[DISCUSSION DRAFT] TH D CONGRESS SESSION H. …schoolnutrition.org/.../04_April/4.1CNRDiscussionDraft.pdf21 MODITY ASSISTANCE.—Not less than 12 22 percent of the value adjusted in

[Discussion Draft]

[DISCUSSION DRAFT] 114TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. ll

To reauthorize child nutrition programs, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Ml. llllll introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on llllllllllllll

A BILL To reauthorize child nutrition programs, and for other

purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1

tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3

(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4

‘‘llllll Act of 2016’’. 5

(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 6

this Act is as follows: 7

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

Sec. 2. Definition of Secretary.

TITLE I—NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH ACT

Sec. 100. Authorized State agency.

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Sec. 101. Apportionments to States.

Sec. 102. Repeal of nutrition promotion.

Sec. 103. Direct Federal expenditures.

Sec. 104. Nutritional and other program requirements.

Sec. 105. Miscellaneous provisions.

Sec. 106. Summer food service program for children.

Sec. 107. Commodity distribution program.

Sec. 108. Child and adult care food program.

Sec. 109. Demonstration projects.

Sec. 110. Fruit and vegetable program.

Sec. 111. Compliance and accountability.

Sec. 112. Repeal of State childhood hunger challenge grants.

Sec. 113. Duties of the Secretary relating to nonprocurement debarment.

Sec. 114. Improvements to school lunch facilities.

TITLE II—CHILD NUTRITION ACT

Sec. 201. Special milk program authorization.

Sec. 202. School breakfast program.

Sec. 203. State administrative expenses.

Sec. 204. Regulations.

Sec. 205. Definition of authorized State agency.

Sec. 206. Special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and chil-

dren.

Sec. 207. Team nutrition network.

TITLE III—MISCELLANEOUS

Sec. 301. Reviews.

Sec. 302. Program delivery.

Sec. 303. Product availability.

Sec. 304. Procurement.

Sec. 305. School Nutrition Advisory Committee.

Sec. 306. Paperwork reduction.

Sec. 307. Technology.

Sec. 308. Technical corrections.

Sec. 309. Budgetary effects.

Sec. 310. Effective date.

SEC. 2. DEFINITION OF SECRETARY. 1

In this Act, the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Sec-2

retary of Agriculture. 3



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TITLE I—NATIONAL SCHOOL 1

LUNCH ACT 2

SEC. 100. AUTHORIZED STATE AGENCY. 3

In each of the following Acts, strike ‘‘State Edu-4

cational Agency’’ each place such term appears and insert 5

‘‘authorized State agency’’: 6

(1) The Richard B. Russell National School 7

Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.). 8

(2) The Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 9

1771 et seq.). 10

SEC. 101. APPORTIONMENTS TO STATES. 11

Section 4(b) of the Richard B. Russell National 12

School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1753(b)) is amended— 13

(1) in paragraph (3)— 14

(A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘Be-15

ginning on’’ and all that follows through ‘‘the 16

Secretary’’ and inserting ‘‘The Secretary’’; 17

(B) in subparagraph (E), by striking ‘‘Be-18

ginning on’’ and all that follows through 19

‘‘school food authorities’’ and inserting ‘‘School 20

food authorities’’; and 21

(C) in subparagraph (F)— 22

(i) in clause (iii)(I), by inserting ‘‘(as 23

in effect on the day before the date of the 24



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enactment of the llllll Act of 1

2016)’’ after ‘‘subparagraph (A)(i)’’; and 2

(ii) by adding at the end the fol-3

lowing: 4

‘‘(III) SUNSET.—The Secretary shall 5

return to the general fund of the Treasury 6

any funds that were made available under 7

this subparagraph but not obligated by a 8

State agency as of September 30, 2016.’’; 9

and 10

(2) by adding at the end the following: 11

‘‘(4) ANNOUNCEMENTS.—With respect to reim-12

bursement rates described in this subsection, the 13

Secretary shall announce the rates and, to the max-14

imum extent practicable, any associated guidance by 15

February 15 of the school year prior to the school 16

year for which the rates and guidance will become 17

effective.’’. 18

SEC. 102. REPEAL OF NUTRITION PROMOTION. 19

Section 5 of the Richard B. Russell National School 20

Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1754) is repealed. 21

SEC. 103. DIRECT FEDERAL EXPENDITURES. 22


Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1755) is amended— 24

(1) in subsection (c)— 25



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(A) by striking ‘‘(c)(1)(A) The national av-1

erage’’ and all that follows through ‘‘(D) 2

Among those commodities’’ and inserting the 3

following: 4

‘‘(c) CALCULATION OF TOTAL ASSISTANCE.— 5

‘‘(1) NATIONAL AVERAGE VALUE.— 6

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara-7

graphs (B) and (C), the national average value 8

of donated foods, or cash payments in lieu 9

thereof, shall be equal to the quotient obtained 10

by dividing, not later than February 15 of each 11

year for the upcoming school year— 12

‘‘(i) the total funds available in the 13

preceding school year under section 4, this 14

section, and section 11; by 15

‘‘(ii) the number of lunches served in 16

the preceding school year in all schools 17

participating in the school lunch program 18

under this Act. 19

‘‘(B) ADJUSTMENT.— 20

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The value deter-21

mined under subparagraph (A) shall be ad-22

justed by the annual percentage change in 23

a 3-month average value of the Producer 24

Price Index for Foods Used in Schools and 25



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Institutions of the Bureau of Labor Statis-1

tics (in this subparagraph referred to as 2

the ‘Index’) for the preceding September, 3

October, and November. 4

‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENT.—An adjustment 5

under clause (i) shall be computed to the 6

nearest 1⁄4 cent. 7

‘‘(iii) INDEX.— 8

‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—The Index 9

shall be computed using 5 major food 10

components in the Index (cereal and 11

bakery products, meats, poultry and 12

fish, dairy products, processed fruits 13

and vegetables, and fats and oils). 14

‘‘(II) COMPONENTS.—Each com-15

ponent described in subclause (I) shall 16

be weighted using the same relative 17

weight as determined by the Bureau 18

of Labor Statistics. 19

‘‘(iv) MINIMUM AMOUNT OF COM-20

MODITY ASSISTANCE.—Not less than 12 21

percent of the value adjusted in accordance 22

with this subparagraph shall be provided in 23

the form of commodity assistance. 24



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‘‘(C) INSUFFICIENT AMOUNTS.—If 1

amounts available to carry out section 4, this 2

section, and section 11 are insufficient to meet 3

the requirements of such sections for a school 4

year, the Secretary shall, to the extent nec-5

essary, use the authority provided under section 6

14(a) to meet the requirements for the school 7

year. 8

‘‘(D) AMOUNT FOR EACH STATE.—For 9

each school year, the total commodity assist-10

ance or cash in lieu thereof available to a State 11

for the school lunch program shall be equal to 12

the product obtained by multiplying— 13

‘‘(i) the number of lunches served in 14

such State in the most recent school year 15

for which data are available; by 16

‘‘(ii) the rate determined under sub-17

paragraph (A). 18

‘‘(E) SPECIAL EMPHASIS.—Among those 19

commodities’’; and 20

(B) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘(E) 21

Notwithstanding’’ and inserting the following: 22

‘‘(F) MINIMUM QUANTITY OF DONATED 23

FOODS.—Notwithstanding’’; 24

(2) by striking subsection (e); and 25



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(3) by redesignating subsection (f) as sub-1

section (e). 2

SEC. 104. NUTRITIONAL AND OTHER PROGRAM REQUIRE-3

MENTS. 4



(1) by striking the section heading and designa-7

tion and all that follows through the end of para-8

graph (1) in subsection (a) and inserting the fol-9

lowing: 10

‘‘SEC. 9. NUTRITIONAL AND OTHER PROGRAM REQUIRE-11

MENTS. 12

‘‘(a) REQUIREMENTS.— 13

‘‘(1) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING.— 14

The Secretary shall provide— 15

‘‘(A) technical assistance and training to 16

schools participating in the school lunch pro-17

gram to assist the schools in complying with the 18

nutritional requirements prescribed by the Sec-19

retary pursuant to subsection (f) and in pro-20

viding appropriate meals to children with medi-21

cally certified special dietary needs, including 22

food allergies or other special dietary needs of 23

individual students, including religious dietary 24

restrictions; and 25



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‘‘(B) additional technical assistance to 1

schools that are having difficulty maintaining 2

compliance with the requirements.’’; 3

(2) in subsection (a)— 4

(A) in paragraph (2), by adding at the end 5

the following: 6

‘‘(D) FLUID MILK CONSIDERATIONS.—In 7

determining varieties of fluid milk available 8

with school meals and outside of the school 9

meal programs, the Secretary shall carry out 10

the following revisions: 11

‘‘(i) Consider the critical nutrient 12

needs of children who may be at risk for 13

inadequate intake of the recommended 14

daily servings of milk and dairy products 15

under the most recent Dietary Guidelines 16

for Americans published under section 301 17

of the National Nutrition Monitoring and 18

Related Research Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 19

5341) (referred to in this subparagraph as 20

the ‘dietary guidelines’) and conform to 21

such guidelines. 22

‘‘(ii) Analyze milk consumption data 23

and trends for school-aged children, evalu-24

ating such information in comparison to 25



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the recommended servings of milk and 1

dairy under the dietary guidelines. 2

‘‘(iii) Consider changes in milk con-3

sumption and milk waste when establishing 4

or revising criteria. 5

‘‘(E) MILK VARIETY CONSIDERATIONS.—In 6

determining milk varieties eligible for schools to 7

offer, the Secretary shall consider the most 8

commonly available types, sizes, containers, and 9

varieties of milk in local, regional, and national 10

markets to promote competition.’’; 11

(B) by striking ‘‘(4) PROVISION OF INFOR-12

MATION’’ and all that follows through ‘‘(C) 13

PROCUREMENT AND PROCESSING OF FOOD 14

SERVICE PRODUCTS AND COMMODITIES.—The 15

Secretary’’ and inserting the following: 16

‘‘(4) PROCUREMENT AND PROCESSING OF FOOD 17

SERVICE PRODUCTS AND COMMODITIES.—The Sec-18

retary’’; and 19

(C) in paragraph (4) (as so designated)— 20

(i) by redesignating clauses (i) 21

through (iii) as subparagraphs (A) through 22

(C), respectively, and indenting appro-23

priately; and 24



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(ii) by redesignating subclauses (I) 1

and (II) as clauses (i) and (ii), respec-2

tively, and indenting appropriately; 3

(3) in subsection (b)— 4

(A) in paragraph (2)(B)— 5

(i) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘, and 6

shall contain only the family size income 7

levels for reduced price meal eligibility with 8

the explanation that households with in-9

comes less than or equal to these values 10

would be eligible for free or reduced price 11

lunches’’; 12

(ii) in clause (ii), by inserting ‘‘or re-13

duced price’’ after ‘‘free’’; 14

(iii) in clause (iii)(I)— 15

(I) in item (aa), by striking 16

‘‘and’’ at the end; 17

(II) in item (bb), by striking the 18

period at the end and inserting ‘‘; 19

and’’; and 20

(III) by adding at the end the 21

following: 22

‘‘(cc) individuals may report 23

alleged fraud to the Office of the 24



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Inspector General of the Depart-1

ment of Agriculture.’’; and 2

(iv) by adding at the end the fol-3

lowing: 4

‘‘(iv) REPORTING OF FRAUD.—The 5

Secretary shall ensure that the Internet 6

website of the Department of Agriculture 7

prominently displays a link to the Internet 8

website of the Office of the Inspector Gen-9

eral of the Department and the phone 10

number of the Office of the Inspector Gen-11

eral through which an individual may re-12

port any alleged fraud. 13

‘‘(v) APPLICATION FORMS.—Not later 14

than 120 days after the date of the enact-15

ment of this clause, the Secretary shall— 16

‘‘(I) review the most current ap-17

plication forms, including paper and 18

digital, used to apply for participation 19

in the school lunch program author-20

ized under this Act and the school 21

breakfast program established by sec-22

tion 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 23

1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773); 24



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‘‘(II) provide to States guidance 1

relating to best practices, including at 2

a minimum a standard application 3

form for use by local educational 4

agencies or schools; 5

‘‘(III) provide to States guidance 6

relating to how to improve the appli-7

cation to ensure families understand 8

and can enroll in the school lunch pro-9

gram and the school breakfast pro-10

gram; and 11

‘‘(IV) provide to States such in-12

formation as is necessary to ensure 13

that States understand school food 14

authorities may not— 15

‘‘(aa) require or mandate 16

families apply for either program; 17

‘‘(bb) request that a family 18

apply for the program after the 19

parent or guardian has informed 20

the school that the family does 21

not want to participate in the 22

program or receive additional in-23

formation about the program in 24

that school year; or 25



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‘‘(cc) in the case of a family 1

that has not informed the school 2

about their choice, request more 3

than twice in that school year 4

that such family apply for the 5

program if such family has not 6

submitted an application.’’; 7

(B) in paragraph (3)— 8

(i) by striking subparagraph (D) and 9

inserting the following: 10

‘‘(D) VERIFICATION.— 11

‘‘(i) STANDARD VERIFICATION OF AP-12

PLICATIONS.— 13

‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—Beginning 14

with the second school year that be-15

gins after the date of the enactment 16

of the llllll Act of 2016, 17

each school year, each local edu-18

cational agency shall verify the eligi-19

bility of the children in a portion of 20

the household applications approved 21

for the school year by the local edu-22

cational agency, as of November 1 of 23

the school year, as determined by the 24



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Secretary in accordance with this sub-1

section. 2

‘‘(II) SAMPLE SIZE.— 3

‘‘(aa) IN GENERAL.—The 4

portion for a local educational 5

agency for a school year shall 6

equal the lesser of— 7

‘‘(AA) 10,000; or 8

‘‘(BB) 10 percent of 9

approved applications. 10

‘‘(bb) CALCULATION.—Not 11

later than July 1 of each year, 12

the Secretary shall calculate the 13

sample size under this subpara-14

graph for each local educational 15

agency based on data from the 2 16

most recent school years avail-17

able. 18

‘‘(III) SAMPLE SELECTION.—Ap-19

plications shall be selected for 20

verification by the local educational 21

agency based on indications that in-22

formation relevant to eligibility is in-23

consistent with the information pro-24



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vided on the application, including at 1

a minimum the following: 2

‘‘(aa) The household has 3

submitted information in writing 4

to the local educational agency 5

that is inconsistent with the in-6

formation on the application. 7

‘‘(bb) The information pro-8

vided on the application is con-9

sistent with a pattern of error or 10

fraud detected by the local edu-11

cational agency, the State agen-12

cy, or the Secretary. 13

‘‘(cc) For not more than 1⁄4 14

of the sample, students who are 15

directly certified or the applica-16

tion provides a case number (in 17

lieu of income information) show-18

ing participation in— 19

‘‘(AA) the supplemental 20

nutrition assistance program 21

established under the Food 22

and Nutrition Act of 2008 23

(7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.); or 24



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‘‘(BB) a State program 1

funded under the program 2

of block grants to States for 3

temporary assistance for 4

needy families established 5

under part A of title IV of 6

the Social Security Act (42 7

U.S.C. 601 et seq.) that the 8

Secretary determines com-9

plies with standards estab-10

lished by the Secretary that 11

ensure that the eligibility re-12

quirements under the State 13

program are comparable to 14

the requirements for partici-15

pation in accordance with 16

this Act and the Child Nu-17

trition Act of 1966 (42 18

U.S.C. 1771 et seq.). 19

‘‘(dd) For not more than 1⁄4 20

of the sample, the income infor-21

mation provided on the applica-22

tion is close to the income limit 23

for free or reduced price meals, 24



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as specified by the local edu-1

cational agency each year. 2

‘‘(ee) Such other criteria as 3

is determined by the State. 4

‘‘(IV) ADDITIONAL VERIFICATION 5

OF APPLICATIONS.—If the number of 6

applications that match the criteria 7

described in subclause (III) is insuffi-8

cient to meet the number of applica-9

tions determined under subclause (II), 10

the local educational agency shall se-11

lect additional applications at random. 12

‘‘(ii) VERIFICATION FOR CAUSE.—In 13

addition to conducting verification of a 14

sample of applications as described in 15

clause (i), a local educational agency may 16

verify any household application at any 17

point in the school year if the household 18

application meets the criteria described in 19

item (aa), (bb), or (cc) of clause (i)(III) or 20

such other criteria as is determined by the 21

Secretary. 22

‘‘(iii) COMPLIANCE.—In conducting 23

verification under this subparagraph, a 24

State agency or local educational agency 25



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shall not select applications in a manner 1

that violates section 12(l)(4)(M).’’; 2

(ii) in subparagraph (F)— 3

(I) in clause (i), in the matter 4

preceding subclause (I), by striking 5

‘‘may’’ and inserting ‘‘shall’’; and 6

(II) by striking clauses (iv) and 7

(v) and inserting the following: 8

‘‘(iv) DIRECT CERTIFICATION.—If eli-9

gibility for a household application is con-10

firmed using direct verification, the chil-11

dren in the household shall be considered 12

directly certified.’’; 13

(iii) in subparagraph (G)— 14

(I) in clause (iii), by striking ‘‘1 15

attempt’’ and inserting ‘‘2 attempts’’; 16

and 17

(II) by adding at the end the fol-18

lowing: 19

‘‘(v) VALIDITY OF VERIFICATION RE-20

SULTS.— 21

‘‘(I) DEFINITIONS.—In this 22

clause: 23

‘‘(aa) APPROVED APPLICA-24

TION.—The term ‘approved ap-25



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plication’ includes each student 1

on a paper or electronic applica-2

tion approved by the local edu-3

cational agency for free or re-4

duced price lunches for the school 5

year. 6

‘‘(bb) RESPONSE RATE.— 7

The term ‘response rate’ means 8

the percentage of the approved 9

household applications of the 10

local educational agency for 11

which verification information 12

was obtained after attempted 13

verification under this section. 14

‘‘(cc) NONRESPONSE 15

RATE.—The term ‘nonresponse 16

rate’ means the percentage of the 17

approved household applications 18

of the local educational agency 19

for which verification information 20

was not obtained after attempted 21

verification under this section. 22

‘‘(dd) CONFIRMATION 23

RATE.— The term ‘confirmation 24

rate’ means the percentage of ap-25



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proved household applications 1

and directly certified students se-2

lected by the local educational 3

agency for verification under this 4

subparagraph that had the level 5

of benefits confirmed as a result 6

of information obtained during 7

the verification process. 8

‘‘(II) REDUCTIONS.— 9

‘‘(aa) IN GENERAL.—The 10

sample under subparagraph 11

(D)(i)(II) may be reduced by not 12

more than the lesser of 2,500 ap-13

plications or 2.5 percentage 14

points for each of the criteria de-15

scribed in subclause (III) that 16

are met by the local educational 17

agency. 18

‘‘(bb) LIMITATION.—Reduc-19

tions under item (aa) may result 20

in a sample of not less than 2.5 21

percent of approved applications. 22

‘‘(III) CRITERIA.—The criteria 23

referred to in subclause (II)(aa) are 24

as follows: 25



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‘‘(aa) RESPONSE RATE.— 1

For the preceding school year the 2

response rate was more than 85 3

percent. 4

‘‘(bb) NONRESPONSE RATE 5

REDUCTION.—The nonresponse 6

rate was at least 15 percent 7

below the nonresponse rate for 8

the second preceding school year. 9

‘‘(cc) CONFIRMATION 10

RATE.—The confirmation rate is 11

100 percent or has increased by 12

at least 5 percent over the two 13

most recent school years for 14

which data is available. 15

‘‘(dd) ADMINISTRATIVE 16

BURDEN REDUCTION.—The local 17

educational agency receives a de-18

termination from the Secretary 19

that compliance with subpara-20

graph (D)(i)(II) would render the 21

local educational agency unable 22

to administer the program. 23

‘‘(IV) REQUIREMENT.—The Sec-24

retary shall develop a system by which 25



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to measure cost and administrative 1

