Date: 1994-07-19
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the gentleman for yielding this time to me. Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to rise in support of the amended version of H.R. 8. the Healthy Meals for Healthy Americans Act. that is being considered by the House today. The Committee on Agriculture received sequential referral of the legislation reported by the Committee on Education and Labor. This legislation reauthorizes funding for several of our Nations most vital and successful nutrition programs. It also makes a number of improvements and increases flexibility in the way the Federal Government operates the School Breakfast and School Lunch Programs and the WIC Program. including the Farmers Market Nutrition Program. One of the areas of particular interest to the Committee on Agriculture is the distribution of agricultural commodities in the School Lunch Program. During its consideration of the legislation. the Committee on Agriculture kept foremost in mind that the Commodity Distribution Program has two primary objectives. No. 1. it seeks to safeguard the health and wellbeing of our Nations children. No. 2. and equally important. it seeks to support agriculture by encouraging the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities. The agreement worked out between the Committee on Agriculture and the Committee on Education and Labor on these issues has been included in the committee amendment. These changes are as follows: The amen)Iment requires that at least 12 percent of Federal assistance provided under the School Lunch Program must be in the form of "entitlement commodities." The amendment permits schools to refuse fresh fruits and vegetables provided through the Commodity Distribution Program and. instead. choose some other entitlement commodity. if they agree to purchase produce in their local markets that are equalin value to those provided in the Federal program. Furthermore. those cash purchases must be in addition to the fresh produce they would otherwise purchase. The amendment makes permanent the current demonstration program where 60 sites around the country can use their commodity assistance in an alternative form. either cash or as a commodity letter of credit. Mr. Speaker. I want to express my appreciation to Chairman FORD of the Committee on Education and Labor and to the other gentleman from Michigan. Representative KILDEE. who chairs the Subcommittee on Elementary. Secondary. and Vocational Education. for their willingness to listen to our concerns. I also appreciate the cooperation of the gentleman from Pennsylvania . the committees ranking minority member. in helping us arrive at this agreement on H.R. 8. Mr. Speaker. I also want to make clear that the Committee on Agriculture will be vigilant in its oversight of the Commodity Distribution Program. It is my hope that the Department of Agriculture. the schools. and commodity producers will work together to improve this program and make it as user friendly for schools as possible. I would like to mention that the Department has formed a USDA Commodity Improvement Council. which includes the Food and Nutrition Service. the Agricultural Marketing Service. and the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. This Council will seek to improve not only the nutritional quality of the commodities provided to the School Lunch Program but also the form of the commodities. and the distribution. transportation. and storage system for these commodities. Mr. Speaker. I also want to inform my colleagues that USDA intends to establish a demonstration project with the Department of Defense for the purchase and distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables used in the School Lunch Program. As Members may know. the Defense Department has in place its own food purchasing and distribution system for military and veterans installations around the country. This system allows the Defense Department to guarantee delivery on a date certain and provide a wide variety of produce purchased at low cost. The Committee on Agriculture has encouraged the Secretary of Agriculture to continue explorng this and other innovative methods of commodity delivery and we "ook forward to receiving a report from ohe Secretary upon completion of this demonstration project.