Grassley Statement for the Record on the Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act

Statement for the Record by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa

Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Business Meeting

To Markup the Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act of 2016

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Thank you Chairman Roberts and Ranking Member Stabenow for all your work on this important piece of legislation.

I’ve heard many concerns from parents, students and school administrators over the last few years about our school nutrition programs.  Administrators and parents complained about the costs and waste associated with the new nutrition standards. At the same time students wrote me countless letters about the taste and portion sizes of the food they were being served.

I agree that we need to ensure school nutrition programs are having the desired outcomes and not contributing to problems like childhood obesity-while realizing that there are limits to the federal government’s ability to change eating habits.  We must also ensure the money being spent on these programs is not being thrown away- literally.

This bill updates the nutrition standards of the Health Hunger Free Kids Act and streamlines the paperwork requirements.  The legislation requires meal standards to be updated to provide relief in the areas of whole grains and sodium.  A hardship exemption will also be available for schools that cannot meet certain requirements of the fresh fruits and vegetable program.

Additionally, Chairman Roberts has made great strides to increase the integrity of our school nutrition programs.  According to paymentaccuracy.gov, an official U.S. government website that is required by the Improper Payment Information Act of 2002, the School Breakfast Program and School Lunch Program have the second and third highest payment error rates of all government programs.  The School Breakfast Program has an error rate of 25.6% while the school lunch program has an error rate of 15.2%.  As we continue to grapple with long-term budget problems, reducing error rates is one of the easiest things we can do to correct our fiscal trajectory.