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The Human Needs Report is the Coalition on Human Needs' newsletter
on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations.
It is published every other week while Congress is in session.
Article from the May, 21 2004 edition
of the CHN Human Needs
Report:
On Wednesday, May 19, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
approved a bill to reauthorize and moderately expand national child nutrition
programs, including school breakfast, lunch, and the Women, Infants and Children
(WIC) programs. The House passed a similar bill (HR 3873) on March 24 with
strong bipartisan support.
Currently, children in families with incomes up 130 percent of the poverty level
are eligible to receive free lunches, and those at 185 percent are eligible for
reduced-price meals (for a family of three, 130 percent of the poverty line is
$20,371). Several senators pushed to make children living between 130 percent
and 185 percent of the poverty line eligible for free meals rather than reduced-price
meals, but the panel did not include this in its final version of the bill. Instead,
the Committee approved a five-state pilot program where families with incomes
up to 185 percent of the poverty level will qualify for free meals (subject to
Congressional funding).
Both the House and Senate bills make the application process easier, reducing
the stigma of the program by maintaining more confidential records. Migrant children
will become automatically eligible for the school meals. The bill approved by
the Senate committee also permanently reauthorizes three important child nutrition
provisions scheduled to expire June 30: the eligibility of for-profit child care
centers for the Child and Adult Care Food Program if at least 25 percent of children
are eligible for free or reduced price meals; the exclusion of military housing
from income when determining eligibility for school meals; and the Lugar summer
food pilot programs. In addition, both bills expand the Lugar summer food pilot
program (the Senate expands it to a total of 20 states; the House to 17).
The child nutrition bill received bipartisan support in both the House and the
Senate, and both versions have rejected plans by President Bush to increase verification
standards that would make it more difficult for families to receive these benefits.
In fact, both bills have aimed to make it easier for low-income families to gain
access to these programs.
The current program was temporarily extended in both chambers last March, when
it was set to expire. The next step is the Senate floor, and then to conference
for a final decision before it expires at the end of June. Support for reauthorizing
the child nutrition programs was shown recently in a letter signed by over 20
national organizations stating, “We believe that this legislation strikes
the right balance between needed program improvements while maintaining the integrity
of the programs. The draft legislation includes many of our joint priorities,
especially increasing access to programs for low-income children; enhancing the
nutritional quality of meals and improving nutrition education; and providing
additional resources to vulnerable populations, such as homeless, runaway, and
migrant children”. These organizations are urging their Senators to vote “yes” on
the bill when it comes to the floor, which is expected to happen shortly after
the upcoming Congressional recess.
For more information:
Food Research and Action Committee: Analysis of the House bill
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