The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“AMERICAN FOOD FOR AMERICAN SCHOOLS ACT OF 2019” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E147 on Feb. 7, 2019.
The Department is primarily focused on food nutrition, with assistance programs making up 80 percent of its budget. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, said the Department implements too many regulations and restrictions and impedes the economy.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
AMERICAN FOOD FOR AMERICAN SCHOOLS ACT OF 2019
______
HON. JOHN GARAMENDI
of california
in the house of representatives
Thursday, February 7, 2019
Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Speaker, today I reintroduce the ``American Food for American Schools Act.'' I want to thank my colleague and northern California neighbor Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) for his support as the original cosponsor.
The ``American Food for American Schools Act'' would strengthen ``Buy American'' requirements under the National School Lunch Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This will ensure that school districts use federal taxpayer dollars to purchase domestically sourced food products for in-school meals. Our bipartisan bill would also increase transparency so that parents are notified when their schoolchildren are served foreign-produced foods.
Even in northern California and Central Valley farming communities, some school districts use taxpayer dollars to buy imported foods, unnecessarily, without informing parents. In numerous cases, these same imported foods have been recalled due to safety concerns and outbreaks of foodborne diseases, when those same foods could have been sourced locally in the first place.
Under our bill, school districts would be required to obtain a waiver from the USDA to use any federal taxpayer dollars to purchase foreign-
sourced food products. Any such USDA waivers would only be granted if the domestically produced food was cost prohibitive or simply unavailable.
Our bill would also require that school districts notify parents of all foreign-sourced foods served to students, by posting any such waivers obtained from the USDA on the school's website. This would increase public transparency and provide American farmers an opportunity to seek out school districts that need affordable, domestically grown foods. Our nation's schoolchildren should be served nutritious, American-grown foods produced under the strictest food safety standards in the world. That is exactly what our bill would do.
Last year, Congress included ``Buy American'' language for the National School Lunch Program in the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-334). This is a good first step in addressing this critical issue for American farmers and school parents. Now Congress needs to finish the job by passing our ``American Food for American Schools Act'' into law.
Madam Speaker, I hope all members of the House will join me and Congressman LaMalfa in cosponsoring the ``American Food for American Schools Act of 2019.'' I also hope that our bipartisan bill will be included in any future Child Nutrition Reauthorization taken up by the House and Senate.
____________________
