U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern End Hunger Now Speech: We Shouldn't Be Playing Politics With Our Kid's Health

Floor Speech

Providing access to healthy school meals shouldn't be controversial. We all want what's best for our kids. Yet for decades we've seen school food products -- both prepared meals and packaged snacks -- fail to be as healthy and nutritious as possible. Combined with other factors, we've seen childhood obesity rates increase over that time. Not surprisingly, we've seen other health problems associated with obesity also increase.

That began to change because of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, also known as the Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill, which reauthorizes our school meal programs as well as the WIC Program. The 2010 bill was especially important because it implemented new health and nutrition standards for schools, including issues like sodium, fruits and vegetables, and whole grains. Today, the House Appropriations Committee will vote on waiving not just these standards, but also basic, reasonable limits on calories, fat and trans fats.

I was critical of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act not because of the change in nutritional guidelines for school meals but because the bill cut SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, in order to pay for these improvements. Sadly, we took food away from hungry people in order to improve the nutritional quality of school meals and increase school meal reimbursements. It was one of the more difficult votes I've taken as a Member of this House and I'm still angry that we robbed Peter to pay Paul instead of using better offsets that were available at the time.

That being said, I strongly support the policies in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. And that's why I'm dismayed at the attacks coming from Republicans in Congress. House and Senate Republicans are trying to roll back many of the guidelines in this important legislation.

I understand the concerns. Some food service providers in my state tell me that these new standards are cost prohibitive, that they lead to increased food waste, that healthier products that meet these standards aren't available, and that kids just don't eat these new foods.

But it's important to recognize that USDA, has empirical data that shows the law is working. Not only that, the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, confirms that the law is working as intended and that participation will get better as kids get accustomed to the healthier food.

Harvard recently documented significant increases in children's consumption of fruits and vegetables because of federal school food standards. Data also shows that the new school meal nutrition standards do not cause schools to lose money after they're initially established.

Most importantly, USDA has the authority to work with schools, school districts, and states to address the issues that may affect participation rates. In other words, schools, school districts, and states can ask USDA for assistance in implementing these new standards at local levels, especially when kids may not be participating locally in the ways that USDA either intends or sees in other areas of the country. States and localities should take advantage of this flexibility before seeking permanent changes to the law.

These school meal standards, along with the WIC food package, are science based. That means that politics was left out of the decision making process and left up to expert nutritionists. The reason why white potatoes, for example, were left out of the WIC program was because the experts at the Institute of Medicine said they do not provide the necessary nutritional impact as other foods eligible for the WIC program. That's another way of saying white potatoes aren't healthy enough for pregnant mothers and young children.

Yet now the Republicans are trying to scrap these important nutrition standards. And they're doing so under the false pretense that it's what's best for the kids.

M. Speaker, look at the facts -- House Republicans are supposedly acting on behalf of our kids while they tried to cut $40 billion from SNAP, while they tried to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from WIC, and while they continually ignore nutritional science by changing food packages to benefit specific industries?

The truth is their position will do real harm to our nation's kids. We can do better. We can and should work with USDA to implement this law in a smart way and not bow down to special interests. We shouldn't play politics with our kid's health just because some people don't like the First Lady.

There's a time and place for politics. But lunch is not that time and the school cafeteria is not that place.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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