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“CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 3874, WILLIAM F. GOODLING CHILD NUTRITION REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 1998” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H10197-H10200 on Oct. 8, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 3874, WILLIAM F. GOODLING CHILD NUTRITION
REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 1998
Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the conference report on the bill (H.R. 3874) to amend the National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to provide children with increased access to food and nutrition assistance, to simplify program operations and improve program management, to extend certain authorities contained in those Acts through fiscal year 2003, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
(For conference report and statement see proceedings of the House of October 6, 1998 at page H-9680.)
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling).
Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I am not sure who is in charge of scheduling. Obviously it has nothing to do with the order of importance. The President says we do not do anything in education. Here we are at 10 minutes after midnight with three very, very substantive pieces of legislation. I am sure the President is not watching television, so he will not know that we did something again. This is number 15, 16 and 17, as a matter of fact, from this committee that we are doing at this wonderful hour in the morning.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3874 is the reauthorization act of 1998 and it is one of the most important bills we will enact. Its main purpose is to provide our Nation's children and participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) with vital nutritional assistance.
Long before I came to the House, I was familiar with the School Lunch Program. As a former educator, I could see firsthand the importance of providing nutritious meals to children in order to ensure that they had the health and energy they needed to do well in school.
I believe the legislation we are considering this morning will go a long way toward improving the operation of these programs, freeing them from fraud and abuse and ensuring that children are provided with nutritious meals.
I would like to mention a few key provisions of the legislation. First, the legislation provides additional flexibility to States and local providers of nutrition programs. Second, the Summer Food Service Program is amended to encourage greater participation by private, nonprofit organizations. This change is particularly important to rural areas, some of which I represent, where it is otherwise difficult to find program sponsors. Third, this legislation includes key provisions that address fraud and abuse in both the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children and the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Next, this legislation modifies current nutrition programs in order to provide snacks to schoolchildren participating in school or community-based afterschool programs with an educational or enrichment purpose. Our Nation is currently undertaking efforts to reduce juvenile crime. Children participating in afterschool programs are less likely to engage in delinquent activities. I believe it is important that we support such programs by providing participants with a nutritious meal.
Last but certainly not least I am pleased this agreement makes permanent automatic eligibility under the Child and Adult Care Food Program for children participating in the Even Start Family Literacy Program. We will now be able to provide the children of some of our most needy families who are making an effort to improve the quality of their life and the lives of their children with nutritional assistance.
Mr. Speaker, this is a good bipartisan bill. I want to acknowledge those Members who contributed their time and effort to crafting this legislation. First I would like to thank the gentleman from Delaware
(Mr. Castle) who spearheaded the development of this legislation in the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Working with him were the chairman of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families the gentleman from California (Mr. Riggs), the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay), the gentleman from California (Mr. Martinez) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey).
From the Senate side, I would like to mention the efforts of Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, staff from both the House and the Senate who worked on this legislation, including Lynn Selmser, Vic Klatt, Alex Nock, Marci Phillips, Dave Johnson, Mike Ruffner, Dan Spellacy, Mark Halverson and Ed Barron.
Senators Mitch McConnell, Thad Cochran, Patrick Leahy and Tom Harkin have also contributed greatly to the final version of this important legislation.
On a personal note, I want to thank Senator Leahy, whom I have sat across at many House-Senate conferences and have always found to be fair and respectful of our differences and working in the best interests of our children, for offering a motion in the conference to name this important reauthorization after me. I am deeply honored and profoundly humbled by his gesture and that of my colleagues.
Mr. Speaker, this bill goes a long way in improving our Nation's child nutrition programs. I would like to stress that it makes these changes without spending any additional Federal dollars. These are important programs that provide nutritional assistance to millions of individuals. By strengthening these programs, we will ensure that they will continue to feed children and provide nutritional assistance to participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children for years to come.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
(Mr. CLAY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the President were awake at this time of night and watching these proceedings, I am sure that he would say that while he is pleased that this important measure is moving forward, he is also disappointed that we have yet to tackle even more critical priorities in education. This Congress has failed to take action on reducing class sizes. This Congress has failed to take action to address crumbling and overcrowded schools. This Congress has failed to take action on revitalizing our public schools. If this Congress fails to take action on these critical education priorities, we are shortchanging America's schoolchildren. I am sure that would be the response that our President would make.
This bill, the William F. Goodling Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act of 1998, before the House is the product of bipartisan work and an excellent example of what can be accomplished when we join forces to address problems facing our Nation's youth. This important legislation firmly places our child nutrition programs on the path to serve the needs of America's children in the 21st century.
H.R. 3874 expands and improves the focus of child nutrition programs in numerous ways. First, it ensures that the Summer Food Service Program will reach more needy children with more nutritious meals. Second, the bill adds provisions to guard against fraud in the WIC program. In addition, it establishes a universal school breakfast pilot project which will examine the close link between education and nutrition.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, and most importantly, this legislation enables institutions providing afterschool care to receive reimbursement for meal supplements served to children under the age of 18. This supplement is one more incentive for parents and children to participate in productive, afterschool programs.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, I want to extend my thanks for the hard work of the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling), the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle) and the ranking subcommittee member the gentleman from California (Mr. Martinez) for crafting this legislation. I especially want to thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) who spearheaded much of the reauthorization on our committee. Her work has been invaluable and many of the bill's provisions are based on legislative proposals that she championed.