burden associated with compliance 2

with subparagraph (D)(i)(II) and 3

shall consider requests from local edu-4

cational agencies based on that sys-5

tem.’’; 6

(iv) in subparagraph (H)(i)— 7

(I) in subclause (I), by striking 8

‘‘November’’ and inserting ‘‘Decem-9

ber’’; and 10

(II) in subclause (II), by striking 11

‘‘December’’ and inserting ‘‘January’’; 12

(v) in subparagraph (K)(i), in the 13

matter preceding subclause (I), by striking 14

‘‘data mining’’ and inserting ‘‘analyses of 15

data’’; 16

(vi) by amending subparagraph (K)(ii) 17

to read as follows: 18

‘‘(ii) REPORT.—Not later than two 19

years after the date of the enactment of 20

the llllll Act of 2016, the Sec-21

retary shall submit to the Committee on 22

Education and the Workforce of the House 23

of Representatives and Committee on Agri-24



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[Discussion Draft]

culture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the 1

Senate a report describing— 2

‘‘(I) the results of the feasibility 3

study conducted under this sub-4

section; 5

‘‘(II) how a computer system— 6

‘‘(aa) used to reduce 7

verification and certification er-8

rors can be adapted to further 9

reduce errors; and 10

‘‘(bb) using technology de-11

scribed in clause (i) could be im-12

plemented; and 13

‘‘(III) a plan to adapt or imple-14

ment such system.’’; 15

(vii) by adding at the end the fol-16

lowing: 17

‘‘(L) ENHANCED VERIFICATION METH-18

ODS.— 19

‘‘(i) REQUIREMENTS.— 20

‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—The Sec-21

retary shall help local educational 22

agencies engage in alternative and en-23

hanced methods of certification and 24

verification to increase the effective-25



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ness of the process, reduce certifi-1

cation errors, and produce more 2

meaningful management information 3

to facilitate local educational agency, 4

State, and Federal oversight with re-5

spect to program integrity in the 6

school meal programs. 7

‘‘(II) BEST PRACTICES.—The 8

Secretary shall encourage local edu-9

cational agencies to adopt proven best 10

practices with regard to verification. 11

‘‘(III) SELECTION FOR IMPLE-12

MENTATION.—To the extent necessary 13

to refine alternative verification meth-14

ods or assess the feasibility, impact, 15

or efficacy of the methods prior to 16

recommending the methods, the Sec-17

retary shall work with States and 18

local educational agencies to imple-19

ment methods subject to clause (iii). 20

‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENTS.—The certifi-21

cation and verification methods shall— 22

‘‘(I) meet such terms and condi-23

tions as the Secretary considers ap-24

propriate; and 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(II) except as otherwise pro-1

vided in this subparagraph, be con-2

ducted in accordance with this sub-3

section. 4

‘‘(iii) SELECTION CRITERIA.—In se-5

lecting methods, including methods for im-6

plementation under clause (i)(III), the Sec-7

retary shall— 8

‘‘(I) consider the degree to which 9

the method would improve certifi-10

cation accuracy and program integrity 11

within the school meal programs; 12

‘‘(II) consider whether there is 13

evidence that the method could be 14

replicated easily by other local edu-15

cational agencies or political subdivi-16

sions; 17

‘‘(III) consider whether the meth-18

od would increase the efficiency and 19

effectiveness of the verification proc-20

ess; 21

‘‘(IV) consider whether the local 22

educational agency or State agency 23

has a demonstrated capacity to under-24

take the method and to produce the 25



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27

[Discussion Draft]

data necessary to support the evalua-1

tion; and 2

‘‘(V) ensure the methods imple-3

mented under clause (i)(III) are im-4

plemented across a range of geo-5

graphic areas and States, including 6

rural and urban areas, and, when con-7

sidered as a group, allow for an as-8

sessment of a range of strategies re-9

garding verification sample selection, 10

obtaining eligibility documentation, 11

and the entity conducting verification, 12

including strategies that— 13

‘‘(aa) use analyses of data, 14

particularly in large local edu-15

cational agencies to develop algo-16

rithms to select error-prone ap-17

plications for verification; 18

‘‘(bb) use third-party data 19

sources to confirm eligibility 20

prior to conducting household 21

verification under subparagraph 22

(G); 23

‘‘(cc) rely on alternative 24

methods, including message test-25



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28

[Discussion Draft]

ing, of communicating with 1

households to assess which meth-2

ods most effectively result in 3

household responses; 4

‘‘(dd) rely on agencies or or-5

ganizations other than the local 6

educational agency to conduct 7

verification, including at a min-8

imum the State agency or a 9

State health and human services 10

agency; and 11

‘‘(ee) could reduce the ad-12

ministrative burden of conducting 13

verification for a consortia of 14

local educational agencies, includ-15

ing shared online applications 16

and shared verification proce-17

dures. 18

‘‘(iv) REDUCTION.—Notwithstanding 19

the limitation in subparagraph 20

(D)(v)(II)(bb), a local educational agency 21

that uses the strategies described in clause 22

(iii)(V) may qualify for a reduction of an 23

additional 0.25 percent under such sub-24



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[Discussion Draft]

paragraph, creating a floor of 2.25 percent 1

for the verification sample size.’’; 2

(C) in paragraph (4)— 3

(i) by striking subparagraph (E); 4

(ii) by redesignating subparagraphs 5

(F) and (G) as subparagraphs (E) and 6

(F), respectively; and 7

(iii) in subparagraph (E) (as so redes-8

ignated)— 9

(I) in clause (i), by striking 10

‘‘means—’’ and all that follows 11

through ‘‘for the school year there-12

after’’ in subclause (III) and inserting 13

‘‘means, for the school year’’; 14

(II) in clause (ii)— 15

(aa) in subclause (II), by 16

striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 17

(bb) in subclause (III), by 18

striking the period at the end 19

and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 20

(cc) by adding at the end 21

the following: 22

‘‘(IV) include in the report re-23

quired under section 4301 of the 24

Food, Conservation, and Energy Act 25



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

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[Discussion Draft]

of 2008 (42 U.S.C. 1758a), a descrip-1

tion of technical assistance provided 2

to and progress of States identified 3

under subclause (I) toward imple-4

menting the measures and meeting 5

the goals established by the State as 6

required under clause (iii)(II).’’; and 7

(III) in clause (iii)(II)(bb), by in-8

serting ‘‘within 3 school years’’ after 9

‘‘those measures’’; 10

(D) in paragraph (15)— 11

(i) in subparagraph (B)(i), by striking 12

‘‘section 9(b)(1)(A) of this Act’’ and in-13

serting ‘‘paragraph (1)(A)’’; and 14

(ii) in subparagraphs (C)(ii) and (D), 15

by striking ‘‘paragraph (4)(G)’’ both places 16

it appears and inserting ‘‘paragraph 17

(4)(F)’’; 18

(4) in subsection (f)— 19

(A) in paragraph (1)— 20

(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 21


(ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 23

the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; 24

and’’; and 25



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[Discussion Draft]

(iii) by adding at the end the fol-1

lowing: 2

‘‘(C) meet minimum nutritional require-3

ments prescribed by the Secretary on the basis 4

of tested nutritional research specifically con-5

ducted to understand the impact for children, 6

except that the minimum nutritional require-7

ments— 8

‘‘(i) may not prohibit the substitution 9

of foods to accommodate the medical, in-10

cluding allergies, or other special dietary 11

needs of individual students, including reli-12

gious dietary restrictions; and 13

‘‘(ii) shall, as possible in accommo-14

dating the medical or other special dietary 15

needs of such students, be based on the 16

weekly average of the nutrient content of 17

school lunches.’’; 18

(B) in paragraph (3)(A)(ii), by striking 19

‘‘paragraph (3)’’ and inserting ‘‘paragraph 20

(2)’’; 21

(C) by striking paragraph (4) and insert-22

ing the following: 23

‘‘(4) REGULATIONS, REVIEW, AND RELIEF.— 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(A) REVIEW REGULATIONS.—The Sec-1

retary shall, at least every 3 years, review the 2

regulations promulgated in accordance with this 3

Act for the school meal programs described in 4

paragraph (1) (in this paragraph referred to as 5

the ‘school meal programs’), and with consulta-6

tion from stakeholders in schools, including 7

school leaders, school boards, local educational 8

agency administrators, and school food nutri-9

tion directors— 10

‘‘(i) certify the regulations are— 11

‘‘(I) appropriate for the age of 12

children participating in the school 13

meal programs, including for the 14

health of children; 15

‘‘(II) in compliance with the pre-16

ponderance of the latest high-quality 17

research based on school-aged children 18

conducted to examine the health and 19

safety of children participating in the 20

school meal programs; 21

‘‘(III) not increasing the cost to 22

implement the requirements of the 23

school meal programs; and 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(IV) not leading students not to 1

participate in the school meal pro-2

grams; 3

‘‘(ii) revise the regulations as nec-4

essary to be able to meet the requirements 5

of clause (i); and 6

‘‘(iii) publish in the Federal Register, 7

and submit to the Committee on Education 8

and the Workforce of the House of Rep-9

resentatives and the Committee on Agri-10

culture of the Senate, the certification 11

under clause (i). 12

‘‘(B) FIRST REVIEW.—The review required 13

under subparagraph (A) shall— 14

‘‘(i) be concluded not later than Sep-15

tember 30, 2016; 16

‘‘(ii) include a review of the sodium 17

and whole grain requirements under the 18

regulations for the school meal programs; 19

and 20

‘‘(iii) ensure such requirements— 21

‘‘(I) allow for cultural foods to be 22

served under the school meal pro-23

grams; 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(II) prevent the sodium require-1

ments under the regulations for the 2

school meal programs from moving 3

beyond the Tier I requirement estab-4

lished in such regulations (as in effect 5

on the day before the date of the en-6

actment of the llllll Act of 7

2016) until the new sodium target (as 8

determined in accordance with sub-9

clause (III)); and 10

‘‘(III) have a sodium target 11

that— 12

‘‘(aa) is based on health re-13

quirements for children; 14

‘‘(bb) backed by a majority 15

of research focused on school- 16

aged kids that directly estab-17

lishes, through well-controlled 18

randomized trials or well-de-19

signed, long-term observational 20

studies, that sodium reductions 21

are both safe and produce bene-22

ficial health outcomes for such 23

children; and 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(cc) does not take effect 1

until 3 years after any proposed 2

change made as a result of the 3

review under subparagraph (A) 4

has been published. 5

‘‘(C) SPECIAL RULE FOR REGULATION RE-6

LIEF FOR FAMILY MEAL DAY.—The Secretary 7

shall issue guidance, or promulgate new rules 8

as necessary, to ensure each State agency pro-9

vides guidance to school food authorities on al-10

lowing family meal days which shall allow an 11

exception to exempt up to four special days, as 12

designated by the school, from the meal pattern 13

rules specified under the regulations for the 14

school meal programs to allow a school to— 15

‘‘(i) invite parents to participate in 16

special meals, such as a Thanksgiving meal 17

or a parents’ day meal; and 18

‘‘(ii) provide additional nutrition edu-19

cation, such as recipe building or healthy 20

cooking classes to parents and families on 21

making healthy meal options at home.’’; 22

(5) by striking subsections (g) and (k); 23



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

36

[Discussion Draft]

(6) by redesignating subsections (h), (i), (j), 1

and (l) as subsections (g), (h), (i), and (j), respec-2

tively; and 3

(7) in subsection (g) (as so redesignated), by 4

striking ‘‘2011 through 2015’’ each place it appears 5

in paragraphs (3) and (4) and inserting ‘‘2017 6

through 2021’’. 7

SEC. 105. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS. 8

(a) UNIVERSAL MEAL SERVICE IN HIGH POVERTY 9

AREAS THRESHOLD.—Section 11(a)(1)(F) of the Richard 10

B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 11

17659a(a)(1)(F)) is amended— 12

(1) in clause (ii), by inserting ‘‘including a sub-13

set of schools within the local educational agency if 14

the average percentage of identified students is 15

above the threshold in clause (viii)’’ after ‘‘on behalf 16

of certain schools’’; 17

(2) in clause (vi), by inserting ‘‘(except in the 18

case of a nonpublic school that has requested infor-19

mation for the sole purpose of verifying eligibility of 20

students for free or reduced price lunch)’’ after this 21

‘‘subparagraph’’l 22

(3) by striking clause (viii) and inserting the 23

following: 24

‘‘(viii) THRESHOLD.— 25



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

37

[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—For each school year 1

beginning on or after July 1, 2017, the Sec-2

retary may use a threshold that shall not be 3

less than 60 percent. 4

‘‘(II) PHASE-IN.—In the case of a school 5

that received special assistance payments under 6

this subparagraph during the school year imme-7

diately prior to the school year during which 8

the llllll Act of 2016 was enacted, 9

the Secretary shall provide the school with two 10

years to meet the threshold under subclause (I). 11

‘‘(III) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—During 12

the phase-in under subclause (II), the Secretary 13

shall provide technical assistance to ensure 14

school food authorities making an election 15

under clause (ii)(II) are able to effectively and 16

efficiently transition from receiving payments 17

under this subparagraph to receiving special as-18

sistance payments otherwise made available 19

under this paragraph, including communicating 20

the application process to families in a timely 21

manner to ensure continuity of services for eli-22

gible families.’’; and 23

(4) in clause (xi)— 24



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38

[Discussion Draft]

(A) in subclause (II), by striking ‘‘Not 1

later than December 31, 2013’’ and inserting 2

‘‘Not later than one year after the date of en-3

actment of the lllll Act of 2016’’; and 4

(B) in subclause (III), by striking ‘‘If the 5

Secretary uses the authority provided in clause 6

(vii)(II)(bb) to use a different multiplier for dif-7

ferent schools or local educational agencies, for 8

each school year beginning on or after July 1, 9

2014, not later than April 1, 2014’’ and insert-10

ing ‘‘If the Secretary uses the authority pro-11

vided in clause (vii), for each school year begin-12

ning on or after July 1, 2017, not less than one 13

year prior to the Secretary electing to use such 14

authority,’’ 15

(b) PROCUREMENT TRAINING.—Section 12(m)(4) of 16

the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 17

U.S.C. 1760) is amended by striking ‘‘2015’’ and insert-18

ing ‘‘2021’’. 19

(c) PRICE FOR A PAID LUNCH.—Section 12 of the 20

Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 21

1760) is amended— 22

(1) in subsection (d), by amending paragraph 23

(9) to read as follows: 24



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

39

[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(9) AUTHORIZED STATE AGENCY.—The term 1

‘authorized State agency’ means— 2

‘‘(A) the chief State school officer (such as 3

the State superintendent of public instruction, 4

commissioner of education, or similar officer); 5

‘‘(B) a board of education controlling the 6

State department of education; 7

‘‘(C) the State Commissioner or individual 8

who administers agricultural programs in the 9

State; or 10

‘‘(D) a State official the State legislature 11

designates to administer the programs under 12

this Act.’’; and 13

(2) by striking subsection (p) and redesignating 14

subsections (q) and (r) as subsections (p) and (q), 15

respectively. 16

SEC. 106. SUMMER FOOD SERVICE PROGRAM FOR CHIL-17

DREN. 18




(A) in paragraph (4), by adding at the end 22

the following: 23

‘‘(C) EDUCATIONAL AND ENRICHMENT AC-24

TIVITIES.—In determining participation under 25



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

40

[Discussion Draft]

subparagraph (A), the State shall prioritize ap-1

plications that include an educational or enrich-2

ment activity, or demonstrate a partnership 3

with an entity providing such activity.’’; 4

(B) by amending paragraph (8) to read as 5

follows: 6

‘‘(8) STREAMLINING.— 7

‘‘(A) SEAMLESS SUMMER.—Except as oth-8

erwise determined by the Secretary, a service 9

institution that is a public or private nonprofit 10

school food authority may provide summer or 11

school vacation food service in accordance with 12

applicable provisions of law governing the 13

school lunch program established under this Act 14

or the school breakfast program established 15

under the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 16

U.S.C. 1771 et seq.). 17

‘‘(B) SUMMER AND CACFP AT-RISK TRAN-18

SITION OPTION.— 19

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding 20

subsections (b)(2) and (c)(1), a State may 21

elect to streamline and simplify program 22

operations for service institutions described 23

in paragraphs (6) or (7) and that are eligi-24

ble to participate in the program serving 25



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

41

[Discussion Draft]

at-risk children under section 17(r), other 1

than a public school, by providing reim-2

bursement for— 3

‘‘(I) up to 2 meals served to at- 4

risk children— 5

‘‘(aa) during each day of op-6

eration during the months of 7

May through September; and 8

‘‘(bb) in the case of a service 9

institution that provides meal 10

service to such children who are 11

not in school for a period during 12

the school year due to a natural 13

disaster, building repair, court 14

order, or similar cause, at any 15

time during such period in that 16

school year; and 17

‘‘(II) up to 1 meal and 1 supple-18

ment served to children during each 19

day of operation outside of school 20

hours during the regular school cal-21

endar, including after school, week-22

ends, and school holidays. 23

‘‘(ii) REIMBURSEMENT.—The State 24

shall reimburse service institutions seeking 25



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

42

[Discussion Draft]

reimbursement under this subparagraph at 1

a rate that is consistent with section 2

17(r)(4)(B). 3

‘‘(iii) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 4

‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—Not later 5

than December 31, 2016, the Sec-6

retary shall develop guidance and pro-7

vide technical assistance for States 8

and eligible providers to assist in the 9

implementation of this subparagraph, 10

including by identifying areas of pro-11

grammatic overlap in the program 12

under this section and the child and 13

adult care food program under section 14

17 so that States may simplify the ad-15

ministration of each such program. 16

‘‘(II) GUIDANCE.—Such guidance 17

shall include information on possible 18

ways States may ensure participation 19

under this subparagraph will lead to 20

reduced paperwork and other adminis-21

trative burdens, including rec-22

ommendations for streamlined pro-23

gram applications, reporting require-24

ments, inspections, and other areas of 25



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

43

[Discussion Draft]

potential duplication, while retaining 1

appropriate measures of program in-2

tegrity. 3

‘‘(iv) SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTA-4

TION.— 5

‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—The Sec-6

retary may allow not more than 5 7

States with demonstrated administra-8

tive capacity to effectively implement 9

this subparagraph, to implement this 10

subparagraph beginning in May 2017. 11

As a condition of such implementa-12

tion, such States shall, not later than 13

December 31, 2017, provide informa-14

tion to the Secretary regarding best 15

practices for successful implementa-16

tion, with a focus on how institutions 17

participating in the program serving 18

at-risk children under section 17(r) 19

will transition to operating year 20

round. Not later than March 31, 21

2018, the Secretary shall update the 22

information provided under clause (iii) 23

to reflect the information received in 24

accordance with this subclause to en-25



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

44

[Discussion Draft]

