By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., says her child nutrition bill may be stalled in the Senate because the subject isn’t glamorous enough to capture senators’ attention.
The bill, called the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, received a unanimous endorsement in March from the Senate Agriculture Committee, which Lincoln chairs. A bipartisan group of 53 senators signed a letter to Senate leadership in May asking for swift action on the bill, but the measure has yet to win a spot on the Senate calendar.
“I think it’s one of those kinds of things where maybe it’s not glamorous, and yet it’s so needed,” Lincoln said today in a phone interview. “I think there’s so many things up here that get sensationalized, and then some of the things that are just real necessities get parked somewhere.”
Lincoln made speeches on the Senate floor Tuesday and today urging her fellow senators to take up her bill before the programs it covers expire on Sept. 30. She also said she planned to hold a news conference on the bill Thursday with Republican Sen. Richard Luger of Indiana and several Democratic senators.
The bill would increase spending on nutrition programs, including school meals and the Women, Infants and Children program, by $4.5 billion over 10 years, with the increase offset by spending cuts to other agriculture programs so the deficit is not increased.
The measure would establish nutritional standards for all food sold in schools, including the food in vending machines, and increase the federal reimbursement rate for school meals by 6 cents per meal — the first increase other than inflationary increases since 1973.
“It may be less glamorous than some of the other issues that a lot of time gets spent on, but if you look at the details of what we’re talking about, we’re talking about helping to provide a healthier environment for children,” Lincoln said. “And that doesn’t just mean better, nutritious meals, better access to those meals. It also means, in terms of the fight against obesity, a healthier life.”
Reports released this year by Feeding America and Trust for America’s Health ranked Arkansas first in the nation in child food insecurity with a rate of 24.4 percent and seventh in the nation in childhood obesity with a rate of 20.4 percent.
Lincoln’s proposed increase in the reimbursement rate for school meals would mean an additional $3.5 million a year for Arkansas schools and more than $300 million a year for schools nationwide. She said that if funding for school meals is extended with no increase and no new nutritional standards, Arkansas will miss out on that money and “we miss a huge opportunity to address childhood obesity.”
“Say you miss two or three years of getting something done, getting something reauthorized,” she said. “You’ve missed three years in a child’s life.”
Signaling that she does not expect a prolonged debate, Lincoln is asking for just eight hours for consideration of the bill.
“We spend that in quorum calls,” she said.
