$4.5 billion child nutrition bill ready for Obama signature

A child nutrition bill cleared its final hurdle within the House and now goes to the president for a signature. Coming in at $4.5 billion, the child nutrition bill aspires to provide lunches and dinners for a growing number of poor children, set nutrition specifications for cafeteria menus and purge school vending machines of junk food. A move by Democrats to funnel money from food stamp programs into the child nutrition bill might have helped to overcome the usual Republican opposition to new legislation. Source for this article - Child nutrition bill passed by Congress despite GOP maneuvering by Money Blog Newz.

The items in the child nutrition bill

The child nutrition bill had been passed by the House on a 264-157 vote. The Senate unanimously approved the bill last summer. The legislation increases government spending on child nutrition by $4.5 billion over 10 years. For the very very first time since 1973, federal reimbursements to families for school lunches will increase more than inflation. Language in the child nutrition bill gives the secretary of agriculture authority to set standards for meals consumed by school children, including food sold in vending machines. Kids will start seeing more fruits and vegetables, more grains, and less fat under the new guidelines.

The supporters of the child nutrition bill

National Academy of Sciences and input from children's advocates also as the food industries were all an integral part of creating this bill. Labor unions, health care industries, educational groups, religious groups, beverage groups, and many more all support this bill being implemented. The nation’s health has been shown in numerous studies to be substantially impacted by school lunch programs. Reducing health care costs, enhancing learning, reducing childhood hunger and obesity, are just a couple of the benefits of having a good lunch program in place.

Political debate about child nutrition

Republicans tried to derail the child nutrition bill with a procedural maneuver that would have sent it back to the Senate rather than to the president for a signature. They were pushing for simply a delay until Jan. when they take over the house so they could kill the bill then. Republicans said this bill will just boost government spending, and that it had been not the governments job to tell people how to eat. To offset the $4.5 billion cost of the bill, Democrats diverted $2.2 billion from food stamp programs for low-income families. There were about 15 republicans that were still in support of this bill regardless.

Citations

New York Times

nytimes.com/2010/12/03/us/politics/03child.html?_r=1

Washington Post

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/02/AR2010120202737.html?hpid=topnews

NPR

npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131206956