proud her colleagues on both sides of the aisle voted to support this legislation that puts the nation on the path to ending childhood hunger and addressing the epidemic of childhood obesity.
The bill invests in new initiatives to enroll more children in the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs - which currently have 30 million and 10 million children participating respectively. It also includes a provision to create national school nutrition standards for foods sold on school campuses throughout the school day.
After the vote, US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack offered this statement about the markup and passage out of the committee of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010.
"I applaud Chairman Lincoln, Senator Chambliss, and the membership of the Senate Agriculture Committee for their efforts to develop a strong bill to reauthorize and reform the Child Nutrition Act. Today's Senate action shows that there is broad, bipartisan support for reforming our school meals programs to improve meal quality and reduce barriers to participation. The Senate's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is a significant step toward legislation that reduces hunger, improves the health of our children, and supports their academic achievement. Though we continue to believe that additional access and nutrition goals can and should be accomplished by passing a more robust bill that supports the President's $10 billion budget request, the bipartisan Senate action today is a very positive step forward. I congratulate the Senate Agriculture Committee for its work today and call on Congress to continue to make progress on this important priority."
Republicans did try to change one of the sources of funding for the measure- wanting to stop the taking of money from the conservation program known as EQIP- and instead take money from the Conservation Security Program- CSP. That effort failed- we have an audio report of that effort and the push back by former Senate Ag Committee Chairman Tom Harkin of Iowa. Click on the Listen Bar below.
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