You may have noticed that we are now in October. So you might be wondering where was the new Child Nutrition Act. After all, the previous Child Nutrition Act expired on September 30.
What you may not realize is that governments often pass bills that keep funding at previous levels. This has happened here. So the status quo on school lunches remains the status quo until a new bill comes around.
As you might remember, the Senate passed a version that only allows for a 6¢ increase (admittedly, this is the first non-inflationary increase since 1973). To pay for this tiny increase, the Senate version takes money from food stamps. Seriously.
The House, as you may imagine, isn't impressed with the Senate version. So we are at a stalemate.
Don't hold your breath on the bill coming down any time soon. Not much gets down in Washington as they head toward the midterm elections. And if the experts are correct, and the GOP has significant gains in the House and/or Senate, this bill will get weaker, not stronger.
As distasteful as this may be, there is still a likelihood of the House passing the Senate version. If there is a fear that a bad bill is better than no bill, the rule of thumb is that a bad bill will get passed. The question that may get asked is whether a bad bill is better than the status quo.
To paint a picture, let's go back to the headline of August 9: "Senate unanimously passes Child Nutrition Bill; battle still not over yet." Well, the battle keeps going while school children across the country wait to see what their government will do on behalf of their lunches. The rest of us are waiting as well.
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