The “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” (S. 3307) passed today in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill provides an additional $4.5 billion over 10 years to federal child nutrition programs and will be a significant first step in reducing childhood hunger and obesity. It will increase the reimbursement rates for school lunches, set nutritional standards for all food offered in public schools, and expand after-school meals.
There’s much more to the bill than I can describe here, but the Food Research and Action Center has prepared a comprehensive summary.
The bill had already been approved by the Senate, so it now goes to the President for his signature. Today’s vote in the House was 264-157, with 17 House Republicans and all but 4 Democrats voting for it. (The Wisconsin delegation split along party lines.) Bruce Lesley, president of the First Focus Campaign for Children, issued the following statement:
“…The legislation will also make great strides in preventing and addressing our nation’s childhood obesity epidemic by reducing junk food in schools and improving the nutritional quality of meals. It is unacceptable that one-third of our children and teens are either obese or overweight.”
Child advocacy groups and nutrition advocates have generally hailed the bill’s passage as a very significant victory for kids. However, they have also expressed disappointment in an amendment that was added to offset the cost, in order to help get the 60 votes needed when the bill was taken up in the Senate. Funding for the offsets includes $2.2 billion in savings from speeding up the phase out of an enhancement to food stamp (SNAP) benefits that had been made by the Recovery Act. (A Nov. 23 blog post in the Atlantic provides a long critique of the SNAP cut.)
Many progressive groups opposed the SNAP change, although some noted that this source of offsetting funds has been proposed frequently, and it was only a matter of time before Congress approved an amendment that would use the offset for a far less worthy cause.
As an article today in Politico reported, the President placated Democrats concerned about that funding source by committing to state his support for SNAP during the White House signing ceremony for the bill and by working to restore the food stamp funding in the future.
Jon Peacock