sure dissemination of best practices 1

for a successful implementation of 2

this subparagraph. 3

‘‘(II) ADDITIONAL BEST PRAC-4

TICES.—If the Secretary determines 5

additional best practices could be pro-6

vided, the Secretary may allow an ad-7

ditional 5 States to implement this 8

subparagraph beginning in October 9

2018. As a condition of such imple-10

mentation, such States shall, not later 11

than May 30, 2019, provide informa-12

tion to the Secretary regarding best 13

practices for successful implementa-14

tion, with great focus on summer pro-15

viders transitioning to year-round 16

service. Not later than September 30, 17

2019, the Secretary shall update the 18

information provided under clause 19

(iii). 20

‘‘(III) ADDITIONAL STATES.— 21

The Secretary may allow additional 22

States to implement this subpara-23

graph beginning in May 2020. As a 24

condition of such implementation, 25



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

45

[Discussion Draft]

such States shall provide information 1

to the Secretary regarding best prac-2

tices of implementation in such time 3

and in such manner as the Secretary 4

may reasonably require. The Sec-5

retary shall continue to periodically 6

update the information provided 7

under clause (iii) for continued suc-8

cessful implementation of this sub-9

paragraph.’’; 10

(C) by striking paragraphs (9) and (12); 11

and 12

(D) by redesignating paragraphs (10) and 13

(11) as paragraphs (9) and (10), respectively; 14

and 15

(E) by adding at the end the following: 16

‘‘(11) TEMPORARY ALLOWANCE FOR OFF-SITE 17

CONSUMPTION.— 18

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Beginning in May 19

2017, the Secretary shall grant requests made 20

by a State to allow children who are partici-21

pating in the program but who are not provided 22

the option under paragraph (12), to consume 23

meals away from a congregate site when the 24



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

46

[Discussion Draft]

program is available to such children at a con-1

gregate feeding site but— 2

‘‘(i) the site is closed due to extreme 3

weather conditions; 4

‘‘(ii) violence or other public safety 5

concerns in the area temporarily prevent 6

children from traveling safely to the site; 7

or 8

‘‘(iii) other emergency circumstances, 9

as defined by the Secretary or State, pre-10

vent access to the site. 11

‘‘(B) LIMITATIONS.—In granting a request 12

under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall en-13

sure that— 14

‘‘(i) allowances are issued by a State 15

only between the months of May through 16

September; 17

‘‘(ii) allowances are granted in the 18

most efficient and effective manner to en-19

sure programs and States can quickly re-20

spond and adapt to the circumstances de-21

scribed in clauses (i) through (iii) of sub-22

paragraph (A); and 23

‘‘(iii) once an allowance is issued, any 24

meal in which a component is offered but 25



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

47

[Discussion Draft]

not served is not reimbursed under sub-1

section (b). 2

‘‘(C) ADMINISTRATION.— 3

‘‘(i) STATE PLAN.—As part of the 4

management and administration plan de-5

scribed in subsection (n), States shall de-6

scribe— 7

‘‘(I) the approval process, includ-8

ing the timeline, the State would un-9

dertake to issue an allowance; 10

‘‘(II) standards for what cir-11

cumstances merit an allowance, how 12

long an allowance will last, and when 13

an allowance may be extended; and 14

‘‘(III) how the program would 15

operate once an allowance is issued. 16

‘‘(ii) REGULATIONS.—By December 17

31, 2016, the Secretary shall promulgate 18

regulations, with an opportunity for notice 19

and comment, for implementation of this 20

paragraph, ensuring the process will allow 21

States to easily and quickly respond to the 22

circumstances of their request. 23

‘‘(12) OFF-SITE CONSUMPTION.— 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Beginning in May of 1

2017, a State may elect for service institutions 2

in the State to provide summer food service 3

program meals to children eligible to participate 4

in the program that such children may consume 5

away from a congregate feeding site. 6

‘‘(B) AVAILABILITY.—The option described 7

in subparagraph (A) shall be available to chil-8

dren only when the child being served lives in 9

an area that is eligible to participate in the 10

summer food service program but not currently 11

being served, and— 12

‘‘(i) rural, as defined by the State; or 13

‘‘(ii) not rural, and where more than 14

80 percent of students are certified as eli-15

gible for free or reduced price meals. 16

‘‘(C) ADMINISTRATION.— 17

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In administering 18

the option described in this paragraph, the 19

Secretary shall— 20

‘‘(I) ensure that— 21

‘‘(aa) the number of meals 22

served to each child in a single 23

meal service is limited to 2 24

meals, and the number of meals 25



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

49

[Discussion Draft]

in a seven-day period is limited 1

to 10 meals; 2

‘‘(bb) any meal served meets 3

the same standards for nutrition, 4

safety, and quality as a meal 5

served at a congregate feeding 6

site; 7

‘‘(cc) any meal in which a 8

component is offered but not 9

served is not reimbursed under 10

subsection (b); 11

‘‘(dd) each State gives pri-12

ority to children who are living 13

where congregate feeding sites 14

are not accessible; and 15

‘‘(ee) nothing in this section 16

or in any regulations prescribed 17

to carry out this section shall be 18

construed to allow congregate 19

feeding sites to cease from oper-20

ating or to be replaced by off-site 21

consumption options under this 22

paragraph; and 23

‘‘(II) prohibit States from— 24



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

50

[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(aa) operating an off-site 1

consumption option simulta-2

neously in the same service area 3

with a congregate feeding site; 4

‘‘(bb) using more than 10 5

percent of funds received for ad-6

ministrative expenses; and 7

‘‘(cc) implementing an off- 8

site consumption option in all 9

service areas in a State. 10

‘‘(ii) STATE PLAN.—Each State 11

choosing to provide summer food service 12

program meals through an off-site con-13

sumption option under this paragraph 14

shall describe how the State plans to im-15

plement the option in the management and 16

administration plan in subsection (n). 17

‘‘(iii) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 18

December 31, 2016, the Secretary shall 19

promulgate regulations, with an oppor-20

tunity for notice and comment, or guidance 21

if appropriate, for implementation of the 22

option described in this paragraph. Such 23

regulations or guidance shall include rec-24

ommendations for States to— 25



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(I) document operation and im-1

plementation of an off-site consump-2

tion option in the State management 3

and administration plan under sub-4

section (n); 5

‘‘(II) determine the method for 6

selecting eligible areas and eligible 7

service institutions to most effectively 8

deliver summer food service program 9

meals in the manner described in this 10

paragraph; 11

‘‘(III) design mechanisms by 12

which households with children eligible 13

to participate in the program could in-14

dicate need for meal service through 15

off-site consumption; 16

‘‘(IV) develop an appropriate 17

maintenance of effort requirement for 18

service institutions currently operating 19

feeding sites; 20

‘‘(V) develop requirements for 21

implementing safety and security 22

measures to ensure that safety and 23

security through an off-site consump-24



f:\VHLC\040116\040116.029.xml (626433|11)

52

[Discussion Draft]

tion option is equivalent to such meas-1

ures at a congregate feeding site; and 2

‘‘(VI) periodically reevaluate the 3

potential for children to be served at 4

a congregate site.’’; 5

(2) in subsection (k)(3)— 6

(A) by striking ‘‘(3) To provide’’ and in-7

serting the following: 8

‘‘(3) NUTRITIONAL AND FOOD QUALITY MONI-9

TORING.— 10

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—To provide’’; and 11

(B) by adding at the end the following: 12

‘‘(B) INSUFFICIENT FUNDS.— 13

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—If funds provided 14

under subparagraph (A) are insufficient to 15

pay for State or local health department 16

inspections, and to reinspect facilities and 17

deliveries to test meal quality, as required 18

under this Act or the Childhood Nutrition 19

Act of 1966, State agencies may use funds 20

described in paragraph (1) for those activi-21

ties. 22

‘‘(ii) LIMITATION.—Funds described 23

in clause (i) shall not exceed the lesser 24

of— 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(I) actual costs; or 1

‘‘(II) 1 percent of program 2

funds.’’; 3

(3) by amending subsection (n) to read as fol-4

lows: 5

‘‘(n) Each State desiring to participate in the pro-6

gram shall notify the Secretary by January 1 of each year 7

of its intent to administer the program and shall submit 8

for approval by February 15 a management and adminis-9

tration plan for the program for the fiscal year, which 10

shall include, at a minimum— 11

‘‘(1) the State’s administrative budget for the 12

fiscal year; and 13

‘‘(2) the State’s plans for— 14

‘‘(A) use of program funds and additional 15

State or private funds to reach children with 16

the greatest need, to the maximum extent prac-17

ticable; 18

‘‘(B) strengthening the congregate feeding 19

model for program delivery, including a process 20

for identifying gaps in service and barriers to 21

access; 22

‘‘(C) administrative and fiscal plans for 23

using the allowance described in subsection 24

(a)(11) and, if applicable, the option described 25



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[Discussion Draft]

in subsection (a)(12) to assist service institu-1

tions in reaching children with the greatest 2

need; 3

‘‘(D) providing technical assistance and 4

training for eligible service institutions; 5

‘‘(E) monitoring and inspecting service in-6

stitutions, feeding sites, and food service man-7

agement companies and ensuring that such 8

companies do not enter into contracts for more 9

meals than they can provide effectively and effi-10

ciently, and in compliance with the program; 11

‘‘(F) timely and effective action against 12

program violators; 13

‘‘(G) ensuring fiscal integrity by auditing 14

service institutions not subject to auditing re-15

quirements prescribed by the Secretary; and 16

‘‘(H) complying with any standards pre-17

scribed by the Secretary under subsection (k).’’; 18

and 19

(4) in subsection (r), by striking ‘‘2015’’ and 20

inserting ‘‘2021’’. 21

SEC. 107. COMMODITY DISTRIBUTION PROGRAM. 22


Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1762a) is amended— 24

(1) in subsection (f), in the third sentence— 25



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[Discussion Draft]

(A) by striking ‘‘section 9(a) of this Act’’ 1

and inserting ‘‘section 9(f)’’; and 2

(B) by striking ‘‘represent the four basic 3

food groups, including’’ and inserting ‘‘in-4

clude’’; and 5

(2) by striking subsection (h). 6

SEC. 108. CHILD AND ADULT CARE FOOD PROGRAM. 7

(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 17 of the Richard B. Rus-8

sell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1766) is 9

amended— 10



(i) in subparagraph (B), in the matter 13

preceding clause (i), by striking ‘‘if’’ and 14

inserting ‘‘if, during the month preceding 15

the date of submission of the applicable 16

initial application or reapplication’’; 17

(ii) in subparagraph (E), by striking 18


(iii) in subparagraph (F), by striking 20

the period at the end and inserting a semi-21

colon; and 22

(iv) by adding at the end the fol-23

lowing: 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(G) any public or licensed nonprofit pri-1

vate residential child care institution (as de-2

fined in subsection (v)(1)) that is not receiving 3

reimbursement under the school lunch program 4

under this Act or the school breakfast program 5

under the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 6

U.S.C. 1771 et seq.); and 7

‘‘(H) any boarding school funded by the 8

Bureau of Indian Education under such school 9

lunch or school breakfast program.’’; and 10


‘‘(7) DURATION OF DETERMINATION.—With re-12

spect to an institution described in paragraph 13

(2)(B), an eligibility determination under this sub-14

section shall remain in effect for a period of 4 15

months after the date such institution is approved 16

by the State under subsection (d). Upon any 17

changes that would change eligibility status of an in-18

stitution, the institution shall report such changes to 19

the State agency responsible for approval under sub-20

section (d) for such agency to redetermine eligibility 21

under this section.’’; 22

(2) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘For the fiscal 23

year ending September 30, 1979, and for each sub-24

sequent fiscal year, the’’ and inserting ‘‘The’’; 25



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[Discussion Draft]

(3) in subsection (d)— 1


(i) by striking ‘‘In consultation’’ and 3


‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In consultation’’; and 5


lowing: 7

‘‘(B) REPORTS.—Each sponsoring organi-8

zation shall submit to the applicable State 9

agency a report, not less frequently than annu-10

ally, that describes, with respect to the pre-11

ceding calendar year— 12

‘‘(i) the expenditures of program 13

funds by the sponsoring organization; and 14

‘‘(ii) the amount of meal reimburse-15

ments retained by the sponsoring organiza-16

tion for administrative costs, if applica-17

ble.’’; and 18

(B) in paragraph (5), by adding at the end 19

the following: 20

‘‘(F) SERIOUS DEFICIENCY PROCESS.— 21

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 22

year after the date of the enactment of the 23

llllll Act of 2016, the Secretary 24



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[Discussion Draft]

shall review the serious deficiency process 1

for the program under this section. 2

‘‘(ii) REVIEW.—In carrying out clause 3

(i), the Secretary shall review the processes 4

for, and those involved in— 5

‘‘(I) a finding of serious defi-6

ciency, including— 7

‘‘(aa) what measures auto-8

matically result in a finding of 9

serious deficiency; and 10

‘‘(bb) how differentiation is 11

being made between— 12

‘‘(AA) a reasonable 13

margin of human error and 14

systematic or intentional 15

noncompliance; and 16

‘‘(BB) State-specific re-17

quirements and Federal law 18

and regulations, if applica-19

ble; 20

‘‘(II) appeals and mediation in 21

any case in which there is a finding of 22

serious deficiency; 23



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(III) determining the cir-1

cumstances under which a corrective 2

action plan is acceptable; 3

‘‘(IV) information sharing be-4

tween Departments of Agriculture and 5

Health and Human Services; and 6

‘‘(V) termination and disquali-7

fication, including maintenance of the 8

list under subparagraph (E). 9

‘‘(iii) GUIDANCE AND REGULA-10

TIONS.— 11

‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—After con-12

ducting the review under this sub-13

paragraph, the Secretary shall con-14

clude findings from the information 15

collected and issue guidance, and, as 16

appropriate, regulations, from such 17

findings that will assist sponsoring or-18

ganizations, State agencies, and the 19

Food and Nutrition Service in ensur-20

ing a fair, uniform, and effective ad-21

ministration of the serious deficiency 22

process, while retaining program in-23

tegrity. 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(II) SCOPE.—Such guidance 1

shall include— 2

‘‘(aa) clarity on the different 3

measures for noncompliance; 4

‘‘(bb) parameters for an ap-5

peals process to review a finding 6

of serious deficiency or a deter-7

mination that a corrective action 8

plan is inadequate; and 9

‘‘(cc) adequate timeframes 10

under a corrective action plan for 11

compliance that are consistent 12

for all types of institutions par-13

ticipating in the program, includ-14

ing family or group day care 15

homes. 16

‘‘(III) INFORMATION SHARING.— 17

Within such regulation, and as soon 18

as practicable, the Secretary shall en-19

sure information about findings are 20

shared with the Secretary of Health 21

and Human Services as to allow for 22

maximum health, safety, oversight, 23

and monitoring of child care facili-24

ties.’’; 25



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[Discussion Draft]


(A) in paragraph (2)(C), by adding at the 2

end the following: 3

‘‘(iii) CARRYOVER FUNDS.—Not more 4

than 10 percent of the amount reserved by 5

sponsoring organizations under clause (i) 6

for administrative expenses for a fiscal 7

year may remain available for obligation or 8

expenditure in the succeeding fiscal year 9

for administrative purposes.’’; and 10


(i) by striking subparagraph (C); and 12

(ii) by redesignating subparagraphs 13

(D) and (E) as subparagraphs (C) and 14

(D), respectively; 15

(5) in subsection (g), by striking paragraph (6) 16

and inserting the following: 17

‘‘(6) USE OF DONATED FOODS.—To the max-18

imum extent practicable, each institution shall use in 19

its food service foods that are donated by the Sec-20

retary.’’; 21

(6) in subsection (h)(1), by adding at the end 22

the following: 23

‘‘(E) ENGAGEMENT WITH STATE AND 24

LOCAL AGENCIES.— 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to clause 1

(ii), the Secretary, as practicable, shall en-2

courage institutions participating in the 3

program under this section to engage with 4

authorized State agencies and local edu-5

cational agencies to use existing infrastruc-6

ture to enhance the use of, and increase 7

access to, donated commodities. 8

‘‘(ii) EFFECT OF SUBPARAGRAPH.— 9

Nothing in this subparagraph shall compel 10

a local educational agency unwillingly to 11

serve any institution participating in the 12

program under this section.’’; 13

(7) in paragraph (2) of subsection (i)— 14

(A) by striking subparagraph (B); and 15

(B) by striking the paragraph designation 16

and heading and all that follows through ‘‘The 17

Secretary’’ in subparagraph (A) and inserting 18

the following: 19

‘‘(2) FUNDING.—The Secretary’’; 20

(8) in subsection (r), by striking paragraph (6) 21


‘‘(6) HANDBOOK.—For each calendar year, the 23

Secretary shall— 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(A) review guidelines for afterschool 1

meals for at-risk school children; and 2

‘‘(B) publish a revised handbook reflecting 3

those guidelines and any changes.’’; 4

(9) in subsection (s)(2)— 5

(A) in the matter preceding subparagraph 6

(A), by striking ‘‘participating family and’’; and 7

(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘par-8

ents of enrolled children at enrollment’’ and in-9

serting ‘‘parents or legal guardians of enrolled 10

children in an easily accessible manner’’; 11

(10) in subsection (u)(3)— 12

(A) in subparagraph (C)(i), by inserting 13

‘‘for distribution to participants and families of 14

participants’’ after ‘‘nutrition education’’; and 15

(B) in subparagraph (H), by adding at the 16


‘‘(iii) SUNSET.—The Secretary shall 18

return to the general fund of the Treasury 19

any funds that were— 20

‘‘(I) made available under this 21

subparagraph; and 22

‘‘(II) not obligated as of the date 23

of the enactment of this clause.’’; and 24




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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(v) PARTICIPATION BY RESIDENTIAL CHILD CARE 1

INSTITUTIONS.— 2

‘‘(1) DEFINITION OF RESIDENTIAL CHILD CARE 3

INSTITUTION.—In this subsection, the term ‘residen-4

tial child care institution’ means any public or non-5

profit private residential child care institution, or 6

distinct part of such an institution, that— 7

‘‘(A) operates principally for the care of 8

children; and 9

‘‘(B) if private, is licensed to provide resi-10

dential child care services under the appropriate 11

licensing code by the State or local agency. 12

‘‘(2) ADMINISTRATION.—Except as otherwise 13

provided in this subsection, a residential child care 14

institution shall be considered eligible for reimburse-15

ment for meals or supplements served to eligible 16

children residing at the residential child care institu-17

tion, so long as the institution does not simulta-18

neously participate in the school lunch program 19

under this Act or the school breakfast program 20

under the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 21

1771 et seq.). 22

‘‘(3) MEAL OR SUPPLEMENT REIMBURSE-23

MENT.— 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(A) LIMITATIONS.—A residential child 1

care institution may claim reimbursement under 2

this section— 3

‘‘(i) only for a meal or supplement 4

served to children residing at the residen-5

tial child care institution, that are— 6

‘‘(I) not more than 12 years of 7

age; or 8

‘‘(II) children with disabilities; 9

and 10

‘‘(ii) for not more than— 11

‘‘(I) 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, and 1 12

supplement per child per day; or 13

‘‘(II) 1 breakfast, 1 supper, and 14

1 supplement per child per day. 15

‘‘(B) RATE.—A meal or supplement eligi-16

ble for reimbursement under this subsection 17

shall be reimbursed at the rate at which free, 18

reduced price, and paid meals and supplements, 19

respectively, are reimbursed under subsection 20

(c).’’. 21

(b) ADVISORY COMMITTEE.— 22

(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 23

after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-24



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[Discussion Draft]

retary shall establish and convene an advisory com-1

mittee— 2

(A) to examine the feasibility of reducing 3

unnecessary or duplicative paperwork resulting 4

from regulations and recordkeeping require-5

ments, including paperwork resulting from ad-6

ditional State requirements, for individuals and 7

entities participating or seeking to participate 8

in the child and adult care food program under 9

section 17 of the Richard B. Russell National 10

School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1766) (as amend-11

ed by subsection (a)), including (within the 12

meaning of that Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et 13

seq.))— 14

(i) State agencies; 15

(ii) family child care homes; 16

(iii) child care centers; 17

(iv) sponsoring organizations; and 18

(v) families. 19

(B) to provide recommendations to reduce 20

unnecessary or duplicative paperwork for those 21

program participants while ensuring that prop-22

er accountability and program integrity are 23

maintained. 24



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[Discussion Draft]

