I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6430 
To require that school food authorities and local educational agencies not 
collect unpaid meal fees during the COVID–19 pandemic, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 3, 2020 
Ms. OMAR (for herself, Ms. HAALAND, Ms. MOORE, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. 
MCGOVERN, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mrs. HAYES, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. 
NADLER, Mr. VARGAS, Ms. NORTON, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. 
ESPAILLAT, Mr. LEVIN of Michigan, Mr. POCAN, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. 
LOWENTHAL, Mr. SOTO, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. PIN-
GREE, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. JOHNSON of 
Georgia, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. SA´NCHEZ, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illi-
nois, and Ms. MCCOLLUM) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Education and Labor 
A BILL 
To require that school food authorities and local educational 
agencies not collect unpaid meal fees during the COVID– 
19 pandemic, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Suspend School Meal 
Debt Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. SCHOOL MEAL DEBT DURING COVID–19 PANDEMIC. 
(a) CANCELLATION OF MEAL DEBTS OWED AS OF 
DATE OF ENACTMENT.—The Secretary shall reimburse 
each school food authority and local educational agency 
participating in the school lunch program under the Rich-
ard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 
1751 et seq.) or the school breakfast program under sec-
tion 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 
1773) for the unpaid meal fees owed to such authority 
or agency as of the date of the enactment of this Act. 
(b) DEBT COLLECTION PROHIBITION DURING EMER-
GENCY PERIOD.—Notwithstanding any other provision of 
law, the Secretary shall require that during the emergency 
period each school food authority and local educational 
agency described in subsection (a) may not collect unpaid 
meal fees or use a debt collector (as such term is defined 
in section 803 of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (15 
U.S.C. 1692a)) to collect such unpaid meal fees. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) EMERGENCY
PERIOD.—The term ‘‘emer-
gency period’’ means the period— 
(A) beginning on the date of the enactment 
of this section; and 
(B) ending 30 days after the date on which 
the public health emergency declared by the 
Secretary of Health and Human Services under 
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section 319 of the Public Health Service Act 
(42 U.S.C. 247d) with respect to COVID–19 is 
terminated under such section. 
(2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of Agriculture. 
(3) UNPAID MEAL FEES.—The term ‘‘unpaid 
meal fees’’— 
(A) means outstanding fees owed by a 
household to a local educational agency or 
school food authority for lunches under the 
Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act 
(42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) or breakfasts under 
section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 
(42 U.S.C. 1773); and 
(B) includes late fees associated with the 
outstanding fees described in subparagraph (A). 
Æ 
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