Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 8 - Healthy Meals for Healthy Americans Act of 1994

(Kildee (D) MI and 66 others)

The Administration supports reauthorizing programs under the Child Nutrition Act and the National School Lunch Act. The Administration, however, cannot support H.R. 8 unless its costs are fully offset and provisions are removed that would:

• Require the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to engage in a negotiated rulemaking process for all child nutrition program regulations, including those that establish nutrition requirements and compliance and accountability standards. Although the Administration supports negotiated rulemaking where appropriate, it opposes removing USDA's discretion to determine when negotiated rulemaking would be useful and beneficial.
  
  
• Establish a universal free school meal pilot program. Such a program would be poorly targeted. Over three quarters of the additional costs associated with the pilot would pay for meals to students whose household incomes exceed 185 percent of the poverty line. A national universal free school meals policy would cost an estimated additional $7 billion per year. The Administration believes that funds for this pilot would be better used for higher priority investments, such as moving toward full funding for the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children.

The Administration understands that H.R. 8 may include provisions to expand and make permanent the Commodity Letter of Credit (CLOC) pilot projects. The Administration opposes any such provisions. Since the projects began, USDA has addressed many concerns with the regular commodity program that led to the establishment of the CLOC projects. In addition, evaluations by USDA and the General Accounting Office indicate that USDA's purchasing power allows the Department to provide commodities at lower prices than local buyers under the CLOC system.

Pay-As-You-Go Scoring

H.R. 8 would increase direct spending; therefore, it is subject to the pay-as-you-go requirement of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA). OMB's preliminary scoring estimates of this bill are presented in the table below. Final scoring of this legislation may deviate from these estimates.

Estimates for Pay-As-You-Go
($ in millions)