(2) REPRESENTATION.—The advisory com-1

mittee under this subsection shall include 1 rep-2

resentative from each of the following (within the 3

meaning of the Richard B. Russell National School 4

Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.), as applicable): 5

(A) Public and private nonprofit organiza-6

tions. 7

(B) Home-based day care providers. 8

(C) Head Start centers. 9

(D) For-profit proprietary organizations. 10

(E) Shelters for homeless families. 11

(F) Adult day care centers. 12

(G) State agencies. 13

(H) Sponsor organizations that provide ad-14

ministrative support to multiple providers. 15

(3) CONSIDERATIONS.—In developing the rec-16

ommendations under this subsection, the advisory 17

committee shall take into consideration, as appro-18

priate— 19

(A) any existing information, recommenda-20

tions, and reports from the paperwork reduction 21

work group convened by the Food and Nutri-22

tion Service in response to section 119(i) of the 23

Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act 24



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[Discussion Draft]

of 2004 (42 U.S.C. 1766 note; 118 Stat. 755); 1

and 2

(B) the use of technology for electronic 3

recordkeeping to reduce paperwork burden on 4

program participants and providers. 5

(4) SECRETARIAL ACTION.— 6

(A) GUIDANCE OR REGULATIONS.— 7

(i) ISSUANCE.—Not later than 1 year 8

after the date of the enactment of this Act, 9

the Secretary shall issue guidance or regu-10

lations, as appropriate, based on the rec-11

ommendations of the advisory committee 12

under paragraph (1) regarding streamlined 13

and consolidated paperwork and record-14

keeping requirements, including applica-15

tions, monitoring and auditing require-16

ments, and any other areas recommended 17

by the advisory committee intended to re-18

duce administrative burden. 19

(ii) IMPLEMENTATION.—Not later 20

than 18 months after the date of the en-21

actment of this Act, the Secretary shall im-22

plement any changes resulting from the 23

guidance or regulations described in clause 24

(i). 25



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[Discussion Draft]

(B) REPORT.—After issuing any guidance 1

or regulations under subparagraph (A), the 2

Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Ag-3

riculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate 4

and the Committee on Education and the 5

Workforce of the House of Representatives a 6

report describing any recommendations for leg-7

islative changes to further strengthen and 8

streamline the application and monitoring proc-9

ess and reduce administrative burden on grant-10

ees, participants, local and State governments, 11

and the Federal Government. 12

SEC. 109. DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS. 13

(a) AMENDMENTS TO SECTION 18 OF NSLA.—Sec-14

tion 18 of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch 15

Act (42 U.S.C. 1769) is amended— 16

(1) by striking subsections (d) through (h), (j), 17

and (k); 18

(2) by redesignating subsection (i) as subsection 19

(g); 20

(3) in subsection (g)(5), as so redesignated, by 21

striking ‘‘2011through 2015’’ and inserting ‘‘2017 22

through 2021’’; and 23

(4) by inserting after subsection (c) the fol-24

lowing: 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(d) ACCESS TO LOCAL FOODS: FARM TO SCHOOL 1

PROGRAM.— 2

‘‘(1) PROGRAM.—The Secretary shall carry out 3

a program to assist eligible schools, State and local 4

agencies, Indian tribal organizations, agricultural 5

producers or groups of agricultural producers, and 6

nonprofit entities through grants, technical assist-7

ance, and research to implement farm to school pro-8

grams that improve access to local foods and im-9

prove nutrition education in eligible schools. 10

‘‘(2) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 11

‘‘(A) AGRICULTURAL PRODUCER.—The 12

term ‘agricultural producer’ means a farmer, 13

rancher, or fisher (including of farm-raised 14

fish). 15

‘‘(B) ELIGIBLE SCHOOL.—The term ‘eligi-16

ble school’ means a school or institution that 17

participates in— 18

‘‘(i) a program under this Act, includ-19

ing the summer food service program for 20

children under section 13 and the early 21

care and afterschool portions of the child 22

and adult care food program under section 23

17; or 24



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‘‘(ii) the school breakfast program es-1

tablished under section 4 of the Child Nu-2

trition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773). 3

‘‘(3) GRANTS.— 4

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 5

award competitive grants under this subsection 6

to be used for implementing nutrition education 7

programs, including farm to school programs, 8

through— 9

‘‘(i) research, training, and technical 10

assistance; 11

‘‘(ii) supporting operations; 12

‘‘(iii) planning; 13

‘‘(iv) purchasing equipment; 14

‘‘(v) developing school gardens; and 15

‘‘(vi) developing partnerships to facili-16

tate nutrition education and healthy eat-17

ing. 18

‘‘(B) REGIONAL BALANCE.—In making 19

awards under this subsection, the Secretary 20

shall, to the maximum extent practicable, en-21

sure— 22

‘‘(i) geographical diversity; and 23

‘‘(ii) equitable treatment of urban, 24

rural, and tribal communities. 25



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‘‘(C) IMPROVED PROCUREMENT AND DIS-1

TRIBUTION.—In awarding grants under this 2

subsection, the Secretary may seek to improve 3

local food procurement and distribution options 4

between agricultural producers and eligible 5

schools by funding projects that include innova-6

tive approaches to aggregation, processing, 7

transportation, and distribution. 8

‘‘(D) AWARDS.— 9

‘‘(i) MAXIMUM AMOUNT.—The total 10

amount provided to a grant recipient under 11

this subsection shall not exceed $100,000. 12

‘‘(ii) TERM.—The term of an award 13

shall not exceed 3 years. 14

‘‘(iii) LIMITATION.—The Secretary 15

may not award to any entity more than 1 16

grant at any given time. 17

‘‘(iv) PURPOSE AND SCOPE.—In car-18

rying out this subsection, the Secretary 19

shall seek to make awards of diverse 20

amounts and duration so as to best match 21

a variety of purposes, scopes, and needs of 22

the project proposals. 23

‘‘(E) LIMITATION.—The Secretary may 24

not award a grant under this subsection if the 25



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[Discussion Draft]

majority of grant funds would be used solely for 1

the purpose of carrying out a conference. 2

‘‘(4) FEDERAL SHARE.— 3

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Federal share of 4

costs for a project funded through a grant 5

awarded under this subsection shall not exceed 6

75 percent of the total cost of the project. 7

‘‘(B) FEDERAL MATCHING.—As a condi-8

tion of receiving a grant under this subsection, 9

a grant recipient shall provide matching sup-10

port in the form of cash or in-kind contribu-11

tions, including facilities, equipment, or services 12

provided by State and local governments, non-13

profit organizations, and private sources. 14

‘‘(5) CRITERIA FOR SELECTION.— 15

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—To the maximum ex-16

tent practicable, in providing assistance under 17

this subsection, the Secretary shall give the 18

highest priority to funding projects that imple-19

ment nutrition education, including proposals 20

to— 21

‘‘(i) make local food products available 22

on the menu of reimbursable meals under 23

this Act at the eligible school; 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(ii) serve a high proportion of chil-1

dren who are eligible for free or reduced 2

price meals; 3

‘‘(iii) incorporate nutrition education 4

activities that encourage the participation 5

of school children in farm and garden- 6

based agricultural education activities; 7

‘‘(iv) provide families the opportunity 8

to participate in educational programming, 9

including through materials and engage-10

ment activities, to improve nutrition out-11

side the school environment; 12

‘‘(v) demonstrate collaboration be-13

tween eligible schools, nongovernmental 14

and community-based organizations, agri-15

cultural producer groups, and other com-16

munity partners; 17

‘‘(vi) demonstrate the potential for 18

long-term program sustainability; and 19

‘‘(vii) expand the selection of local 20

commodities available for eligible schools. 21

‘‘(B) TRIBAL COMMUNITY PROJECTS.—In 22

the case of projects serving tribal communities, 23

the Secretary shall, to the maximum extent 24

practicable, give highest priority to projects 25



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[Discussion Draft]

that propose to use products from tribal agri-1

cultural producers, in addition to the priorities 2

under subparagraph (A). 3

‘‘(6) EVALUATION.—As a condition of receiving 4

a grant under this subsection, each grant recipient 5

shall agree to cooperate in an evaluation of the pro-6

gram by the Secretary. 7

‘‘(7) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND RE-8

SEARCH.— 9


provide technical assistance, research, and in-11

formation— 12

‘‘(i) to facilitate the coordination and 13

sharing of information and resources that 14

may be applicable to the farm to school 15

program; 16

‘‘(ii) to collect and share information 17

on best practices; 18

‘‘(iii) to disseminate research and 19

data on existing farm to school programs 20

and the potential for programs to begin in 21

underserved areas; and 22

‘‘(iv) to increase awareness of, and 23

participation in, farm to school programs 24

among agricultural and aquaculture pro-25



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[Discussion Draft]

ducers or agricultural producer groups, in-1

cluding beginning, veteran, and socially 2

disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. 3

‘‘(B) REVIEW.—Not later than 1 year 4

after the date of the enactment of the 5

llllll Act of 2016 and every 3 years 6

thereafter, the Secretary shall review and sub-7

mit to the Committee on Agriculture and the 8

Committee on Education and the Workforce of 9

the House of Representatives and the Com-10

mittee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 11

of the Senate a report that describes the regu-12

latory and other barriers related to including lo-13

cally or regionally produced food products in 14

school food programs, including any progress 15

that has been made in identifying and elimi-16

nating such barriers through examining— 17

‘‘(i) barriers to the development and 18

implementation of successful farm to 19

school programs; 20

‘‘(ii) the direct and indirect costs af-21

fecting the production and marketing of lo-22

cally or regionally produced agricultural 23

food products for school food programs; 24



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‘‘(iii) the costs local school food pro-1

grams incur by acquiring such local foods 2

for school meal programs in comparison to 3

the costs for other foods in such school 4

meal programs; and 5

‘‘(iv) local and regional market access 6

for such food products, partnerships, 7

small-scale production, and any barriers to 8

and long-term feasibility of such access. 9

‘‘(8) FUNDING.— 10

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—On October 1, 2016, 11

and each October 1 thereafter, out of any funds 12

in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the 13

Secretary of the Treasury shall transfer to the 14

Secretary to carry out this subsection 15

$10,000,000, to remain available until ex-16

pended. 17

‘‘(B) RECEIPT AND ACCEPTANCE.—The 18

Secretary shall be entitled to receive, shall ac-19

cept, and shall use to carry out this subsection 20

the funds transferred under subparagraph (A), 21

without further appropriation. 22

‘‘(C) ADMINISTRATION.—Of the funds 23

made available to the Secretary under subpara-24

graph (A), not more than 5 percent may be 25



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[Discussion Draft]

used to pay administrative costs incurred by the 1

Secretary in carrying out this subsection and 2

evaluating the program in accordance with 3

paragraph (6). 4

‘‘(e) SUMMER MEAL SERVICE BY LOCAL BUSI-5

NESS.— 6

‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—From the funds made 7

available under the summer food service program 8

under section 13, the Secretary shall award grants 9

on a competitive basis to not more than 4 State 10

agencies to carry out a demonstration project to 11

make healthy food accessible for low-income families 12

in underserved areas during summer through sus-13

tainable, scalable, business-driven solutions. 14

‘‘(A) DURATION.—A grant awarded under 15

this section shall be for a period of not more 16

than 3 years. 17

‘‘(B) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants 18

under this section, the Secretary shall give pri-19

ority to State agencies that have met the appli-20

cation requirements under this subsection and 21

which demonstrate a severe unmet need for 22

serving additional eligible areas in the State 23

through the summer food service program 24

under section 13. 25



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‘‘(C) LIMITATION.—Funds under this sec-1

tion will— 2

‘‘(i) be intended to reduce childhood 3

hunger and allow parents to better partici-4

pate in the labor force or an education or 5

workforce development program; and 6

‘‘(ii) not preempt or prevent operation 7

of the summer food service program as it 8

operates through requirements of section 9

13. 10

‘‘(2) STATE APPLICATION.—A State seeking to 11

operate a demonstration award under this subsection 12

shall submit an application at such time and in such 13

manner as the Secretary may reasonably require. 14

The application shall contain— 15

‘‘(A) State plans to implement and manage 16

the program in accordance with other applicable 17

Federal requirements under this Act; 18

‘‘(B) a determination of the eligible areas 19

in the State in which poor economic conditions 20

exist in accordance with the program, but where 21

an eligible service institution is not currently in 22

operation, where the State may reimburse a 23

vendor; 24



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‘‘(C) identified eligible vendors which the 1

State has determined to be qualified to provide 2

meals in accordance with this section; 3

‘‘(D) a proposed timeline for entering into 4

contracts with eligible vendors and strategies 5

for effective communication; and 6

‘‘(E) an assurance that funds will be used 7

to provide meals to the most vulnerable, under-8

served, and rural populations, as determined by 9

the State. 10

‘‘(3) ELIGIBLE VENDOR.—Under this section, 11

an eligible vendor is an existing food vendor which 12

the State determines has the administrative capacity 13

and proven operating performance to provide eligible 14

meals to children in underserved areas in accordance 15

with this subsection and with the limitations and re-16

quirements set forth in the summer food service pro-17

gram regulations regarding management responsibil-18

ities of sponsors and self-preparation sites, including 19

the vendor— 20

‘‘(A) accepts final administrative and fi-21

nancial responsibility for management of an ef-22

fective food service, including auditing and re-23

porting responsibilities, but will not receive ad-24

ministrative funding from the State to do so; 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(B) has not been determined ineligible to 1

participate in any other program under this Act 2

or the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 by reason of 3

violation of the requirements of that program; 4

‘‘(C) will provide adequate supervisory and 5

operational personnel for monitoring and man-6

agement of a self-preparation site; 7

‘‘(D) contracts directly with the State as a 8

sponsor; 9

‘‘(E) ensures that meals are inspected peri-10

odically as required under existing program reg-11

ulations; 12

‘‘(F) participates in applicable State and 13

Federal reporting and auditing requirements 14

under this Act as appropriate, including to pro-15

vide other information determined relevant by 16

the Comptroller General in accordance with 17

paragraph (5); 18

‘‘(G) has State or local health certification 19

for the facilities in which meals will be prepared 20

and distributed for use in the program, and en-21

sures that State and local health and sanitation 22

requirements are met at all times; and 23



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(H) has the organizational capacity to 1

offer meals in underserved communities, includ-2

ing preparation and delivery logistics. 3

‘‘(4) STATE DISBURSEMENT.—A State shall re-4

imburse an eligible vendor for meals served to eligi-5

ble children in accordance with the summer food 6

service program under section 13 and with this sub-7

section, as follows: 8

‘‘(A) Reimbursements shall be available for 9

an eligible vendor operating in an eligible area 10

in which poor economic conditions exist where 11

no sponsor is currently operating. 12

‘‘(B) To the extent practicable, a State 13

shall give priority to eligible vendors that— 14

‘‘(i) demonstrate partnerships with 15

entities providing summer enrichment ac-16

tivities such as schools, local government 17

agencies, and nonprofit agencies; and 18

‘‘(ii) provide meals at a congregate 19

site, although such vendor shall not be re-20

quired to do so. 21

‘‘(C) A State shall follow established proce-22

dures in entering into contracts with a vendor, 23

such as through a Request for Proposal, Invita-24



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[Discussion Draft]

tion for Sealed Bid, Small Purchase Procedure, 1

or other common method. 2

‘‘(5) AUDITING.—Not later than 1 year after 3

the end of each grant period for each grant under 4

awarded under this subsection, the Comptroller Gen-5

eral of the United States shall provide a report to 6

Congress, including information about the impacts 7

on children, families, and eligible service institutions 8

during the summer in each State receiving such 9

grant, including— 10

‘‘(A) the impact on parents’ abilities to 11

participate in the labor force or an education or 12

workforce development program; 13

‘‘(B) the reduction of childhood hunger 14

and food insecurity; 15

‘‘(C) the ability for such business-driven 16

models to be sustainable and scalable, including 17

the costs associated in doing so; and 18

‘‘(D) the extent to which such funds under 19

this section encouraged partnerships with 20

schools, local government agencies, and non-21

profit agencies. 22

‘‘(6) LIMITATIONS.—The following rules shall 23

apply with respect to this subsection: 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(A) No commodities shall be provided to 1

businesses or vendors under this subsection. 2

‘‘(B) Vendors shall assume all administra-3

tive costs under this subsection. 4

‘‘(C) Meals shall be provided to children el-5

igible for the summer food service programs 6

under section 13. 7

‘‘(D) A vendor receiving reimbursements 8

shall not profit directly from such reimburse-9

ments under this subsection. 10

‘‘(f) SUMMER ELECTRONIC BENEFIT TRANSFER FOR 11

CHILDREN.— 12

‘‘(1) PURPOSE.—The purposes of the provision 13

of electronic benefits provided through this sub-14

section are to assess the use of alternate methods of 15

providing access to food for children during the sum-16

mer months when school is not in regular session 17

that are intended to— 18

‘‘(A) increase summer food service pro-19

gram effectiveness and efficiency; 20

‘‘(B) reduce or eliminate the food insecu-21

rity and hunger of children; and 22

‘‘(C) improve the nutritional status of chil-23

dren. 24

‘‘(2) DEMONSTRATION.— 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(A) ELECTION.—A State that, as of the 1

date of enactment of the llllll Act of 2

2016, is operating a summer electronic benefit 3

transfer for children demonstration may elect to 4

continue operating such demonstration in ac-5

cordance with the requirements of this sub-6

section as an alternative to other delivery mod-7

els of providing meals to children during the 8

summer months when school is not in regular 9

session. 10

‘‘(B) STATE REQUIREMENTS.—As a condi-11

tion of participating in the demonstration under 12

this subsection, a State shall— 13

‘‘(i) be in full compliance with the 14

electronic benefit transfer systems require-15

ments of section 17(g)(12) of the Child 16

Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 17

1786(g)(12)); 18

‘‘(ii) comply with the requirements 19

under this subsection; and 20

‘‘(iii) agree to provide such informa-21

tion the Comptroller General may require 22

for the evaluation of the demonstration as 23

required under this subsection. 24

‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(A) ELIGIBLE HOUSEHOLD.—The term 1

