The plight of the National School Lunch Program continues

Reauthorization of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is seeing yet another setback, as Republican lawmakers promise to make changes to the program after the USDA reported recently that it made nearly $2.7 billion in improper payments during the 2012-2013 school year.

Those incorrect payments cost taxpayers more than $16 billion last year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The numbers, found in the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service study series Access, Participation, Eligibility and Certification (APEC) II report, which collects and analyzes data about every five years, estimates improper payment rates and amounts in three key areas: meal-claiming errors, aggregation and certification.

“We will need to improve the administration of these programs to reduce errors,” Sen. Pat Roberts (R., Kan.), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said at a Thursday hearing on the issue. “That’s a considerable amount of money.”

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, set to be reauthorized later this year, isn’t faring well everywhere, as more reports show schools opting out of the school meal program for various reasons, one of the biggest being students not eating the healthier food.

The USDA recognizes that there have been improper payments in the school-meal program and is taking several steps to ensure the reduction of errors, as well as improve the program’s integrity, according to a recent announcement.

It said it will provide $8.5 million in grants to improve schools’ operational and oversight efforts in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, and also proposed a new rule to help states better target resources to districts at highest risk of improper payments. Together, the USDA believes these new tools will improve the efficiency and accuracy of school meal operations.

“Reducing errors in our school meal programs is a top priority for USDA,” said Kevin Concannon, Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services in a prepared statement. “The efforts will help schools continue to reduce errors in the school meal programs. By focusing on program efficiencies, we protect taxpayer dollars and ensure the school meal programs remain available to the millions of children who rely on them.”