I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2844
To amend the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act 
of 1990 to foster greater understanding of human dietary eating patterns 
and food intake, physical activity level, food security, dietary exposure, 
and nutritional status; to provide timely information to public program 
managers and private sector decision makers to improve nutritional in-
take, physical activity, health, productivity and other measures of quality 
of life of Americans, based on scientifically established norms and the 
knowledge and experience developed under the National Nutrition Moni-
toring and Related Research Act of 1990 over the past decade; to 
reauthorize nutrition monitoring programs; and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 9, 2005
Mr. HINCHEY (for himself, Mr. LATHAM, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. MCNULTY, Mr. 
FRANK of Massachusetts, and Mr. AL GREEN of Texas) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture 
A BILL 
To amend the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related 
Research Act of 1990 to foster greater understanding 
of human dietary eating patterns and food intake, phys-
ical activity level, food security, dietary exposure, and 
nutritional status; to provide timely information to public 
program managers and private sector decision makers 
to improve nutritional intake, physical activity, health, 
productivity and other measures of quality of life of 
Americans, based on scientifically established norms and 
the knowledge and experience developed under the Na-
tional Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act 
of 1990 over the past decade; to reauthorize nutrition 
monitoring programs; 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 ‘‘National Health, Nutri-
tion, and Physical Activity Monitoring Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS. 
The National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Re-
search Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 5301–5342) is amended—
(1) by amending section 2 to read as follows: 
‘‘SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
‘‘(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
‘‘(1) The United States faces an epidemic due 
to the large number of overweight and obese Ameri-
cans. The Department of Agriculture (in this Act re-
ferred to as ‘USDA’) and the Department Health 
and Human Services (in this Act referred to as 
‘DHHS’ ) have identified obesity as a high priority 
and are mobilizing resources and staff to address 
this growing problem. 
‘‘(2) Two of the major national surveys that 
collect data on dietary intakes of foods and nutri-
ents, the National Health and Nutrition Examina-
tion Survey (in this Act referred to as ‘NHANES’)
conducted by the DHHS, and the Continuing Survey 
of Food Intakes by Individuals (in this Act referred 
to as ‘CSFII’) previously conducted by the USDA, 
were merged in 2002 into an integrated survey in-
tended to be the primary source of nationally rep-
resentative data on the nutritional status and die-
tary intakes of foods and nutrients. 
‘‘(3) The newly integrated NHANES obtains 
data that contribute to our understanding of excess 
body 
weight, 
diabetes, 
hypertension, 
hypercholesterolemia, stroke, gallstones, coronary 
heart disease, congestive heart failure, respiratory 
problems, bladder control problems, psychological 
disorders (such as depression and eating disorders), 
certain types of cancer (such as breast, prostate, and 
colon), as well as exposure via food to environmental 
toxins and contaminants. 
‘‘(4) Preventable lifestyle-related diseases are 
major contributors to poor quality of life and health 
care expenditures for an increasing proportion of the 
population. There is a lack of tracking of health be-
haviors related to dietary intakes and physical activ-
ity, via surveys such as the Diet and Health Knowl-
edge Survey, which has not been conducted since 
1999.
‘‘(5) Preventable dietary and physical activity 
related diseases cost the economy over $117 billion 
annually and is predicted to rise to $1.7 trillion in 
the next ten years. Nevertheless, funding for the na-
tional, comprehensive nutrition and health moni-
toring system has not increased in real dollars since 
1992. 
‘‘(6) The nation commits over $35 billion to 
Federal food and nutrition assistance and education 
designed to maintain and improve the health of mil-
lions of Americans, but Federal agencies lack ade-
quate data from a statistically valid number of nu-
tritionally vulnerable individuals on dietary and die-
tary supplement intake, physical activity, food safe-
ty, food security and bioterrorism risks, and diet and 
health knowledge to inform management decisions 
on Federal nutrition and public health efforts. 
‘‘(7) Compositional changes in agricultural com-
modities as a result of new technology, as well as re-
formulation and development of food products, have 
brought improvements in the food supply. Any as-
sessment of food consumption patterns and intake 
must take into consideration product modernization 
and include newly available estimates of all health 
promoting components in food.