‘eligible household’ means a household that in-2

cludes 1 or more school-aged child determined 3

as eligible to receive free or reduced price school 4

meals during the prior school year, but such 5

child is not participating in a program that pro-6

vides food during the summer through the sum-7

mer food service program under section 13. 8

‘‘(B) STATE.—The term ‘State’ includes a 9

tribal entity. 10

‘‘(C) SUMMER ELECTRONIC BENEFIT 11

TRANSFER FOR CHILDREN DEMONSTRATION.— 12

The term ‘summer electronic benefit transfer 13

for children demonstration’ means an electronic 14

benefit transfer demonstration project under 15

section 748(g)(1) of the Agriculture, Rural De-16

velopment, Food and Drug Administration, and 17

Related Appropriations Act, 2010 (Public Law 18

111-80; 123 Stat. 2132) that uses the elec-19

tronic benefit systems implemented in a State 20

under section 17(g)(12) of the Child Nutrition 21

Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1786(g)(12). 22

‘‘(4) BENEFIT LEVELS.— 23


approve States seeking to make an election 25



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[Discussion Draft]

under paragraph (2)(A) that will evaluate the 1

impact of providing a variety of differentiated 2

benefit levels to eligible children as a way to 3

reach such children to the greatest extent prac-4

ticable. The values of such benefits shall be de-5

termined by the State, but shall be between $15 6

and $30 per month for each school-aged child 7

in an eligible household. 8

‘‘(B) RATE DETERMINATION.—In deter-9

mining the values under subparagraph (A), the 10

State may consider differentiating rates based 11

on— 12

‘‘(i) the proportion of applicants that 13

are eligible for free price meals; 14

‘‘(ii) total number of households and 15

children seeking to participate; 16

‘‘(iii) food security in children across 17

communities in such State; 18

‘‘(iv) average redemption rates of ben-19

efits; 20

‘‘(v) impact of such values at reducing 21

food security in children; 22

‘‘(vi) availability of other community 23

programs that provide meals to children 24

during the summer months when school is 25



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[Discussion Draft]

not in regular session where children might 1

otherwise receive nutrition assistance; and 2

‘‘(vii) any other information a state 3

sees useful at determining such rates. 4

‘‘(C) LIMITATIONS.—(i) No child may re-5

ceive more than 3 months of benefits under this 6

paragraph in any 12-month period. 7

‘‘(ii) No child may receive more than $30 8

of benefits under this paragraph per month. 9

‘‘(D) COST SHARING.—Nothing in this 10

paragraph shall be construed to prohibit States 11

from providing additional non-Federal resources 12

for the purposes of this subsection. 13

‘‘(5) EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION.— 14

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In administering the 15

demonstration under this subsection and pro-16

viding benefits to children in accordance with 17

this subsection, a State shall consider previous 18

State experiences and best practices in imple-19

menting the summer electronic benefit transfer 20

for children demonstration carried out before 21

the date of enactment of the llllll Act 22

of 2016, including information evaluating find-23

ings of the demonstration (including the 2013 24



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[Discussion Draft]

final report published by the Department of Ag-1

riculture). 2

‘‘(B) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Sec-3

retary shall provide, and periodically update, 4

technical assistance to States for purposes of 5

this paragraph. 6

‘‘(6) USE OF BENEFITS.— 7

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Benefits issued to 8

families through the election under paragraph 9

(2)(A) may be used only for the purchase of 10

food for consumption by school-aged children in 11

such family. 12

‘‘(B) TIMING.—Benefits issued through 13

the election described in this subparagraph may 14

be redeemed only when school is out of session 15

for the summer period. 16

‘‘(7) ADMINISTRATION.—In administering this 17

subsection, the State shall— 18

‘‘(A) ensure that benefits are issued only 19

to eligible households that live— 20

‘‘(i) in areas with high rates of pov-21

erty or long-term poverty that are rural 22

and have no congregate feeding sites or ac-23

cess to meals otherwise provided through 24



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[Discussion Draft]

the summer food service program author-1

ized under section 13; or 2

‘‘(ii) outside an area in which poor 3

economic conditions exist but in an area 4

with no access to meals otherwise provided 5

through the summer food service program 6

authorized under section 13; 7

‘‘(B) issue benefits to eligible households 8

only after such household has made an oral or 9

written request to receive electronic benefit 10

transfer benefits under this subsection; 11

‘‘(C) document how the election will be ad-12

ministered in the management and administra-13

tion plan described in subsection (n), including 14

the process for identifying areas in which bene-15

fits will be issued; and 16

‘‘(D) ensure full compliance with section 17

17(h)(12)(13) of the Child Nutrition Act of 18

1966 (42 U.S.C.1786(h)(12)(13)). 19

‘‘(8) EVALUATION.—The Secretary shall pro-20

vide for an ongoing, independent evaluation of the 21

demonstration carried out under this subsection, in-22

cluding quasi-experimental or other methods that 23

are capable of producing scientifically valid informa-24

tion to determine effectiveness in achieving the pur-25



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poses described in paragraph (1), including exam-1

ining or assessing— 2

‘‘(A) feasibility of, or barriers to, success-3

ful implementation of, and potential future scal-4

ing of this program; 5

‘‘(B) varied approaches in State implemen-6

tation of such demonstration, including dif-7

ferent approaches, challenges, and lessons 8

learned; 9

‘‘(C) specific levels of use and receipt of 10

benefits; 11

‘‘(D) impact on children’s food security 12

and nutritional impacts, including by the dif-13

ferent impacts on children in a variety of geo-14

graphical areas such as rural, urban, and sub-15

urban areas, localities, and States; 16

‘‘(E) total cost of implementing and oper-17

ating such demonstration, including in compari-18

son to other methods of providing summer meal 19

service to school-aged children; and 20

‘‘(F) impacts and results of such evalua-21

tion in comparison to evaluations of the sum-22

mer electronic benefits transfer for children 23

demonstration published by the Secretary of 24

Agriculture. 25



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‘‘(9) REPORT.—Not later than one year after 1

amounts are first appropriated under paragraph 2

(10), and each year thereafter, the Comptroller Gen-3

eral of the United States shall submit to Congress 4

a report that— 5

‘‘(A) includes the information resulting 6

from the most recent evaluation under para-7

graph (8); and 8

‘‘(B) takes into consideration evaluations 9

of the summer electronic benefits transfer for 10

children demonstration published by the Sec-11

retary of Agriculture. 12

‘‘(10) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 13

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to 14

be appropriated to carry out this subsection 15

$10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2018 16

through 2020, to remain available until ex-17

pended. 18

‘‘(B) LIMITATIONS.—Of such appropria-19

tions, for each fiscal year— 20

‘‘(i) not more than 5 percent may be 21

spent on administrative funds by a State; 22

‘‘(ii) not more than 1 percent may be 23

spent on administrative funds by the Sec-24

retary; and 25



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‘‘(iii) not more than $499,999 shall be 1

available for the Secretary to comply with 2

paragraph (8). 3

‘‘(11) REGULATIONS.—Not later than Decem-4

ber 31, 2016, the Secretary shall provide guidance 5

to States to implement this subsection, including 6

recommendations for States in electing to success-7

fully continue to implement the summer electronic 8

benefit transfer for children demonstration while 9

complying with the new or additional requirements 10

of this subsection.’’. 11

(b) ADDITIONAL MEAL FOR CHILDREN IN FULL- 12

TIME CHILDCARE.—Section 17(f)(2) of the Richard B. 13

Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1766(f)) 14

is amended— 15

(1) by redesignating subparagraph (C), as 16

amended by section 108(a)(4)(A), as subparagraph 17

(D); 18

(2) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘subpara-19

graph (B)’’ and inserting ‘‘subparagraphs (B) and 20

(C)’’; 21

(3) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘No reim-22

bursement’’ and inserting ‘‘Subject to subparagraph 23

(C) of this paragraph, no reimbursement’’; and 24



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(4) by inserting after subparagraph (B), the 1

following: 2

‘‘(C)(i) Notwithstanding subparagraph 3

(B), for a 2-year period in not more than 5 4

States selected by the Secretary, reimbursement 5

may be made to any institution under this para-6

graph, or to family or group day care home 7

sponsoring organizations under paragraph (3) 8

of this subsection, for up to 3 meals, or 2 meals 9

and 2 supplements per day per child. 10

‘‘(ii) Reimbursements under clause (i) shall 11

not exceed $10,000,000 for the period of fiscal 12

years 2017 through 2021. 13

‘‘(iii) In selecting States under this sub-14

paragraph, the Secretary shall give priority to 15

States that demonstrate— 16

‘‘(I) a commitment to ending child-17

hood hunger; and 18

‘‘(II) an unmet need for additional 19

meals that will reduce hunger in children 20

and allow parents to better participate in 21

the labor force or an educational or work-22

force development program. 23



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‘‘(iv) Each State that is selected under this 1

subparagraph shall comply with the following 2

requirements: 3

‘‘(I) An institution, including a family 4

or group day care home sponsoring organi-5

zation, is eligible to receive additional re-6

imbursements from the State under this 7

subparagraph if the institution is— 8

‘‘(aa) currently participating in 9

the program under this section; 10

‘‘(bb) meets the requirements of 11

this section; and 12

‘‘(cc) provides additional meals 13

for children maintained in a child care 14

setting for more than 8 hours per day. 15

‘‘(II) The State shall, in disbursing 16

funds to institutions under this subpara-17

graph, to the extent practicable, ensure— 18

‘‘(aa) geographical diversity, in-19

cluding equal treatments of urban, 20

suburban, and rural communities; and 21

‘‘(bb) priority for institutions 22

that demonstrate— 23

‘‘(AA) the need to serve ad-24

ditional meals to children; 25



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‘‘(BB) how such additional 1

meals will allow parents to better 2

participate in the labor force, or 3

an educational or workforce de-4

velopment program; and 5

‘‘(CC) the organizational ca-6

pacity for such institution to 7

offer additional meals. 8

‘‘(v) Not later than 3 years after the date 9

of enactment of this subparagraph, the Comp-10

troller General of the United States shall sub-11

mit to the Committee on Education and the 12

Workforce of the House of Representatives and 13

the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and 14

Forestry of the Senate, an interim report on 15

the impacts of reimbursement under this sub-16

paragraph, which shall include information 17

about the impacts of additional meals on chil-18

dren, families, and eligible service institutions 19

in each State selected for participation under 20

this subparagraph (including the impact on the 21

abilities of parents to participate in the labor 22

force, or an educational or workforce develop-23

ment program and the reduction of childhood 24

hunger). 25



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‘‘(vi) Not later than 1 year after the in-1

terim report is submitted under clause (v), the 2

Comptroller General shall submit to the Com-3

mittee on Education and the Workforce of the 4

House of Representatives and the Committee 5

on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the 6

Senate a final report.’’. 7

SEC. 110. FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PROGRAM. 8


Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1769a) is amended— 10

(1) in the heading, by striking ‘‘FRESH’’; 11

(2) by striking ‘‘fresh’’ each place it appears in 12

subsections (a), (b), and (e); and 13

(3) in subsection (i)— 14

(A) by striking paragraphs (5) and (7); 15

(B) by redesignating paragraph (6) as 16

paragraph (5); and 17

(C) by adding at the end the following: 18

‘‘(6) CLARIFICATION.—The Secretary shall 19

issue guidance that clarifies to States that funds 20

under this program may be used on all forms of 21

fruits and vegetables and is no longer limited to only 22

fresh fruits and vegetables.’’. 23



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SEC. 111. COMPLIANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY. 1


Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1769c) is amended— 3


(A) by striking ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—There 5

shall be’’ and inserting ‘‘There shall be’’; and 6

(B) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) 7

and (B) as paragraphs (1) and (2), respectively, 8

and indenting appropriately; 9

(2) in subsection (b)— 10

(A) in paragraph (1)(C)(i), by striking ‘‘3- 11

year cycle’’ and inserting ‘‘5-year cycle’’; 12

(B) by redesignating paragraphs (4) 13

through (6) as paragraphs (5) through (7), re-14

spectively; 15



‘‘(3) ERROR REDUCTION PLANS.— 18

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each State agency 19

shall work with the local educational agencies 20

that have the highest rates of certification er-21

rors according to the verification process under 22

section 9(a)(D) to develop an error reduction 23

plan and monitor implementation of the plan 24

over the remainder of the review cycle. 25



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‘‘(B) PLAN COMPONENTS.—Each error re-1

duction plan shall include— 2

‘‘(i) specific measures that the local 3

education agency shall take to reduce cer-4

tification errors, including at a minimum— 5

‘‘(I) increasing the standard 6

verification sample size, except such 7

increase shall not result in a 8

verification sample size of more than 9

15 percent; 10

‘‘(II) improvements in the appli-11

cation; 12

‘‘(III) the use of technology to 13

minimize opportunities for error; and 14

‘‘(IV) enhanced training and 15

oversight of staff involved in the cer-16

tification and verification process; 17

‘‘(ii) a timeline for the local edu-18

cational agency to implement those meas-19

ures within the review cycle; 20

‘‘(iii) annual goals for reductions in 21

certification errors; 22

‘‘(iv) technical assistance to be pro-23

vided by the State agency; and 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(v) working with an educational serv-1

ice agency to help conduct the verification 2

process and other aspects of the program 3

as necessary to help reduce errors in the 4

administration of the program. 5

‘‘(C) STATE AGENCY RESPONSIBILITIES.— 6

Each State agency shall— 7

‘‘(i) assist the local educational agen-8

cies identified under subparagraph (D) 9

with developing an error reduction plan 10

that complies with subparagraph (B); 11

‘‘(ii) provide technical assistance as 12

described in the error reduction plan under 13

subparagraph (B)(iv); 14

‘‘(iii) conduct annual reviews focused 15

on the direct certification, application, cer-16

tification, verification, meal counting, and 17

meal claiming processes; and 18

‘‘(iv) report annually to the Secretary 19

on the progress of the State in reducing 20

errors. 21

‘‘(D) SELECTION OF LOCAL EDUCATIONAL 22

AGENCIES.— 23

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Each State agency 24

shall select up to 10 percent of the local 25



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[Discussion Draft]

educational agencies in the State to de-1

velop an error reduction plan. 2

‘‘(ii) LIMITATION.—The percentage of 3

local educational agencies selected under 4

clause (i) shall not be comprised of more 5

than 50 percent of small local educational 6

agencies, as determined by the Secretary. 7

‘‘(iii) ASSESSMENT OF CERTIFICATION 8

ERROR.—In selecting local educational 9

agencies under this paragraph, certification 10

error shall be assessed based on a measure 11

determined by the Secretary that con-12

siders— 13

‘‘(I) the results of the reviews 14

conducted under paragraph (1) and 15

‘‘(II) the percentage of household 16

applications verified under section 17

9(b)(3)(D)(i) that had the level of 18

benefits changed as a result of infor-19

mation obtained during the 20

verification process, excluding benefit 21

terminations resulting from not ob-22

taining information during household 23

verification conducted under section 24

9(b)(3)(G). 25



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‘‘(4) HIGH PERFORMANCE.—If a local edu-1

cational agency is determined to be in the top 20 2

percent of local educations agencies, as determined 3

by the State, the sample size under section 4

9(b)(3)(D)(i)(II) shall be a verification sample size 5

of 2.5 percent .’’; and 6

(D) in paragraph (6) (as redesignated by 7

subparagraph (B)), in subparagraph (A), by 8

striking ‘‘paragraph (4)’’ each place it appears 9

and inserting ‘‘paragraph (5)’’; and 10

(3) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘2011 through 11

2015’’ and inserting ‘‘2017 through 2021’’. 12

SEC. 112. REPEAL OF STATE CHILDHOOD HUNGER CHAL-13

LENGE GRANTS. 14


Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1769e) is repealed. 16

SEC. 113. DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY RELATING TO NON-17

PROCUREMENT DEBARMENT. 18


Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1769f) is amended— 20

(1) by redesignating subsection (g) as sub-21

section (h); and 22

(2) by inserting after subsection (f) the fol-23

lowing: 24

‘‘(g) FINES.— 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In a situation in which a 1

contractor is found guilty in any criminal proceeding 2

or found liable in any civil or administrative pro-3

ceeding, of the activities listed in paragraph (2), in 4

connection with the supplying, providing, or selling 5

of goods or services to any local agency in connec-6

tion with a child nutrition program, the Secretary 7

shall impose a civil penalty of not more than 8

$100,000,000, as determined by the Secretary, to 9

provide restitution to the program for harm done to 10

the program. 11

‘‘(2) INCLUDED ACTIVITIES.—Activities include, 12

at a minimum— 13

‘‘(A) an anticompetitive activity, including 14

bid-rigging, price-fixing, the allocation of cus-15

tomers between competitors, or other violation 16

of Federal or State antitrust laws; 17

‘‘(B) fraud, bribery, theft, forgery, or em-18

bezzlement; 19

‘‘(C) knowingly receiving stolen property; 20

‘‘(D) making a false claim or statement; or 21

‘‘(E) any other obstruction of justice. 22

‘‘(3) USE OF FUNDS.—Any funds collected 23

under this subsection shall be credited to the child 24

nutrition programs appropriations account.’’. 25



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SEC. 114. IMPROVEMENTS TO SCHOOL LUNCH FACILITIES. 1

The Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act 2

is amended by inserting after section 26 (42 U.S.C. 3

1769g) the following: 4

‘‘SEC. 27. IMPROVEMENTS TO SCHOOL LUNCH FACILITIES. 5

‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 6

‘‘(1) DURABLE EQUIPMENT.—The term ‘dura-7

ble equipment’ means durable food preparation, han-8

dling, cooking, serving, and storage equipment great-9

er than $500 in value. 10

‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligible en-11

tity’ means— 12

‘‘(A) a local educational agency or a school 13

food authority administering or operating a 14

school lunch program under this Act; 15

‘‘(B) a tribal organization; or 16

‘‘(C) a consortium that includes a local 17

educational agency or school food authority de-18

scribed in subparagraph (A), a tribal organiza-19

tion, or both. 20

‘‘(3) INFRASTRUCTURE.—The term ‘infrastruc-21

ture’ means a food storage facility, kitchen, food 22

service facility, cafeteria, dining room, or food prepa-23

ration facility. 24

‘‘(4) LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY.—The term 25

‘local educational agency’ has the meaning given the 26



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[Discussion Draft]

term in section 8101 of the Elementary and Sec-1

ondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 2

‘‘(5) SCHOOL FOOD AUTHORITY.—The term 3

‘school food authority’ has the meaning given the 4

term in section 210.2 of title 7, Code of Federal 5

Regulations (or a successor regulation). 6

‘‘(6) TRIBAL ORGANIZATION.—The term ‘tribal 7

organization’ has the meaning given the term in sec-8

tion 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu-9

cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450b). 10

‘‘(b) LOAN GUARANTEES.— 11

‘‘(1) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary shall issue a 12

loan guarantee to an eligible lender for purposes of 13

financing the construction, remodeling, or expansion 14

of infrastructure or the purchase of durable equip-15

ment that will assist the eligible entity in providing 16

healthy meals through the school lunch program au-17

thorized under this Act. 18

‘‘(2) PREFERENCE.—In issuing a loan guar-19

antee under this subsection, the Secretary shall give 20

a preference to an eligible entity that, as compared 21

with other eligible entities seeking a loan guarantee 22

under this subsection, demonstrates substantial or 23

disproportionate— 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(A) need for infrastructure improvement 1

