Fw: Child nutrition needs Senate floor time

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

---

From: News from CSPI <cspinews@cspinet.org>

Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 10:00:13 -0500

To: News from CSPI<cspinews@cspinet.org>

Subject: Child nutrition needs Senate floor time

July 9, 2010

To:        Reporters
Fr:        Margo Wootan, CSPI
Re:        Child nutrition needs Senate floor time

The Administration wants it.  Republicans and Democrats support it.  Parents are clamoring for it, and the food industry supports.  So what will it take to get child nutrition legislation on the Senate floor?

In May, a White House Task Force delivered a report to the President with detailed policy recommendations designed to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation.  A blueprint of sorts for First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative, the report drew praise from health advocates.  The report has a whole section on supporting healthier food in schools, by, among other things:

• Increasing funding for school meals;
• Promoting farm-to-school programs that get fresh fruits and vegetables into school cafeterias;
• Updating nutrition standards for the foods sold in vending machines (that's Washington-speak for getting junk food out of schools); and
• Beefing up the U.S. Department of Agriculture's technical assistance and training for school food service professionals.

In addition to health advocates, the report was praised by members of Congress, and even from some quarters in the food industry, including farmers.  And these proposals aren't pie-in-the-sky.  In fact, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have already reached bipartisan agreement on implementing them.  In March, the Senate Agriculture Committee passed its version of legislation reauthorizing federal child nutrition programs—complete with the above mentioned reforms—unanimously.

But even unanimity in that committee and broad support among the American people doesn't make it a done deal.  The bill still needs to acquire what is turning out to be one of the most precious commodities in Washington:  Senate floor time.

To be sure, there's a lot on the Senate's plate.  But unlike a lot of truly contentious issues, passing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 would only require about a day of Senate floor time.  (A bipartisan food-safety bill, which the Center for Science in the Public Interest also strongly supports, similarly needs floor time.)

It's truly a historic opportunity.  The legislation provides $4.5 billion in new funding for nutrition programs over the next 10 years.  It's the biggest increase in funding for these programs since their inception, and it comes at a time when one in five American households are experiencing food insecurity.  It comes at time when children are consuming as much as 50 percent of their calories during the school day.  And it comes at time when leading generals and admirals are telling us that a quarter of young people are too overweight to serve their country in uniform.

Improving school foods by passing this bill would help stimulate the economy, reduce childhood obesity and rates of diet-related disease, reduce health care costs, and even improve national security.  For all of that, one day of Senate floor time doesn't seem like too much to ask.

Mrs. Obama understands the urgency.  "It's vitally important that the Senate continues this effort and passes a bill in the coming weeks," she told a visiting group of chefs who came to the White House to express their interest in helping schools improve meals.

Next week the House Education and Labor Committee will mark up its version of the bill, the Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act.  Testifying before the committee, Top Chef host and restaurateur Tom Colicchio, said it well:  "There can be no better investment—no better stimulus to our economy—than feeding this nation's children healthily and well. If we give the kids in this country delicious and nutritious food, we will instill in them a lifetime preference for healthy eating that will translate into vast savings in health care costs down the line."

But right now, the primary concern is getting time on the Senate floor to pass the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell should put aside their partisan differences in the same way their colleagues on the Agriculture Committee have, and schedule a quick debate and vote on the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act this month.  

#  #  #

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is a nonprofit health advocacy group based in Washington, DC, that focuses on nutrition, food safety, and pro-health alcohol policies.  CSPI is supported by the 900,000 U.S. and Canadian subscribers to its Nutrition Action Healthletter and by foundation grants.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To unsubscribe from CSPI news releases, reply to this
message with the word 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.

To edit your preferences, visit:
http://www.cspinet.org/new/newsjournal.html

Communications Department
Center for Science in the Public Interest
1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW  Suite 300
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 332-9110
cspinews@cspinet.org