| With only a few weeks left in the lame duck session of Congress, the House is looking to pass the Senate version of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization. While the Senate version is not as good as the House bill, at this point our choice is whether we'd prefer the Senate bill or nothing. And, given that choice, I'll take the Senate bill.
The House brought the Senate bill up for debate today and the Republicans decided to play politics with it. Thus, it won't pass until tomorrow. But if all goes well, it could pass tomorrow.
Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader put out the following statement:
"I am disappointed Republicans chose to play politics with a bill that enjoys strong bipartisan support and would increase access to school meal programs, improve the standards of food provided, and help reduce childhood obesity. The real purpose of this motion to recommit was to delay this bipartisan bill from being signed into law.
"We will complete action on the Child Nutrition bill tomorrow. We will bring up the Republican motion to recommit as a stand alone suspension bill. After that vote, we will return to the Child Nutrition bill where we left off, voting on the motion to recommit and final passage. This will allow a good, bipartisan bill to reach the President's desk without delay."
What's sadly ironic is that it's Hoyer and other deficit hawks like him who make it impossible to make this bill truly "increase access to school meal programs, improve the standards of food provided, and help reduce childhood obesity." The child nutrition bill is a great bill but for one thing: it needs money. And that's a fight that's just too big for us to win at the 11th hour. We'll have to take what we've got and then continue working for money in the next Congress (or more likely, in the Congress after that, since the next Congress won't do jack squat).
Meanwhile, S. 510, the food safety bill, might not pass the House due to a technicality, according to Roll Call.
UPDATE: See the comments below re: S. 510. Also, here's a statement from Rep. George Miller (D-CA) about the Child Nutrition bill:
"It is disappointing that Republicans decided to pull a political stunt to delay passage of this bill at the expense of the deserving children who need healthy meals. I look forward to completing action on this critical legislation tomorrow and sending it to the President's desk for his signature." |