Mr. Speaker, this legislation is a positive step forward. I urge its adoption by the House.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle) who championed this bill through our committee.
Mr. CASTLE. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) and appreciate tremendously his effort in this direction. I do appreciate the work of the minority members on this bill as well as all the staff individuals as well.
I would say something to the ranking member before I get into the goodness of this bill, and I mean this very sincerely, because it really has bothered me because the President came here in January and he talked about reducing class size, as the gentleman has indicated, and I think he is committed to that.
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He talked about rebuilding, revamping schools, which I think he is also committed to, but I think we all need to recall that the funding mechanism that he talked about, that was the tobacco legislation funding which would not be. Ever since it has been very apparent for at least 3 or 4 months that that was not going to pass, there has been no shift into any other kind of funding put forward by the White House or anybody else, and I think we need to recognize that fact.
I would like to do these things, too. Maybe the Federal Government should not be doing it but the President should not keep giving the illusion that this can be done because the funding is simply not there.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. CASTLE. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, we find monies for all other kinds of products. I would think that we would find money for these most essential projects that the country needs.
Mr. CASTLE. Reclaiming my time, they always have been done by the State and local governments, and secondly it seems to me that if the White House is referencing them and wants to get them done and puts up the money in the source of the tobacco money and then loses that, they have some obligation to come back and try to help out.
I just make a point. I do not want to make a fight of it tonight. It is too late, but I do think we have to recognize that. Let us talk about something that is good, which is this bill, which the gentleman worked on, and I have comments which I will submit when I revise and extend, but I just want to comment that I am very pleased to support this legislation.
I truly am pleased with the work that everybody did on it. It could not have happened otherwise. This is not an easy piece of legislation. We have had some tremendous staff work on it. It has been, frankly, a real pleasure to shepherd the bill through the legislative process. It really was a collaborative effort with Republicans and Democrats, with the House and the Senate working on this, and with the U.S. Department of Agriculture which was tremendously helpful on this.
This is truly, I think, a strong bipartisan bill. It is the kind of bill we should do at 4:00 in the afternoon so people can see what we can do by working together. I would like to thank those who worked on it, particularly the chairman and certainly the gentleman from California (Mr. Martinez) and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay) who worked so very hard on this, and the gentlewoman from California
(Ms. Woolsey) who is on the floor here, who worked so very hard on it.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) deserves special recognition. He has been a long time supporter of child nutrition programs and it is why it was such a pleasure to vote in conference to name this bill after our distinguished chairman, and so now we have before us the William F. Goodling Child Nutrition Authorization Act.
While I realize that we have not been able to address everyone's concerns with this bill, although we got close to it, I do believe we have an excellent compromise that will go a long way towards improving our Nation's child nutrition programs by reducing red tape and bureaucracy, finding and punishing fraud and abuse, giving program providers more flexibility, ensuring our Nation's children have access to healthy meals in schools, in child care settings, in after-school programs and during the summer months, and providing low-income pregnant and postpartum women, their infants and young children, access to nutritious foods.
Frankly, one of the greatest accomplishments is the fact that we have been able to make these important changes without blowing the caps of our budget. I could go on about what else is in here but I think the people on the floor here tonight are generally familiar with it.
I would just like to close by thanking everybody who has worked on this because without that sincere bipartisan effort it is not the kind of bill we would be able to get done.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey).
(Ms. WOOLSEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)
Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I doubt that I will use 5 minutes. Mr. Speaker, it gives me such great pleasure to rise in support of H.R. 3874, the William F. Goodling Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act of 1998. That is a lot to say, Mr. Speaker. One has to be awake to do that.
This legislation will benefit children in schools and child care facilities across our Nation. Our teens will be safer because it will be easier for schools and community organizations to offer them after-
school programs.
Elementary students are going to enter the classroom ready to learn and able to do better work in school because this legislation takes an important first step towards making breakfast available at school for all elementary school children.
H.R. 3874 will allow 5 states to provide school breakfasts to all their students free of charge. Two studies have proven that kids who eat breakfast improve both their grades and their school behavior.
In today's world, where two working parents are the norm and long commutes common, more and more families are out the door, on the road, early in the morning, with no time to sit down for breakfast. Whether we like it or not, children, even when they have food at home, leave their home and arrive at school hungry.
Unless we want to pass a law requiring every family to feed their kids breakfast before school and then hire a bunch of breakfast police to enforce it, we need to start looking at school breakfast programs in a different way, and this bill does just that.
This bill also makes it easier for schools and community organizations to offer after-school programs to teenagers by making it easier to pay for their snacks.
We know that the vast majority of juvenile crime and teen pregnancies occur after the school bell and before the dinner bell. We desperately need more after-school programs for adolescents, but feeding adolescents, even when it is just a snack, can be expensive.