or durable equipment; or 2

‘‘(B) impairment in durable equipment. 3

‘‘(3) OVERSIGHT.—The Secretary, acting 4

through the Under Secretary for Rural Develop-5

ment, shall establish procedures to oversee any 6

project or purchase for which a loan guarantee is 7

issued under this subsection. 8

‘‘(4) GUARANTEE AMOUNT.—A loan guarantee 9

issued under this subsection may not guarantee 10

more than 80 percent of the principal amount of the 11

loan. 12

‘‘(5) FEES AND COSTS.— 13


establish fees for loan guarantees under this 15

subsection that are, to the maximum extent 16

practicable, equal to all costs of the loan guar-17

antees as determined under the Federal Credit 18

Reform Act of 1990 (2 U.S.C. 661 et. seq.), as 19

determined by the Secretary. 20

‘‘(B) FEE SHORTFALL.—To the extent 21

that the Secretary determines that fees de-22

scribed in subparagraph (A) are not sufficient 23

to pay for all of the costs for the loan guaran-24

tees pursuant to the Federal Credit Reform Act 25



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of 1990 (2 U.S.C. 661 et. seq.), the Secretary 1

may use funds described in paragraph (6) to 2

pay for the costs of loan guarantees not paid 3

for by the fees. 4

‘‘(6) FUNDING.—Subject to the availability of 5

appropriations provided in advance in an appropria-6

tions Act specifically for the purpose of carrying out 7

this subsection, there is authorized to be appro-8

priated $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2016 and each fis-9

cal year thereafter. 10

‘‘(c) GRANTS.— 11

‘‘(1) AUTHORITY.—Beginning in fiscal year 12

2017 and subject to the availability of appropria-13

tions provided in advance in an appropriations Act 14

specifically for the purpose of carrying out this sub-15

section, the Secretary shall make grants, on a com-16

petitive basis, to eligible entities for the purchase of 17

durable equipment and infrastructure needed to 18

serve healthier meals and improve food safety. 19

‘‘(2) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants under this 20

subsection, the Secretary shall give priority to eligi-21

ble entities that— 22

‘‘(A) are located in States that have en-23

acted comparable statutory grant funding 24

mechanisms or that have otherwise appro-25



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[Discussion Draft]

priated funds for the purpose described in para-1

graph (1); and 2

‘‘(B) have identified and are reasonably ex-3

pected to meet an unmet local or community 4

need— 5

‘‘(i) through a public-private partner-6

ship or partnership with a food pantry or 7

other low-income assistance agency; or 8

‘‘(ii) by allowing related community 9

organizations to use kitchen or cafeteria 10

space. 11

‘‘(3) FEDERAL SHARE.— 12

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Federal share of 13

costs for assistance funded through a grant 14

awarded under this subsection shall not exceed 15

80 percent of the total cost of the durable 16

equipment or infrastructure. 17

‘‘(B) MATCHING.—To receive a grant 18

under this subsection, an eligible entity shall 19

provide matching support in the form of cash or 20

in-kind contributions. 21

‘‘(C) WAIVER.—The Secretary may waive 22

or vary the requirements of subparagraphs (A) 23

and (B) if the Secretary determines that undue 24



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hardship or effective exclusion from participa-1

tion would otherwise result. 2

‘‘(4) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 3

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to 4

be appropriated $30,000,000 to carry out this 5

subsection for fiscal year 2017 and each fiscal 6

year thereafter. 7

‘‘(B) LIMIT.—The Secretary may use not 8

more than 5 percent of the funds made avail-9

able under subparagraph (A) to provide tech-10

nical assistance. 11

‘‘(d) SALAD BARS.— 12

‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days 13

after the date of the enactment of the llllll 14

Act of 2016, the Secretary shall review or revise any 15

guidance in existence on that date of enactment so 16

as to ensure that school food authorities have flexi-17

bility in the establishment and implementation of 18

salad bars. 19

‘‘(2) PLANNING.—The Secretary shall develop 20

and implement a plan to encourage the use of salad 21

bars in schools participating in the school lunch pro-22

gram authorized under this Act.’’. 23



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TITLE II—CHILD NUTRITION ACT 1

SEC. 201. SPECIAL MILK PROGRAM AUTHORIZATION. 2

Section 3(a)(7) of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 3

(42 U.S.C. 1772(a)(7)) is amended by striking ‘‘on an an-4

nual basis each’’ and inserting ‘‘annually by February 15 5

for the upcoming’’. 6

SEC. 202. SCHOOL BREAKFAST PROGRAM. 7

Section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 8

U.S.C. 1773) is amended— 9

(1) in subsection (b)(1), by adding at the end 10

the following: 11

‘‘(F) INCREASED REIMBURSEMENT.—The 12

national average payment calculated in accord-13

ance with subparagraph (B) shall be increased 14

by 2 cents in the school year 2017-2018 and 15

such increase shall be calculated in the base for 16

each succeeding year when calculating the reim-17

bursement rate in accordance with subpara-18

graph (B) for school year 2018-2019 and each 19

succeeding school year.’’; and 20

(2) in subsection (e)(1)(B), by striking ‘‘, in-21

cluding technical’’ and all that follows through ‘‘es-22

tablished under this section,’’. 23



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[Discussion Draft]

SEC. 203. STATE ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES. 1




(A) in paragraph (3), in the second sen-5

tence, by striking ‘‘, except as provided in para-6

graph (5)’’; 7

(B) by striking paragraph (5); and 8

(C) by redesignating paragraphs (6) 9

through (9) as paragraphs (5) through (8), re-10

spectively; 11

(2) in subsection (g)(2)(B), by amending clause 12

(iii) to read as follows: 13

‘‘(iii) MINIMIZING DISRUPTIONS.—The 14

Secretary shall encourage school food au-15

thorities to consider— 16

‘‘(I) providing the training re-17

quired under this subparagraph to 18

local food service personnel during 19

paid, regular hours; and 20

‘‘(II) that to the extent that 21

training must occur during nonwork 22

hours, it is minimally disruptive to 23

employees’ other work obligations if 24

employees are provided with sufficient 25

notice of training.’’; 26



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[Discussion Draft]

(3) in subsection (i)— 1


(i) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 3

before the period at the end the following: 4

‘‘and for the purposes described in section 5

749(h) of the Agriculture, Rural Develop-6

ment, Food and Drug Administration, and 7

Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 8

(Public Law 111–80; 123 Stat. 2133)’’; 9

and 10


lowing: 12

‘‘(C) PRIORITY.—In awarding funds to 13

States under this paragraph, the Secretary 14

shall give priority to States in which local edu-15

cational agencies, school good authorities, or 16

schools submit a plan under subparagraph (B) 17

that includes the use of technology or informa-18

tion management systems to provide assistance 19

to tribal organizations administering the food 20

distribution program on Indian reservations es-21

tablished under section 4(b) of the Food and 22

Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2013(b)) for 23

purposes of improving the rate of direct certifi-24



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[Discussion Draft]

cation of children in households participating in 1

that program.’’; and 2

(B) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘2015’’ 3

and inserting ‘‘2020’’; 4

(4) in subsection (j), by striking ‘‘2015’’ and 5

inserting ‘‘2020’’; 6

(5) by redesignating subsection (j) as sub-7

section (k); and 8

(6) by inserting after subsection (i) the fol-9

lowing: 10

‘‘(j) CENTRALIZED EXCHANGE NETWORK.— 11

‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall es-12

tablish a centralized exchange network to facilitate 13

State exchange of information and best practices, for 14

programs authorized under this Act or the Richard 15


1751 et seq.). 17

‘‘(2) NETWORK TOPICS.—State exchanges of in-18

formation and best practices described in paragraph 19

(1) may include, at a minimum, research methods 20

and data related to— 21

‘‘(A) improved efficiency in the delivery of 22

benefits; 23

‘‘(B) improved compliance in the pro-24

grams; and 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(C) reduction of fraud, waste, and abuse 1

in the programs.’’. 2

SEC. 204. REGULATIONS. 3

Section 10(b)(1)(C) of the Child Nutrition Act of 4

1966 (42 U.S.C. 1779(b)(1)(C)) is amended— 5

(1) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 6

(2) by striking the period at the end of clause 7

(ii) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 8


‘‘(iii) ensuring that the nutrition 10

standards under this paragraph do not 11

apply to fundraisers held by student 12

groups or organizations; and 13

‘‘(iv) ensure that the nutrition stand-14

ards under this paragraph allow any foods 15

that may be served as reimbursable meals 16

served under the school meal programs to 17

be sold in schools as described in subpara-18

graph (B).’’. 19

SEC. 205. DEFINITION OF AUTHORIZED STATE AGENCY. 20


U.S.C. 1784) is amended by striking paragraph (2) and 22


‘‘(2) AUTHORIZED STATE AGENCY.—The term 24

‘authorized State agency’ means— 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(A) the chief State school officer (such as 1

the State superintendent of public instruction, 2

commissioner of education, or similar officer); 3

‘‘(B) a board of education controlling the 4

State department of education; 5

‘‘(C) the State Commissioner or individual 6

who administers agricultural programs in the 7

State; or 8

‘‘(D) a State official the State legislature 9

designates to administer the programs under 10

this Act.’’. 11

SEC. 206. SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION PROGRAM 12

FOR WOMEN, INFANTS, AND CHILDREN. 13

(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 17 of the Child Nutrition 14

Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1786) is amended— 15

(1) in subsection (a), in the second sentence, by 16

inserting ‘‘counseling,’’ before ‘‘promotion,’’; 17

(2) in subsection (b)(14), by striking the para-18

graph designation and all that follows through 19

‘‘means those foods’’ and inserting the following: 20

‘‘(14) SUPPLEMENTAL FOOD.—The term ‘sup-21

plemental food’ means any food’’; 22

(3) in subsection (d)— 23


(i) in subparagraph (B)— 25



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[Discussion Draft]

(I) in the matter preceding clause 1

(i), by striking ‘‘may choose to’’ and 2

inserting ‘‘shall’’; 3

(II) in clause (i)(II), by striking 4


(III) in clause (ii), by striking 6


and’’; and 8

(IV) by adding at the end the fol-9

lowing: 10

‘‘(iii) any basic allowance for subsist-11

ence provided under section 402 of title 12

37, United States Code, to a member of a 13

uniformed service.’’; and 14


lowing: 16

‘‘(E) CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS.—For 17

the purpose of determining income eligibility 18

under this section, a State agency shall exclude 19

from income any child support payment for an 20

applicant who is legally obligated to pay child 21

support for any noncustodial child.’’; and 22

(B) in paragraph (3), by adding at the end 23

the following: 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(G) DATA EXCHANGE STANDARDS FOR 1

IMPROVED INTEROPERABILITY.— 2

‘‘(i) DESIGNATION.—The Secretary, 3

in consultation with an interagency work 4

group established by the Office of Manage-5

ment and Budget, and taking into consid-6

eration State government perspectives, 7

shall designate data exchange standards to 8

govern, under this section— 9

‘‘(I) necessary categories of infor-10

mation that State agencies operating 11

related programs are required under 12

applicable law to electronically ex-13

change with another State agency; 14

and 15

‘‘(II) Federal reporting and data 16

exchange required under applicable 17

law. 18

‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENTS.—The data ex-19

change standards required by clause (i) 20

shall, to the maximum extent practicable— 21

‘‘(I) incorporate a widely accept-22

ed, nonproprietary, searchable, com-23

puter-readable format; 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(II) contain interoperable stand-1

ards developed and maintained by 2

intergovernmental partnerships, such 3

as the National Information Exchange 4

Model; 5

‘‘(III) incorporate interoperable 6

standards developed and maintained 7

by Federal entities with authority re-8

garding contracting and financial as-9

sistance; 10

‘‘(IV) be consistent with, and im-11

plement, applicable accounting prin-12

ciples; 13

‘‘(V) be implemented in a man-14

ner that— 15

‘‘(aa) is cost effective; and 16

‘‘(bb) improves program effi-17

ciency and effectiveness; 18

‘‘(VI) be capable of being up-19

graded as necessary; and 20

‘‘(VII) protects the privacy of 21

any personally identifiable information 22

from being accessed by individuals 23

who do not need access to such infor-24

mation. 25



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‘‘(iii) EFFECT OF SUBPARAGRAPH.— 1

Nothing in this subparagraph requires any 2

change to an existing data exchange stand-3

ard for Federal reporting that is deter-4

mined to be effective and efficient. 5

‘‘(iv) IMPLEMENTATION.— 6

‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—Not later 7

than 2 years after the date of the en-8

actment of this subparagraph, the 9

Secretary shall issue a proposed rule 10

to implement this subparagraph. 11

‘‘(II) REQUIREMENTS.—The pro-12

posed rule under this clause shall— 13

‘‘(aa) identify all federally 14

required data exchanges; 15

‘‘(bb) include specification 16

and timing for the exchanges to 17

be standardized; 18

‘‘(cc) address the factors 19

used in determining whether and 20

when to standardize data ex-21

changes; 22

‘‘(dd) specify State imple-23

mentation options; and 24



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‘‘(ee) describe future mile-1

stones.’’; 2

(4) in subsection (e)— 3

(A) by striking the subsection designation 4

and all that follows through ‘‘The State agency 5

shall’’ in the first sentence of paragraph (1) 6


‘‘(e) NUTRITION AND DRUG ABUSE EDUCATION.— 8

‘‘(1) EDUCATION.— 9

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A State agency shall’’; 10

(B) in paragraph (1) (as amended by sub-11

paragraph (A)), by adding at the end the fol-12

lowing: 13

‘‘(B) DISPOSAL OF CERTAIN INFANT FOR-14

MULA.— 15

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The State agency 16

shall ensure that all pregnant, postpartum, 17

and breastfeeding participants in the pro-18

gram, and parents or caretakers of infant 19

and child participants in the program, are 20

provided education regarding proper dis-21

posal of unused or excess infant formula 22

obtained with food instruments issued 23

under the program under this section. 24



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‘‘(ii) INCLUSIONS.—The education 1

under this subparagraph shall include in-2

formation regarding— 3

‘‘(I) the safety hazards of pur-4

chasing infant formula from an unau-5

thorized vendor; and 6

‘‘(II) the penalties associated 7

with the gifting, trading, sale, or re-8

sale of infant formula or other supple-9

mental foods obtained with food in-10

struments issued under the program 11

under this section, in accordance with 12

subsection (o).’’; and 13



‘‘(3) NUTRITION EDUCATION MATERIALS.— 16

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, after 17

submitting proposed nutrition education mate-18

rials to the Secretary of Health and Human 19

Services for comment, shall issue the materials 20

for use in the program under this section. 21

‘‘(B) SHARING OF MATERIALS WITH CHILD 22

AND ADULT CARE FOOD PROGRAM.—A State 23

agency may allow the local agencies or clinics 24

operating under the State agency to share nu-25



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[Discussion Draft]

trition educational materials with institutions 1

participating in the Child and Adult Care Food 2

Program established under section 17 of the 3

Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act 4

(42 U.S.C. 1766) at no cost to that program, 5

if a written materials-sharing agreement exists 6

between the relevant agencies.’’; 7


(A) by striking ‘‘(f)(1)(A) Each State 9

agency’’ and all that follows through the end of 10

paragraph (1)(A) and inserting the following: 11

‘‘(f) PLAN OF OPERATION AND ADMINISTRATION BY 12

STATE AGENCY.— 13

‘‘(1) REQUIREMENTS.— 14

‘‘(A) SUBMISSION.— 15

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Each State agency 16

shall submit to the Secretary a plan of op-17

eration and administration of the program 18

authorized under this section. 19

‘‘(ii) DEADLINES.—Each State agency 20

shall submit— 21

‘‘(I) an initial plan not later than 22

such date as is specified by the Sec-23

retary; and 24



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‘‘(II) an update to the plan every 1

3 years thereafter, which shall be a 2

resubmission of the current plan if 3

such plan continues fully to address 4

the needs of the participants and 5

meets the requirements of this sec-6

tion, or whenever the State agency 7

seeks approval of a substantive 8

change to the plan.’’; 9

(B) in paragraph (1)(B), by striking ‘‘sub-10

mitted for’’ and inserting ‘‘submitted covering’’; 11

(C) in paragraph (1)(C)— 12

(i) in clause (x), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 13

the end; 14

(ii) by redesignating clause (xi) as 15

clause (xiii); and 16

(iii) by inserting after clause (x) the 17

following: 18

‘‘(xi) a plan to allow, during an emer-19

gency or disaster period, for different foods 20

or other products to be obtained with pro-21

gram benefits in lieu of, or in addition to, 22

the supplemental foods available to be ob-23

tained with such benefits; 24



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‘‘(xii) a plan detailing the methods to 1

be used by all local agencies to ensure 2

compliance with subsection (d)(2); and’’; 3


(i) by striking ‘‘(5) State and local’’ 5


‘‘(5) ACCOUNTS, RECORDS, AND REVIEW.— 7

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—State and local’’; and 8


lowing: 10

‘‘(B) REVIEW.—The Secretary shall peri-11

odically review State and local agency compli-12

ance with the approved plan of operation and 13

administration of the applicable State.’’; 14

(E) in paragraph (10)— 15

(i) by striking ‘‘(10) The Secretary’’ 16


‘‘(10) STANDARDS FOR ADMINISTRATION.— 18

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary’’; and 19


lowing: 21

‘‘(B) NOTIFICATION TO STATE AUTHOR-22

ITY.—If, on reviewing the administration by a 23

State of the program, the Secretary determines 24

there is a need to temporarily halt the State 25



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[Discussion Draft]

from approving new vendors to address defi-1

ciencies in proper administration, the Secretary 2

may issue a moratorium on the authority of the 3

State to approve new vendors, subject to the 4

condition that the Secretary shall provide the 5

State with reasoning behind such determination 6

and shall establish— 7

‘‘(i) a timeframe under which the 8

moratorium will be issued, including any 9

renewal or lifting of the moratorium; 10

‘‘(ii) a process to approve vendors for 11

the State in a manner that does not im-12

pede— 13

‘‘(I) the sale of a business; or 14

‘‘(II) the establishment of any 15

new business; and 16

‘‘(iii) a review process to ensure that 17

participants, nonparticipants, and vendors 18

are not adversely impacted by the imple-19

mentation of the moratorium.’’; 20

(F) in paragraph (11)— 21

(i) in subparagraph (C)(ii), by strik-22

ing ‘‘and cultural eating patterns’’ and in-23

serting ‘‘cultural eating patterns, commer-24



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[Discussion Draft]

cial availability, and participant demand’’; 1

and 2


lowing: 4

‘‘(D) PRODUCT PACKAGE SIZES.—In pro-5

mulgating or revising regulations under this 6

paragraph, the Secretary shall allow a range of 7

product package sizes to be selected by partici-8

pants. 9

‘‘(E) CASH VALUE VOUCHERS.—In adjust-10

ing annually for food cost inflation in the food 11

package under this paragraph, the Secretary 12

shall round to the nearest dollar increment. 13

‘‘(F) PARTICIPANT CHOICE OPTIONS.—The 14

Secretary shall maximize opportunities for 15

State agency flexibility to ensure adequate and 16

appropriate participant choice to meet partici-17

pant needs and cultural preferences in supple-18

mental foods made available under this sec-19

tion.’’; 20

(6) in subsection (g), by striking paragraph 21

(1)(A) and inserting the following: 22

‘‘(A) AUTHORIZATION.—There are author-23

ized to be appropriated to carry out this section 24



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[Discussion Draft]