‘‘(8) The USDA and DHHS have relied on 
data on dietary intake, physical activity, nutritional 
status, and diet and health knowledge to advise deci-
sions about the ‘Dietary Guidelines for Americans 
and the Food Guidance System’. 
‘‘(9) Substantial Federal resources at the Food 
and Drug Administration (in this Act referred to as 
‘FDA’) are committed to developing food fortifica-
tion policies, food and nutrition labeling policies, and 
risk assessments on food additives and contaminants 
based on the dietary intake data collected by the in-
tegrated NHANES. 
‘‘(10) The Environmental Protection Agency (in 
this Act referred to as ‘EPA’) cites the dietary in-
take data from the integrated NHANES as the 
basis for exposure estimates included in risk assess-
ment of pesticides and toxic substances, but many 
scientists, including those at EPA, National Insti-
tutes of Health (in this Act referred to as ‘NIH’), 
and the National Academy of Sciences (in this Act 
referred to as ‘NAS’) recommend that a larger longi-
tudinal study is needed to collect additional data on 
the food consumption patterns of infants and chil-
dren for risk assessments.
‘‘(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are as fol-
lows: 
‘‘(1) To reauthorize the National Nutrition 
Monitoring and Related Research Act of 1990 to 
strengthen the combined DHHS and USDA nutri-
tion monitoring and research activities. 
‘‘(2) To affirm and enhance America’s commit-
ment to nutrition for all, and to ensure sufficient re-
sources for a national nutrition monitoring system 
that can support both management decision-making 
and research needed to address and improve the cri-
sis of obesity, nutrition-related diseases, physical in-
activity, food insecurity, and the poor nutritional 
quality of the American diet, as well as provide the 
data needed to protect the public against environ-
mental pathogens and contaminants. 
‘‘(3) To strengthen the scientific and statistical 
basis for the comprehensive nutrition monitoring 
system to enable effective management and informed 
decision-making pertaining to improving outcomes of 
dietary and physical activity guidance and nutrition 
education, food and nutrition labeling, food fortifica-
tion, risk assessments of pesticides, toxic substances, 
and food additives, and exposure to potential health 
promoting components of foods.
‘‘(4) To enhance the performance and benefits 
of current Federal nutrition monitoring and related 
data collection and research activities, and thereby 
provide a scientific basis for the maintenance and 
improvement of the nutritional status of the people 
of the United States and the quality (including nu-
tritive and nonnutritive content) of food supplied 
and consumed in the United States. 
‘‘(5) To improve the quality of retrievable na-
tional nutritional, physical activity, and health status 
data, related data bases and networks to improve its 
value and accessibility for public and private sector 
decision makers at Federal and State level. 
‘‘(6) To coordinate the Federal nutrition moni-
toring activities to provide more timely and useful 
data for the many health, nutrition, physical activ-
ity, food safety, and food security programs and en-
tities that use it; and to stimulate development and 
adoption of uniform indicators, standards, meth-
odologies, technologies, and procedures for food and 
nutrition monitoring. 
‘‘(7) To advance mechanisms for addressing the 
food, nutrition, and physical activity monitoring 
needs of the USDA nutrition assistance programs, 
Federal dietary guidance and nutrition education ac-
tivities, the USDA Extension Service, the USDA 
economic, food safety, and human nutrition research 
programs, the EPA, the Food and Drug Administra-
tion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
(including the National Center for Health Statis-
tics), the National Institutes of Health, the Depart-
ment of Defense, the Department of Homeland Se-
curity, other Federal data users, State, and local 
governments, scientific and engineering commu-
nities, health professionals, and the public. 
‘‘(8) To provide for the conduct of such sci-
entific research to ensure that timely collections of 
nutrition and physical activity monitoring data ade-
quate for program management purposes are com-
pleted, and that such data are sufficient for cor-
ollary scientific analysis that can contribute to the 
scientific understanding of human nutrient and food 
consumption. 
