On March 30, the House approved a bill (S. 2241) to reauthorize a number of federal child nutrition programs that were due to expire on March 31. The Senate approved the measure by unanimous consent on March 26. President Bush signed the bill into law (P.L. 108-211) on March 31.
S. 2241 extends authorization for the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the After School Snack Program, the Summer Food Service Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program through June 30, 2004. The bill allows eligible children of armed service members living in privatized military housing to continue to receive free or reduced-price meals at school. The measure also allows for-profit child care centers to participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and authorizes schools, churches, and community organizations to operate Summer Food Service Program sites. Finally, S. 2241 will continue providing funds to states to replace dangerous commodities, such as tainted meat.
Explaining that the child nutrition programs reauthorized under the bill “benefit America’s most vulnerable children,” Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) stated, “It is our duty as lawmakers to ensure that these at-risk children and their families can continue to receive benefits for which they have been deemed eligible until Congress can complete its work on legislation reauthorizing both the Child Nutrition Act and [the] Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act.”
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) argued that the child nutrition programs “are our very best weapons in the fight against childhood hunger. These programs ensure that every eligible infant and child in this Nation has access to nutritious food: at home, through the WIC program; in child care, through the Child and Adult Food Program; in school, through the School Breakfast and Lunch Programs; during out-of-school time, through the After School and Summer Programs; and in homeless and domestic violence shelters.”
On March 24, the House approved a bill (H.R. 3873) to reauthorize the child nutrition programs through FY2008 (see The Source, 3/26/04). No comparable legislation has been introduced in the Senate.