$6,350,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2017 1

through 2021.’’; and 2

(7) in subsection (h)— 3

(A) in paragraph (8)(A)— 4

(i) in clause (vi)— 5

(I) by striking ‘‘Effective begin-6

ning’’ and inserting the following: 7

‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—Effective be-8

ginning’’; and 9


lowing: 11

‘‘(II) INFANT FORMULA.—Effec-12

tive beginning on the date of the en-13

actment of this subclause, a State 14

agency that has fully implemented 15

electronic benefits transfer systems 16

throughout the State shall have in ef-17

fect a system to ensure that infant 18

formula rebate invoices, under com-19

petitive bidding, provide an actual 20

count of the number of units sold to 21

participants in the program under this 22

section.’’; and 23


lowing: 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(xi) CONTRACT DURATION.—The 1

contracts awarded under clause (iii) shall 2

specify that— 3

‘‘(I) if the income eligibility limit 4

under title XIX of the Social Security 5

Act (42 U.S.C. 1396 et seq.) for preg-6

nant women or infants is increased, 7

the contractor may terminate the ex-8

isting contract effective on the later 9

of— 10

‘‘(aa) the date that is 1 year 11

after the date on which the State 12

decision to increase the eligibility 13

limit by amending the State plan 14

is made by— 15

‘‘(AA) adopting State 16

legislation; 17

‘‘(BB) issuing a State 18

executive order or adminis-19

trative rule; or 20

‘‘(CC) any other appli-21

cable State process, as de-22

termined by the Secretary; 23

and 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(bb) the first day of the 1

month during which the increase 2

takes effect; and 3

‘‘(II) if a contractor elects to ter-4

minate a contract pursuant to sub-5

clause (I), the contractor shall notify 6

the State agency by not later than the 7

date that is 1 year before the pro-8

posed date of termination.’’; 9


(i) in subparagraph (B)— 11

(I) in clause (i)— 12

(aa) in subclause (I), by 13

striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; and 14

(bb) by adding at the end 15

the following: 16

‘‘(III) limit the term of any con-17

tract (including any extension or re-18

newal period) to a maximum of 5 19

years, subject to the condition that 20

any such extension or renewal shall be 21

approved only on mutual consent of 22

the contractor and the State agency; 23

‘‘(IV) agree to provide, by not 24

later than 180 days before exercising 25



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[Discussion Draft]

any termination for convenience 1

clause, a written notice to each af-2

fected contractor; 3

‘‘(V) agree— 4

‘‘(aa) to receive an annual 5

audit of infant formula rebate in-6

voices by a contractor; and 7

‘‘(bb) to provide to each con-8

tractor accurate monthly redemp-9

tion files; and 10

‘‘(VI) agree not to provide any 11

State preference to any bidder in eval-12

uating bids;’’; 13

(II) in clause (iii), by striking 14


(III) in clause (iv)— 16

(aa) by striking ‘‘30’’ and 17

inserting ‘‘45’’; and 18

(bb) by striking the period 19

at the end and inserting a semi-20

colon; 21

(IV) by redesignating clauses (iii) 22

and (iv) as clauses (iv) and (v), re-23

spectively; 24



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[Discussion Draft]

(V) by inserting after clause (ii) 1

the following: 2

‘‘(iii) for any State agency that has 3

fully implemented electronic benefits trans-4

fer systems throughout the State, have a 5

system to ensure that rebate invoices 6

under competitive bidding provide an ac-7

tual count of the number of units lawfully 8

sold to participants in the program under 9

this section;’’; and 10

(VI) by adding at the end the fol-11

lowing: 12

‘‘(vi) provide a process to negotiate 13

the amount of funds to be returned to the 14

bidder by the State agency, and the meth-15

od of return, on determining and verifying 16

that rebates were paid on any food, includ-17

ing infant formula, sold under fraudulent 18

means; 19

‘‘(vii) open bids and enter into a con-20

tract under paragraph (8)(A)(iii) only after 21

making a reasonable effort to confirm in 22

writing, via email or other means, that the 23

manufacturers on the list the State agency 24

maintains under paragraph (8)(A)(ix) re-25



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[Discussion Draft]

ceived the initial request for proposals or 1

other bid solicitation document by not later 2

than the date that is 45 days before the 3

date on which the bids are due; 4

‘‘(viii) agree to provide to contractors 5

supporting documentation for monthly in-6

voices, subject to the participant and ven-7

dor confidentiality protections under pro-8

gram rules; and 9

‘‘(ix) not later than the date that is 10

90 days after the date for opening bids, 11

submit to the Secretary a copy of the bid 12

solicitation and any other contract docu-13

ments.’’; and 14


lowing: 16

‘‘(D) CRITERIA.— 17

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary 18

shall ensure that any cost containment 19

measure for a supplemental food, excluding 20

infant formula— 21

‘‘(I) is effective in lowering food 22

overall costs; 23

‘‘(II) results in significant sav-24

ings, after factoring in administrative 25



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[Discussion Draft]

costs, effects on retail pricing, and 1

other costs associated with bid solici-2

tations and implementation of single- 3

supplier contracts. as determined by 4

the Secretary; 5

‘‘(III) is compatible with State 6

agency management information sys-7

tems, current food instrument sys-8

tems, and retail grocery markets; and 9

‘‘(IV) does not— 10

‘‘(aa) reduce variety and 11

choice in a manner that may neg-12

atively affect participation or re-13

demption rates, or otherwise un-14

dermine the program purpose de-15

scribed in subsection (a); 16

‘‘(bb) result in administra-17

tive costs to individual State 18

agencies nearly equal to or in ex-19

cess of the food cost savings from 20

the measure; 21

‘‘(cc) affect the nutritional 22

quality of the program authorized 23

under this section; 24



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(dd) negatively impact the 1

ability of a State agency to serve 2

the nutritional needs of program 3

participants; 4

‘‘(ee) reduce the selection of 5

a specific food item by program 6

participants; 7

‘‘(ff) reduce competition or 8

availability of private label 9

brands; or 10

‘‘(gg) lead to increases in 11

the retail price of a food item. 12

‘‘(ii) REVIEW.—Not later than 90 13

days after the date of the enactment of 14

this subparagraph, the Secretary shall re-15

view and update, as necessary, any regula-16

tions and associated guidance to ensure 17

that any cost containment measure adopt-18

ed after the update is in compliance with 19

the criteria described in clause (i). 20

‘‘(E) STATE CHOICE.—Subject to para-21

graph (8), the Secretary shall not direct, pro-22

mote, or otherwise require a State agency from 23

soliciting competitive bids for food other than 24

infant formula.’’; 25



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[Discussion Draft]

(C) in paragraph (11)(E)— 1

(i) by striking ‘‘If a State’’ and insert-2


‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—If a State’’; and 4


lowing: 6

‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENT.—Effective not 7

later than 120 days after the date of the 8

enactment of this clause, in calculating av-9

erage payments per voucher under clause 10

(i), a State agency shall exclude food in-11

struments not fully redeemed, based on an 12

actual count or a reasonable estimate.’’; 13


(i) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking 15

‘‘food delivery system that provides’’ and 16

inserting ‘‘method to deliver’’; and 17


lowing: 19

‘‘(H) REGULATIONS.—As State agencies 20

transition to electronic benefit transfer for the 21

program, the Secretary shall update regulations 22

to account for the fact that State agencies— 23



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(i) are receiving shelf pricing more 1

frequently than twice a year from vendors; 2

and 3

‘‘(ii) should adjust vendor reimburse-4

ment levels more frequently to reflect pro-5

gram food price changes in the market-6

place. 7

‘‘(I) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIA-8

TIONS.— 9

‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—There is author-10

ized to be appropriated to carry out this 11

paragraph $25,000,000 for each of fiscal 12

years 2016 through 2020. 13

‘‘(ii) USE.—The Secretary shall allo-14

cate the funds made available under this 15

subparagraph to States for purposes of en-16

hancing and accelerating the implementa-17

tion of electronic benefit transfer systems. 18

‘‘(J) PENALTY FOR NONCOMPLIANCE.— 19

For any State agency that fails to comply with 20

subparagraph (B), including a State agency re-21

ceiving an exemption under subparagraph (C), 22

the Secretary shall— 23

‘‘(i) withhold such amounts otherwise 24

required to be allocated to the State agen-25



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[Discussion Draft]

cy for nutrition services and administration 1

as the Secretary determines to be appro-2

priate; and 3

‘‘(ii) direct the amounts withheld for 4

use by the State agency solely for achiev-5

ing compliance with subparagraph (B).’’; 6

and 7

(E) in paragraph (13), by adding at the 8


‘‘(C) ACCESS.—The Secretary shall make 10

available upon request the national universal 11

product code database to vendors approved for 12

participation in the special supplemental food 13

program established under this section.’’; 14

(8) by striking subsection (k); 15

(9) by redesignating subsections (l) through (q) 16

as subsections (k) through (p), respectively; 17

(10) in subsection (o) (as so redesignated)— 18

(A) in paragraphs (1) and (2)(B), by strik-19

ing ‘‘subsection (o)(1)(A)’’ each place it appears 20

and inserting ‘‘subsection (n)(1)(A)’’; 21


(i) in striking subparagraph (C), by 23

striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 24



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[Discussion Draft]

(ii) in subparagraph (D), by striking 1


and’’; and 3

(iii) by adding at the end the fol-4

lowing: 5

‘‘(E) fifth, to reimburse any WIC infant 6

formula manufacturer for any rebate provided 7

to the State agency on WIC infant formula un-8

lawfully trafficked under a provision of law de-9

scribed in paragraph (2).’’; and 10

(C) by adding at the end the following: 11

‘‘(6) NOTICE OF INVESTIGATION.— 12

‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For any investigation 13

into the trafficking of WIC infant formula pur-14

suant to this subsection, the Secretary shall 15

provide notice of resolution of the disposition of 16

an unlawful action resulting from the investiga-17

tion to all contracted manufacturers of the traf-18

ficked infant formula. 19

‘‘(B) ESTIMATES.—Not later than 60 days 20

after the date on which notice is provided under 21

subparagraph (A), the State shall submit to the 22

contracted manufacturer an estimate of— 23



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(i) the number of units, if any, for 1

which rebates may have been issued as a 2

result of the violation; and 3

‘‘(ii) the total dollar amount of the re-4

bates.’’; and 5


‘‘(q) FRAUD AND SAFETY REVIEW.— 7

‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 8

after the date of the enactment of this subsection, 9

the Secretary shall review current guidance, regula-10

tions, and practices regarding fraud and safety for 11

purposes of this section. 12

‘‘(2) INCLUSIONS.—The review under para-13

graph (1) shall include a review of issues relating 14

to— 15

‘‘(A) excess and unused infant formula; 16

‘‘(B) invoices pertaining to products sub-17

ject to rebate; 18

‘‘(C) the sale of infant formula by unau-19

thorized entities; and 20

‘‘(D) the purchase of infant formula from 21

unauthorized entities. 22

‘‘(3) UPDATES.—Based on the findings of the 23

review under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall up-24



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[Discussion Draft]

date current regulations and guidance and issue ad-1

ditional regulations and guidance, as necessary— 2

‘‘(A) to minimize fraud; and 3

‘‘(B) to ensure the safety of participants. 4

‘‘(r) COOPERATION WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT 5

AGENCIES.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 6

State agencies and law enforcement agencies shall share 7

WIC vendor information relating to investigations or pros-8

ecutions under the program under this section, as deter-9

mined by the Secretary. 10

‘‘(s) PILOT PROJECTS.— 11

‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 12

the Secretary may conduct pilot projects to test al-13

ternative certification and food delivery procedures 14

under this section. 15

‘‘(2) PROHIBITION.—In conducting pilot 16

projects under paragraph (1), the Secretary may not 17

waive or modify the application of program eligi-18

bility, supplemental foods, or cost containment re-19

quirements. 20

‘‘(3) EVALUATION.—The Secretary shall evalu-21

ate each pilot project carried out under this sub-22

section after the pilot project has been in operation 23

for 3 years.’’. 24



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[Discussion Draft]

(b) REVIEW OF ADJUNCTIVE ELIGIBILITY FOR 1

WIC.— 2

(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 3

(A) ADJUNCTIVELY ELIGIBLE.—The term 4

‘‘adjunctively eligible’’ with respect to an indi-5

vidual, means an individual who is eligible for 6

WIC under section 17(d)(2)(A)(iii) of the Child 7

Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 8

1786(d)(2)(A)(iii)). 9

(B) COMPTROLLER GENERAL.—The term 10

‘‘Comptroller General’’ means the Comptroller 11

General of the United States. 12

(C) MEDICAID.—The term ‘‘Medicaid’’ 13

means the Medicaid program under title XIX of 14

the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396 et 15

seq.). 16

(D) POVERTY LINE.—The term ‘‘poverty 17

line’’ means the most recent annual Federal 18

Poverty Income Guidelines published by the De-19

partment of Health and Human Services. 20

(E) WIC.—The term ‘‘WIC’’ means the 21

special supplemental nutrition program for 22

women, infants, and children established by sec-23

tion 17 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 24

U.S.C. 1786). 25



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[Discussion Draft]

(2) STUDY.—The Comptroller General shall 1

conduct a study to examine the impact of adjunctive 2

eligibility on WIC participation, including the admin-3

istrative burden, number of participants in WIC, 4

and other impacts on the participants. 5

(3) ADJUNCTIVE ELIGIBILITY AND INCOME OF 6

WIC PARTICIPANTS.— 7

(A) IN GENERAL.—In conducting the 8

study described in paragraph (2), the Comp-9

troller General shall examine the extent to 10

which individuals certified as adjunctively eligi-11

ble to receive supplemental foods and services 12

through WIC have income above 185 percent of 13

the poverty line. 14

(B) DATA.— 15

(i) DATA COLLECTION.—The Comp-16

troller General shall collect data to deter-17

mine— 18

(I) the total number of pregnant 19

women, postpartum women, 20

breastfeeding women, infants, and 21

children participating in WIC; 22

(II) an estimate of the share of 23

individuals described in subclause (I) 24

who are certified as adjunctively eligi-25



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[Discussion Draft]

ble under section 17(d)(2)(A)(iii) of 1

the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 2

U.S.C. 1786(d)(2)(A)(iii)); and 3

(III) an estimate of the share of 4

individuals described in subclause (II) 5

for whom income (for purposes of 6

Medicaid eligibility) is above 185 per-7

cent of the poverty line, above 250 8

percent of the poverty line, above 300 9

percent of the poverty line, and above 10

any other demarcation thresholds as 11

determined by the Comptroller Gen-12

eral. 13

(ii) SOURCES.—The Comptroller Gen-14

eral shall collect the information described 15

in clause (i) from— 16

(I) WIC program data for sub-17

clauses (I) and (II) of that clause; 18

and 19

(II) a review of the income of a 20

representative sample of WIC partici-21

pants (for purposes of Medicaid eligi-22

bility) at the time of WIC certification 23

(for subclause (III) of that clause). 24



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[Discussion Draft]

(iii) OTHER.—The estimate developed 1

under clause (i)(III) shall be based on data 2

collected in selected States in which the in-3

come eligibility limit for infants under 1 4

year of age for Medicaid is at or above 185 5

percent of the poverty line. 6

(4) USE OF INCOME DATA TO INFORM MED-7

ICAID ADJUNCTIVE ELIGIBILITY DETERMINA-8

TIONS.— 9

(A) IN GENERAL.—Following collection of 10

the data described in paragraph (3), the Comp-11

troller General shall assess the feasibility, bene-12

fits, and costs of requiring that WIC use an 13

automated process to document that only appli-14

cants with income below a specified threshold 15

may be certified as adjunctively eligible based 16

solely on Medicaid receipt. 17

(B) SCOPE.—The assessment described in 18

subparagraph (A) shall include an evaluation of 19

the capacity of the management information 20

systems for both WIC and Medicaid, including 21

the ability of the systems to exchange data. 22

(C) WIC MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYS-23

TEMS.—The Comptroller General shall assess— 24



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[Discussion Draft]

(i) which State agencies and tribal or-1

ganizations operating WIC use manage-2

ment information systems with the capac-3

ity, via an automated process, for local 4

WIC clinics to document— 5

(I) income as a share of the pov-6

erty level for purposes of Medicaid eli-7

gibility; or 8

(II) Medicaid enrollment and in-9

come below a specified level; 10

(ii) the steps necessary to prepare all 11

local WIC clinics to obtain and to access 12

that income information as a part of the 13

WIC application process as well as part of 14

the associated costs of modifying WIC 15

automated systems and training staff; and 16

(iii) other information determined rel-17

evant by the Comptroller General, such as 18

the impact of the identified steps on ad-19

ministrative costs, clinical services, and 20

waiting times for appointments. 21

(D) MEDICAID MANAGEMENT INFORMA-22

TION SYSTEMS.—The Comptroller General shall 23

assess— 24



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[Discussion Draft]

(i) whether State’s mechanized claims 1

processing and information retrieval sys-2

tems under section 1903(a)(3)(A)(i) of the 3

Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 4

1396b(a)(3)(A)(i)) have the capacity to 5

provide, at the time of WIC certification 6

and via an automated process, data to an 7

agency or tribal organization operating 8

WIC regarding— 9

(I) income as a share of the pov-10

erty level for purposes of Medicaid eli-11

gibility; or 12

(II) whether a Medicaid recipient 13

has income below a specified level; 14

(ii) the steps necessary to ensure that 15

mechanized claims processing and informa-16

tion retrieval systems in States for which 17

the income eligibility limit for infants 18

under 1 year of age under Medicaid is 19

above 185 percent of the poverty line have 20

the capacity to provide the information de-21

scribed in clause (i) to local WIC clinics 22

for the purpose of documenting adjunctive 23

eligibility under an option that would limit 24



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[Discussion Draft]

that eligibility to individuals with income 1

below a specific threshold; and 2

(iii) other information determined rel-3

evant by the Comptroller General and the 4

Secretary of Health and Human Services, 5

including the impact of the identified steps 6

on administrative costs. 7

(5) REPORT.—Not later than 18 months after 8

the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comp-9

troller General shall submit to the Committee on 10

Education and the Workforce of the House of Rep-11

resentatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nu-12

trition, and Forestry of the Senate a report describ-13

ing— 14

(A) the data collected under paragraph 15

(3); 16

(B) the assessments made under para-17

graph (4); and 18

(C) the feasibility, costs, and benefits of a 19

new requirement that would only permit ad-20

junctive eligibility for individuals with house-21

hold income below a specified level. 22

SEC. 207. TEAM NUTRITION NETWORK. 23





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[Discussion Draft]



(i) by inserting ‘‘evidence-based’’ be-3

fore ‘‘team nutrition messages’’; and 4

(ii) by striking ‘‘developed by the Sec-5

retary’’; 6

(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘under 7

this Act and the Richard B. Russell National 8

School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.)’’ be-9

fore the period at the end; 10

(C) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘pur-11

poses; and’’ and inserting the following: ‘‘pur-12

poses, including if appropriate— 13

‘‘(A) State and local nutrition education 14

programs, health and wellness policies, nutrition 15

and health education resources, and other State 16

resources; and 17

‘‘(B) Federal nutrition education efforts, 18

including those programs under this Act and 19

the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch 20

Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.);’’; and 21


(i) by striking ‘‘helping children to 23

maintain a healthy weight by’’; and 24



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[Discussion Draft]

