Child Nutrition and WIC Legislation in the 108th and 109th Congresses

Publication Date: May 2006

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Health

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Abstract:

Child nutrition programs (e.g., school meal programs, summer food service, child care food programs) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (the WIC Program) are subject to periodic comprehensive reviews, when appropriations and other authorities expire and have to be reauthorized. They were up for reauthorization review in the 108th Congress, and the only substantial child nutrition-WIC legislation in the 108th Congress, and so far in the 109th Congress, has been the 2004 reauthorization law -- the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, P.L. 108-265, enacted June 30, 2004.

The 2004 law extended virtually all expiring authorities through FY2009 and contained important, but incremental, changes in child nutrition programs and the WIC program; the Congressional Budget Office estimated that it will generate net new spending totaling about $230 million through FY2009. Its major feature was a set of amendments aimed at improving the integrity and administration of the school meal programs. Significant changes were made in procedures relating to the way children's eligibility for free and reduced-price school meals is certified and verified, and new initiatives to upgrade schools' administration of their meal programs were put in place. However, minimal revisions were made to the school meal programs themselves -- for example, expansion of eligibility for homeless, runaway, and migrant children, loosened rules for certain higher school breakfast subsidies -- and a major proposal to phase in higher income eligibility limits for free school meals was limited to an authorization for a pilot project. Relatively minor amendments also affected the Summer Food Service and Child and Adult Care Food programs -- for example, making permanent and expanding coverage of "Lugar" rules facilitating participation by summer program sponsors and making permanent and nationally applicable a rule loosening Child and Adult Care Food program eligibility rules for for-profit child care centers.

Another area of concern addressed by the reauthorization law was nutrition, health, and nutrition education. Here, the biggest initiative was a requirement that all schools participating in school meal programs establish locally designed "wellness policies" to set nutrition, physical activity, and other goals and strategies for meeting them. Coupled with it were (1) authorizations for new nutrition education efforts, (2) an expansion of the program offering free fresh fruit and vegetables in selected schools, and (3) significant changes in food safety rules.

Finally, a large number of revisions were made to the law governing the WIC program. The most important among them were amendments aimed at strengthening rules that help contain food costs incurred by the program; these included provisions placing substantial limits on vendors receiving the majority of their revenue from WIC vouchers (so-called "WIC-only" stores).

This report will be updated as events and legislation warrant.