H.R. 3874 will open the child and adult care food programs to low income teens and to more after-school programs. This is not Twinkies for teens. The Police Athletic League and other law enforcement organizations have strongly endorsed the benefits of after-school programs for adolescents. This legislation will make more of these programs possible and give teens a place to be after school.
H.R. 3874 will benefit millions of children and I would say to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) that he can be proud to have this bill carry his name.
Children are only 25 percent of this country's population but they are 100 percent of our future. The William F. Goodling Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act is a sound investment in America's most precious resource: Our children. I urge my colleagues to support it.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I will just close by reciting the 21 programs that came from our committee: Higher Education Act, Reading Excellence Act, Dollars to the Classroom Act, D.C. Scholarship, Prepaid College Tuition Plans, Job Training Reform, Emergency Student Loans, Quality Head Start, School Nutrition, Charter Schools, Drug Education Initiative, A-
plus Savings Accounts, $500 million more for Special Education, Loan Forgiveness for New Teachers, Teacher Testing, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, High-Tech Job Skills/Vocational Education, Bilingual Education Reform, Prohibition on New Federal School Tests, Equitable Child Care Resolution, Juvenile Justice.
That is a pretty healthy menu, I believe.
My friend from Delaware did not want to take the gentleman from Missouri on. I want to make very clear that the whole idea of pupil/
teacher ratio has nothing to do with the Federal Government whatsoever. That is none of our business and if there are not quality teachers in the classroom, it would not matter whether they are one-on-one. If that is something we want to do, fine.
Secondly, I want to make very sure that everybody understands, the Federal Government has nothing to do with maintenance and building of school buildings.
What the Federal Government does have something to do with is putting the 40 percent that they promised 30 years ago into special education, and every year the Los Angeles Unified School District would have had
$18 million more, every year, to do whatever they wanted to do about class size and to do whatever they wanted to do about maintaining buildings. That was a responsibility because we sent 100 percent of the mandate for special education.
What did the budget that came from the President of the United States do about special education? Cut it; did not even include an increase for inflation; cut it, when there are more and more students coming in constantly into special ed, the most expensive program that we have.
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Not only the most expensive, but an injustice to an awful lot of youngsters who find themselves in that program simply because they have some reading difficulties.
So I do not take a back seat to anybody in relationship to what this committee has done during the last 2 years to try to improve education and job training in this country.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield to me just for a short question?
Mr. GOODLING. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, how many of the 21 bills that the gentleman has cited have become law?
Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, we are going to have Higher Education, we are going to have Reading Excellence.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, we are going to.
Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, we are going to have Prepaid College Tuition Plans. We are going to have Job Training Reform. We are going to have Emergency Student Loans. We are going to have Quality Head Start. We are going to have School Nutrition. We are going to have Charter Schools. We are going to have Drug Education Initiatives. We already have $500 million more for Special Education. We have a Loan Forgiveness for New Teachers. We had to bail out the department in order to get the loan situation straightened out.
All of those are there in law by the time we finish at 1 or 2 o'clock this morning. It will be a magnificent effort on the part of the committee of which the gentleman from Missouri was a part.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
Mr. MARTINEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the conference report on H.R. 3874, the William F. Goodling Child Nutrition Reauthorization Amendments of 1998. This legislation shows what we can do when we put partisanship aside in the name of commitment to our Nation's children.
The Federal child nutrition programs provide access to the healthy meals that are essential to the success of our children today, and well into the future. The reauthorization measure before us this morning strengthens and improves the nutrition programs to meet the needs of children and their families as we move into the 21st century. For instance, this legislation will reimburse schools and other institutions for snacks that they provide to children under age 18 in after-school programs.
The majority of violence and other crimes committed against and by youth occurs after school--between the hours of 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. I believe that the support we provide for after-school programs in this legislation renews our commitment to the prevention of juvenile crime and the provisions of positive alternatives for youth.
It is important that we take other steps to shape the nutrition programs to address the situation of today's families.
As we have all heard time and time again, the most important meal of the day is breakfast. An alarming number of children do not eat breakfast, and thus begin their school day lacking the nutrients and energy to effectively learn. This is not just a problem tied to poverty. In our society, more and more parents have to work, regardless of their economic status.
It is my opinion that one of the most important and cost-effective commitments we can make toward strengthening education in this country is by providing breakfast for every schoolchild. That is why I enthusiastically endorsed Congresswoman Woolsey's legislation to authorize universal school breakfast. Through her advocacy, we have been able to include in this legislation a pilot program, which would follow the implementation of universal school breakfast in six States and report on what I believe will be its strong success.
I would have preferred that this legislation authorize mandatory spending for this pilot, to ensure that dedicated, consistent funding is provided over the five years of the program and its accompanying study. I urge appropriations to commit themselves to funding this program for the length of this authorization, as some in the State already have pledged to do.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3874 renews our firm commitment to the health and success of our Nation's children, and I strongly support its passage.
Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Blunt). The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) that the House suspend the rules and agree to the conference report on the bill, H.R. 3874.
The question was taken.
Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 5 of rule I and the Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
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