‘‘(9) To secure ongoing source of funding.’’; 
(2) in section 3—
(A) by striking paragraphs (1), (3), and 
(6), and 
(B) by redesignating paragraphs (2), (4), 
(5), (7), (8), and (9) as paragraphs (1), (2), 
(3), (4), (5), and (6), respectively,
(3) in section 101—
(A) by striking subsection (c), 
(B) by redesignating subsection (b) as sub-
section (c), 
(C) by inserting after subsection (a) the 
following: 
‘‘(b) EXTENSION OF PROGRAM.—To carry out the 
purposes of this Act, the 10-year coordinated nutrition 
monitoring system known as the ‘National Nutrition Mon-
itoring and Related Research Program’ is hereby extended 
for the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enact-
ment of the ‘National Health, Nutrition, and Physical Ac-
tivity Monitoring Act of 2005’.’’, 
(D) in subsection (d)—
(i) in paragraph (1) by striking ‘‘; 
and’’ and inserting a period, 
(ii) by striking paragraph (2), and 
(iii) by striking ‘‘shall— (1) be’’ and 
inserting ‘‘shall be’’, 
(4) by amending section 102 to read as follows: 
‘‘SEC. 102. IN GENERAL. 
‘‘The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services shall provide jointly for the—
‘‘(1)(A) continuous collection of data that is na-
tionally representative;
‘‘(B) periodic collection of data representative, 
to the extent practicable, of special populations such 
as, but not limited to Native Americans, Alaska Na-
tives, rural populations, the homeless, and Hispanic 
Americans, through community Health and Nutri-
tion Examination Surveys; 
‘‘(C) timely distribution of statistics through 
publicly accessible channels, to determine the nutri-
tional status, physical activity levels, food security, 
and food consumption of Americans; and 
‘‘(D) collaboration and coordination with users 
of the data to address the nutrition monitoring 
needs of—
‘‘(i) USDA nutrition assistance programs, 
Federal dietary guidance, food guidance system, 
and nutrition education, and USDA Extension 
Service programs; 
‘‘(ii) USDA economic, food safety, and 
human nutrition research programs; 
‘‘(iii) risk assessments of the EPA Office 
of Pesticides and the EPA Office of Children’s 
Health; 
‘‘(iv) risk assessments, fortification deci-
sions and labeling policies of FDA;
‘‘(v) research, education, and programs of 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (in-
cluding the National Center for Health Statis-
tics), the National Institutes of Health, the De-
partment of Defense, the Armed Services, the 
Department of Homeland Security, and other 
Federal data users; 
‘‘(vi) health and nutrition programs of 
State and local governments; and 
‘‘(vii) food and nutrition activities of the 
private sector (including both the food and die-
tary supplement industries, scientific and engi-
neering communities, and health professionals) 
and the public; 
‘‘(2) analysis of data collected as part of the in-
tegrated NHANES, when new data becomes avail-
able, and integration with data collected under para-
graph (1) to the extent practicable, to determine the 
nutrition, physical activity, and health status of 
Americans to guide policy recommendations regard-
ing Federal nutrition programs and dietary and 
physical activity guidance, as well as estimate die-
tary exposures of vulnerable groups to environmental 
pathogens and contaminants, and to compile peri-
odic reports, at least once every 5 years, of trends
identifying nutrition, physical activity, and health 
status concerns that are to be made available to the 
public; 
‘‘(3) continuous updating, in consultation with 
public and private stakeholders and relevant profes-
sional groups, of the food composition tables, using 
all reliable nutrient composition data and all avail-
able resources to analyze foods, to keep tables cur-
rent with the food supply in the marketplace for 
maximum usefulness in program design, and man-
agement and evaluation, as well as scientific re-
search; 
‘‘(4) development of data collection methods 
and standards for analyses that could be used by 
USDA or made available to other entities, for as-
sessment of nutritional and physical activity data; 
‘‘(5) awarding competitive grants to States, 
public, and nonprofit entities to encourage and assist 
local and State governments in collecting and ana-
lyzing nutritional and physical activity data, based 
on the methodology developed for the integrated 
NHANES or developed under paragraph (4); 
‘‘(6) provision of competitive grants and other 
programs to accelerate the development of uniform 
and cost-effective standards and indicators for the