Suspend School Meal Debt Act

Bill: 116-hr-6430
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Omar, Ilhan [D-MN-5]
Introduced: 2020-04-03
Policy area: Agriculture and Food
Subjects: Cardiovascular and respiratory health

Child health

Debt collection

Education programs funding

Elementary and secondary education

Emergency medical services and trauma care

Food assistance and relief

Infectious and parasitic diseases

Nutrition and diet
Latest action: action_date: 2020-04-03
text: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.

Summaries:
action_date: 2020-04-03
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><b>Suspend School Meal Debt Act</b></p> <p>This bill directs the Department of Agriculture to reimburse each school food authority and local educational agency participating in the National School Lunch Program or the School Breakfast Program for unpaid meal fees owed to the authority or agency as of the date of the enactment of this bill.</p> <p>The bill also prohibits each school food authority and local educational agency from collecting unpaid meal fees or using a debt collector to collect such fees during the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) public health emergency. The prohibition ends 30 days after the date on which the public health emergency is terminated.</p>

tv_txt: I 116th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 6430 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. Pingree , Mr. Thompson of Mississippi , Ms. Jayapal , Mr. Johnson of Georgia , Ms. Velázquez , Ms. Sánchez , Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois , and Ms. McCollum ) introduced the following bill; which was referred 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.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Suspend School Meal Debt Act . 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 Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act ( 42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) or the school breakfast program under section 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 emergency 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 emergency 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 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).