The House Education and Workforce Committee has a discussion draft of their Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) bill. The draft has been covered in the media (to mention a few: Politico<http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-agriculture/2016/04/child-nutrition-bill-flies-in-face-of-compromise-mutant-strains-of-avian-flu-in-alaska-small-box-trucks-get-pass-on-fsma-rule-213662>, Civil Eats<http://civileats.com/2016/04/12/3-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-house-school-food-bill/>, Hagstrom Report<http://sable.madmimi.com/click?id=8688.148057.11166.1.7c1c6e39018911e381a6ff4419e5d71f>) and is available on SNA's website<https://schoolnutrition.org/uploadedFiles/5_News_and_Publications/1_News/2016/04_April/4.1CNRDiscussionDraft.pdf>.
That the House is moving forward on a bill increases the chances of Congress finishing CNR this year. (The Senate unanimously passed their bipartisan version of CNR out of the Agriculture Committee earlier this year; that bill has not gone to the Senate floor yet due to problems with the CBO score.)
The House CNR discussion draft would significantly weaken school nutrition by weakening standards for meals and snacks and beverages (Smart Snacks), accountability and compliance, and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. Specifically it would:
* Require USDA to review school meal regulations every three years in consultation with school groups, not health experts, opening the door to eliminating or weakening any component of the programs, such as the fruit or vegetable requirement;
* The first of those reviews would freeze sodium reduction at target 1 levels for at least three years, requiring yet another scientific review and limiting the types of science USDA could use for that review;
o While including cultural foods in school meals is positive, the House bill draft uses them as a way to weaken the whole grain-rich standard by exempting cultural foods from the whole grain-rich standard (which might include foods such as biscuits, grits, white rice, etc.);
* Significantly weaken Smart Snacks by creating a giant loophole that allows any food ever sold as part of the reimbursable meal to be sold a la carte and exempts school fundraisers from Smart Snacks;
* Weaken accountability and compliance by changing the administrative review cycle from three years to five years and eliminates the transparency requirement for the school nutrition environment;
* Eliminate paid meal equity, which provides funding for school meals at the local level; and
* Undermine the intent and nutritional impact of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program by allowing schools to replace fresh produce with dried (without a sugar limit), canned, and frozen fruits and vegetables.
The House discussion draft would also restrict access to universal, free meals in low-income neighborhoods by raising the threshold for schools participating in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) from 40 to 60 percent.
In better news, the draft would provide a 2-cent increase in reimbursement for breakfast, provide an increase of $5m for a total of $10m per year in mandatory funding for farm to school programs, and would authorize funding for kitchen equipment grants and establish a loan guarantee for kitchen equipment.
The House CNR discussion draft includes similar provisions from the Senate for streamlining eligibility for summer meals providers, provides non-congregate summer feeding and a significantly limited summer EBT demonstration project. For CACFP, the bill includes a pilot for an additional meal or snack for children in care longer than eight hours. However, it contains a problematic spending cap and no path forward for national implementation, along with other problematic CACFP provisions.
It is unclear when the House Education and Workforce Committee will take up CNR. We will share more details and action steps as the timeline becomes clearer, or please let me know what additional information you have to share.
Thanks,
Colin Schwartz
Senior Nutrition Policy Associate
Center for Science in the Public Interest
1220 L Street, NW, Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20005
202-777-8387
www.cspinet.org/nutritionpolicy<http://www.cspinet.org/nutritionpolicy>