Lawmakers step up fight against school lunch rules

First lady Michelle Obama’s signature school lunch regulations are coming under fresh fire from GOP lawmakers, who view impending reauthorization legislation as their best chance yet to dial back the controversial nutrition standards.

Republicans are convening a series of hearings to highlight criticism of the regulations, a pillar of the first lady’s initiative to curb childhood obesity in the United States.

School officials say students are turning their noses up to the meals that cap calories and limit sodium.
Republicans also assail the standards as executive overreach.

“To force you to serve food that hungry kids throw out maybe tops the list of things the federal government shouldn’t be doing,” Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) said at a recent hearing.

The 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) expires on Sept. 30, giving the Republican-controlled Congress an opening to push through reauthorization legislation.

Republicans see reauthorization as an opportunity to tout the failures of the standards and demand changes that give schools — and students — more options. 

The legislation to reauthorize the law is expected to come from the Senate Agriculture, and the House Education and the Workforce committees.

The first lady, who has defended the standards against previous GOP attacks, is certain to fight any efforts to weaken them.

“The last thing that we can afford to do right now is play politics with our kids’ health,” she said in 2014, when asked about the fate of the program. “Now is not the time to roll back everything that we have worked for.”

Working in her favor is the fact that the standards imposed under the HHFKA carry the force of law and will remain in place, even if the program technically lapses.

Jim Weill, president of the Food Research & Action Center, said the September deadline creates an impetus for those on both sides of the issue to reassess the program and potentially make changes. 

“There are people on both sides that want to reauthorize the bill,” he said. “Supporters of child nutrition programs want to put in provisions to reach more kids with summer food and child care food programs, and there are people who want to not just weaken standards but cut back on eligibility.”

Republicans calling for more flexibility, like Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), are responding, at least in part, to pleas from the School Nutrition Association (SNA).