(ii) by inserting ‘‘in and out of 1

school’’ before the period at the end; 2

(2) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘(b)’’ and all 3

that follows through ‘‘In this section, the term’’ and 4


‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 6

‘‘(1) NUTRITION EDUCATION.—The term ‘nutri-7

tion education’ means the provision of individual or 8

group learning opportunities and materials for chil-9

dren and families that— 10

‘‘(A) emphasize the relationship between 11

nutrition, physical activity, and health with a 12

goal of improving long-term dietary and phys-13

ical health and increasing food security; and 14

‘‘(B) include learning about food prepara-15

tion. 16

‘‘(2) TEAM NUTRITION NETWORK.—The term’’; 17

(3) in subsection (c)— 18

(A) by striking the subsection heading and 19

inserting ‘‘STATE NETWORK GRANTS.—’’; and 20


‘‘(4) ALLOCATION.—Subject to the availability 22

of funds for use in carrying out this subsection, the 23

total amount of funds made available for a fiscal 24



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[Discussion Draft]

year for grants under this subsection shall equal not 1

more than the sum of— 2

‘‘(A) the product obtained by multiplying 3

1⁄2 cent by the number of lunches reimbursed 4

through food service programs under the Rich-5

ard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 6

U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) during the second pre-7

ceding fiscal year in schools, institutions, and 8

service institutions that participate in the food 9

service programs; and 10

‘‘(B) the total value of funds received by 11

the Secretary in support of this subsection from 12

nongovernmental sources. 13

‘‘(5) REQUIREMENTS FOR STATE PARTICIPA-14

TION.—To be eligible to receive a grant under this 15

subsection, a State agency shall submit to the Sec-16

retary a plan, at such time and in such manner as 17

the Secretary may require, including— 18

‘‘(A) a description of the goals and pro-19

posed State plan for addressing the health and 20

other consequences of children who are at risk 21

of becoming overweight or obese; 22

‘‘(B) a description of the means by which 23

the State agency will use and disseminate the 24

team nutrition messages and material to chil-25



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[Discussion Draft]

dren and, if appropriate, families of such chil-1

dren; 2

‘‘(C) an explanation of the ways in which 3

the State agency will use the funds from the 4

grant to work toward the goals required under 5

clause (i), and to promote healthy eating and 6

physical activity and fitness in schools through-7

out the State; 8

‘‘(D) a description of the ways in which 9

the State team nutrition network messages and 10

activities will be coordinated at the State and 11

local level with other community health pro-12

motion and education activities; 13

‘‘(E) a description of the consultative proc-14

ess that the State agency employed in the devel-15

opment of the model nutrition and physical ac-16

tivity programs, including consultations with in-17

dividuals and organizations with expertise in 18

promoting public health, nutrition, or physical 19

activity of children; 20

‘‘(F) an annual summary of the team nu-21

trition network activities and their effectiveness; 22

‘‘(G) a description of the ways in which 23

school environments might support healthy eat-24

ing and physical activity; and 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(H) a description of how all communica-1

tions to parents and legal guardians of students 2

who are members of a household receiving in-3

formation under the program shall be in an un-4

derstandable and uniform format and, to the 5

maximum extent practicable, in a language that 6

parents and legal guardians can understand. 7

‘‘(6) STATE COORDINATOR.—Each State that 8

receives a grant under this subsection may appoint 9

a team nutrition network coordinator. Such coordi-10

nator shall implement comprehensive, coordinated 11

nutrition education programming through the team 12

nutrition network, including— 13

‘‘(A) to assist schools, school food authori-14

ties, and other child nutrition program pro-15

viders in the State to administer and coordinate 16

the team nutrition network activities; and 17

‘‘(B) to coordinate activities of such pro-18

viders, school, and food authorities, and those 19

of the Secretary, acting through the Food and 20

Nutrition Service, and State agencies respon-21

sible for other children’s health, education, and 22

wellness programs. 23



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(7) AUTHORIZED ACTIVITIES.—A State agency 1

that receives a grant under this section may use 2

funds from the grant to— 3

‘‘(A) identify the programs and services 4

available to meet the health and nutritional 5

needs of children and families in the State; 6

‘‘(B) disseminate team nutrition network 7

messages and material that provide comprehen-8

sive, coordinated nutrition and physical fitness 9

awareness and obesity prevention education; 10

‘‘(C) implement demonstration projects in 11

schools to promote physical activity and to en-12

hance the nutritional education provided to stu-13

dents; 14

‘‘(D) improve access to local foods through 15

coordinating with farm-to-school grant activities 16

that include the provision of nutrition edu-17

cation; 18

‘‘(E) if applicable, implement State guide-19

lines in health (including nutrition education 20

and physical education guidelines) and empha-21

size regular physical activity during school 22

hours; 23

‘‘(F) encourage school to develop healthy 24

eating and lifestyle policies; 25



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[Discussion Draft]

‘‘(G) provide training and technical assist-1

ance to teachers and school food service profes-2

sionals consistent with the purposes of this sub-3

section; and 4

‘‘(H) collaborate with public and private 5

organizations, including community-based orga-6

nizations, State medical associations, and public 7

health groups, to provide nutrition and physical 8

education targeting lower income children, eth-9

nic minorities, and youth at a greater risk for 10

obesity or malnourishment.’’; 11

(4) by striking subsections (d) through (g) and 12

(k); 13

(5) by redesignating subsections (h) through (j) 14

as subsections (d) through (f), respectively; 15

(6) by redesignating subsection (l) as subsection 16

(g); 17

(7) in subsection (d) (as so redesignated)— 18

(A) in the subsection heading, by inserting 19

‘‘EDUCATION’’ after ‘‘NUTRITION’’; 20


(i) in subparagraph (A)— 22

(I) in clause (i), by striking 23

‘‘and’’ at the end; and 24



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[Discussion Draft]


lowing: 2

‘‘(iii) incorporate nutrition education 3

into academic instruction, physical and 4

health education, and, if appropriate, after-5

school programs, including athletics; and’’; 6

and 7

(ii) in subparagraph (B)— 8

(I) by striking clause (iv); 9

(II) in clause (vii), by striking ‘‘a 10

variety of healthy foods’’ and all that 11

follows through ‘‘fruit bars’’ and in-12

serting ‘‘a variety of healthy foods, in-13

cluding through initiatives to cre-14

atively market such foods’’; 15

(III) in clause (viii), by striking 16

‘‘low-fat and nutrient dense’’ and in-17

serting ‘‘healthy’’; and 18

(IV) by redesignating clauses (v) 19

through (ix) as clauses (iv) through 20

(viii), respectively; 21

(8) in subsection (e) (as so redesignated), by 22

striking ‘‘may provide for technical assistance and 23

grants’’ and inserting ‘‘shall provide for technical as-24

sistance’’; and 25



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[Discussion Draft]

(9) in subsection (g) (as so redesignated) by 1

striking ‘‘such sums’’ and all that follows through 2

the period at the end and inserting ‘‘to carry out 3

this section $17,000,000 for each of fiscal years 4

2017 through 2021.’’. 5

TITLE III—MISCELLANEOUS 6

SEC. 301. REVIEWS. 7

(a) TRIBAL FOODS.— 8

(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 9

the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 10

shall review— 11

(A) the barriers to including tribally pro-12

duced, traditional, and culturally appropriate 13

foods in child nutrition programs (as defined in 14

section 25(b) of the Richard B. Russell Na-15

tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1769f (b)) 16

within tribal schools; and 17

(B) the means of encouraging and assist-18

ing enhanced inclusion of foods described in 19

subparagraph (A) in child nutrition programs. 20

(2) SCOPE.—In carrying out the review de-21

scribed in paragraph (1), the Secretary shall— 22

(A) survey and compile resources of the 23

Department of Agriculture on the issue de-24

scribed in paragraph (1)(A); 25



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[Discussion Draft]

(B) if necessary, clarify relevant Federal 1

regulations governing schools and tribal pro-2

ducers, including regulations relating to pro-3

curement, reimbursement, and food safety; 4

(C) involve all relevant agencies, including 5

the Food and Nutrition Service and Office of 6

Tribal Relations of the Department of Agri-7

culture; and 8

(D) submit to Congress a report describing 9

the results of the review. 10

(b) USE OF PROGRAM DATA.— 11

(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, jointly with 12

the Secretary of Education, shall— 13

(A) review information regarding available 14

alternative data sets for use in programs that 15

are using free and reduced price meals data; 16

and 17

(B) determine the appropriateness of using 18

such alternative data sets in place of free and 19

reduced price meal program data by other pro-20

grams to reduce the burden on local school food 21

authorities. 22

(2) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 1 23

year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 24

Secretaries shall submit to the Committee on Edu-25



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[Discussion Draft]

cation and the Workforce of the House of Rep-1


trition, and Forestry of the Senate a report that de-3

scribes the results of the review and any rec-4

ommendations of the Secretaries. 5

(c) CREDITING AND LABELING PROGRAM.— 6

(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall review 7

and update the system of crediting and the vol-8

untary child nutrition labeling program used in ad-9

ministering— 10

(A) the school lunch program established 11

under the Richard B. Russell National School 12

Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.); and 13

(B) the school breakfast program estab-14

lished by section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act 15

of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773). 16

(2) SCOPE.—The review described in paragraph 17

(1) shall include, at a minimum— 18

(A) the treatment of food products within 19

previously established food categories and new 20

products that have entered the commercial mar-21

ketplace since the system of crediting and the 22

voluntary child nutrition labeling program were 23

developed; and 24



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[Discussion Draft]

(B) the timeliness in which applications for 1

labels under the voluntary child nutrition label-2

ing program are reviewed and are granted or 3

denied. 4



Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Edu-7





ommendations of the Secretary. 12

(d) NUTRITIONAL ANALYSIS.—The Secretary shall— 13

(1) review the practicability and feasibility of— 14

(A) conducting a nutritional analysis, 15

using publicly and commercially available nutri-16

tional information, of food products that are 17

voluntarily submitted for use in child nutrition 18

programs, outside of the reimbursable school 19

meal; and 20

(B) aggregating and making the informa-21

tion obtained through that nutritional analysis 22

publicly available for use by school food authori-23

ties, food manufacturers, and other interested 24

parties; and 25



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[Discussion Draft]

(2) if found practicable and feasible, proceed 1

with the analysis, aggregation, and public avail-2

ability. 3

(e) OTHER.— 4

(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall review— 5

(A) the cost differences between— 6

(i) providing meals and supplements 7

under the Richard B. Russell National 8

School Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) and 9

section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 10

1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773) in Palau, Guam, 11

American Samoa, the Commonwealth of 12

Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Is-13

lands, and the Commonwealth of the 14

Northern Mariana Islands, respectively; 15

and 16

(ii) the average cost of providing 17

meals and supplements under those provi-18

sions of law in the 50 States and the Dis-19

trict of Columbia; and 20

(B) the relation of the cost differences de-21

termined under subparagraph (A) to the na-22

tional average payment rates for meals and 23

supplements prescribed under sections 4, 11, 24

13, and 17 of the Richard B. Russell National 25



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[Discussion Draft]

School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1753, 1759a, 1

1761, 1766) and section 4(b) of the Child Nu-2

trition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773(b)). 3



Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Edu-6





ommendations of the Secretary. 11

(f) UNLAWFUL ACTIVITY.— 12

(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 13


shall review— 15

(A) the number of instances and types of 16

unlawful activity that occurred in the preceding 17

3 years, including, at a minimum, instances of 18

fraud, bid-rigging, and any other anticompeti-19

tive activities carried out in connection with 20

supplying, providing, or selling goods or services 21

for a program under the Richard B. Russell 22

National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et 23

seq.) or the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 24

U.S.C. 1771 et seq.); and 25



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[Discussion Draft]

(B) the practices and procedures currently 1

used by the Department of Agriculture to pre-2

vent unlawful activity described in subpara-3

graph (A). 4

(2) SECRETARIAL RESPONSE.—Following com-5

pletion of the review described in paragraph (1), the 6

Secretary shall respond, if appropriate, by taking ac-7

tion to reduce such unlawful activity, including, at a 8

minimum— 9

(A) revising any relevant guidance and reg-10

ulations; 11

(B) issuing fines authorized under sub-12

section (g) of section 25 of the Richard B. Rus-13

sell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 14

1769f) (as amended by section 115); and 15

(C) submitting to the appropriate commit-16

tees of Congress recommendations for any legis-17

lative changes needed to enhance program over-18

sight. 19

(3) SCOPE.—The actions described in para-20

graph (2) shall be designed to reduce— 21

(A) anticompetitive activities, including 22

bid-rigging, price-fixing, the allocation of cus-23

tomers between competitors, or other violation 24

of Federal or State antitrust laws; 25



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(B) fraud, bribery, theft, forgery, or em-1

bezzlement; 2

(C) knowingly receiving stolen property; 3

(D) making a false claim or statement; or 4

(E) any other obstruction of justice. 5

SEC. 302. PROGRAM DELIVERY. 6

The Secretary shall work with States participating in 7

programs authorized under the Richard B. Russell Na-8

tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) and the 9

Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq.) to 10

encourage— 11

(1) streamlining of program administration, in-12

cluding data collection and reporting requirements, 13

at the State level; 14

(2) communication among State agencies ad-15

ministering the programs; 16

(3) coordination of administration of Federal 17

benefits at the State level to ensure efficiency of pro-18

gram delivery and improved access to participants; 19

and 20

(4) consolidation and elimination of duplicative 21

or unnecessary Federal and State reporting require-22

ments. 23



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SEC. 303. PRODUCT AVAILABILITY. 1

(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, to the extent 2

practicable, make available lactose-free milk with an ex-3

tended shelf life for use in the commodity distribution pro-4

gram authorized under section 14 of the Richard B. Rus-5

sell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1762a). 6

(b) SIZE AND FORM.—The milk described in sub-7

section (a) shall, to the extent practicable, be made avail-8

able in a size and form acceptable for and conducive to 9

consumption by school-aged children. 10

SEC. 304. PROCUREMENT. 11

In administering the summer food service program 12

for children established under section 13 of the Richard 13

B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1761) 14

and the child and adult care food program established 15

under section 17 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1766), the Sec-16

retary shall ensure that— 17

(1) service institutions participating in the pro-18

grams have flexibility in determining the frequency 19

of procurement and food items included in each so-20

licitation; and 21

(2) any procurement procedure implemented by 22

a State agency is cost effective and efficient in meet-23

ing the relevant meal pattern requirements. 24



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SEC. 305. SCHOOL NUTRITION ADVISORY COMMITTEE. 1

(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 120 days after 2

the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall 3

establish a School Nutrition Advisory Committee (referred 4

to in this section as the ‘‘Committee’’) to provide input 5

in the administration of the school lunch program author-6

ized under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch 7

Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) and the school breakfast pro-8

gram established by section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act 9

of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773) (referred to in this section as 10

‘‘child nutrition programs’’). 11

(b) MEMBERSHIP.— 12

(1) COMPOSITION.—Members of the Committee 13

shall be appointed by the Secretary from rec-14

ommendations made by the chair and ranking mem-15

ber of the Committee on Education and the Work-16

force of the House of Representatives and the Com-17

mittee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of 18

the Senate. Membership on the committee shall rep-19

resent the following stakeholders: 20

(A) An organization that conducts research 21

and advocates on issues relating to child nutri-22

tion. 23

(B) An organization that advocates for 24

cardiac health. 25



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(C) A professional organization rep-1

resenting dietitians. 2

(D) A trade association representing fruit 3

and vegetable growers. 4

(E) A coalition of large urban school food 5

authorities. 6

(F) 2 representatives from State agencies 7

that administer the child nutrition programs. 8

(G) A professional organization rep-9

resenting school food employees. 10

(H) A professional organization rep-11

resenting school board members. 12

(I) A council representing large school dis-13

tricts. 14

(J) A professional association representing 15

school administrators. 16

(K) An entity that processes and manufac-17

tures meat products. 18

(L) An entity that processes and manufac-19

tures dairy products. 20

(M) An entity that processes and manufac-21

tures grain products. 22

(N) An entity that assists suppliers and 23

school food authorities in selling and obtaining 24

food products. 25



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(O) A school food authority located in each 1

of the 7 regions established for activities of the 2

Food and Nutrition Service, including— 3

(i) 3 representatives from districts lo-4

cated in rural areas; 5

(ii) 2 representatives from districts lo-6

cated in urban areas; and 7

(iii) 2 representatives from districts 8

located in urban cluster areas as defined 9

by census tract data. 10

(P) A council that represents public offi-11

cials who head departments of elementary and 12

secondary education. 13

(2) TERMS.—The members will serve on the 14

Committee for a 3-year term. The chairmen of each 15

congressional committee, under paragraph (1) shall 16

alternate in appointing a chair and vice chair of the 17

committee. 18

(c) FUNCTION.—The Committee shall— 19

(1) provide a venue for communication between 20

stakeholders and the Department of Agriculture re-21

garding child nutrition programs; 22

(2) give insight into child nutrition program im-23

plementation; 24



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(3) review and make recommendations to the 1

Secretary on policy development involving child nu-2

trition programs; and 3

(4) evaluate methods for programmatic and ad-4

ministrative improvement of child nutrition pro-5

grams. 6

(d) MEETINGS.—The Committee shall meet quar-7

terly. 8

(e) STAFFING.—The Secretary shall provide such 9

staff personnel as may be required to assist the Committee 10

in carrying out the duties of the Committee, but such staff 11

shall not interfere in the discussions or conclusions 12

reached by the Committee. 13

(f) TERMINATION.—The authority of the Committee 14

shall terminate on September 30, 2025. 15

SEC. 306. PAPERWORK REDUCTION. 16

(a) IN GENERAL.—For any program authorized 17

under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act 18

(42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) or the Child Nutrition Act of 19

1966 (42 U.S.C. 1771 et seq.), the Secretary shall— 20

(1) periodically review regulations, guidance, 21

and other requirements to evaluate the volume of in-22

formation required to be reported to the Department 23

of Agriculture by program participants; and 24



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(2) if appropriate, streamline or otherwise re-1

duce any unnecessary or duplicative paperwork, re-2

porting requirements, and other administrative bur-3

dens while maintaining program integrity. 4

(b) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 5

of the enactment of this Act and every 3 years thereafter, 6

and upon any publishing of guidance or updated Federal 7

requirements the Secretary shall submit to the Committee 8

on Education and the Workforce of the House of Rep-9

resentatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, 10

and Forestry of the Senate a report that describes any 11

action the Secretary has taken under subsection (a) dur-12

ing the preceding 3 calendar years, or in the case of a 13

report submitted based on publishing updated guidance or 14

requirements, a report on such action, including a deter-15

mination of appropriateness under subsection (a)(2). 16

SEC. 307. TECHNOLOGY. 17

(a) USE OF TECHNOLOGY.—Not later than 180 days 18

after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 19

shall— 20

(1) review the current use of technology in the 21

school lunch program established under the Richard 22


1751 et seq.) and the school breakfast program es-24



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tablished by section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1

1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773); 2

(2) identify opportunities in which enhanced use 3

of technology would reduce the rate of errors in ad-4

ministration of the programs by State agencies and 5

local educational agencies; and 6

(3) encourage State agencies and local edu-7

cational agencies to use technology in the areas iden-8

tified under paragraph (2). 9

(b) IDENTIFICATION.—Not later than 180 days after 10


shall— 12

(1) review the feasibility and evaluate the bene-13

fits of using a unique student identifier in the school 14

lunch program established under the Richard B. 15

Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 16

et seq.) and the school breakfast program estab-17

lished by section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 18

1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773); 19

(2) submit to the Committee on Education and 20

the Workforce of the House of Representatives and 21

the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and For-22

estry of the Senate a report describing the results of 23

the review under paragraph (1); and 24



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(3) initiate implementation of a system for 1

using a unique student identifier, unless implemen-2

tation is not in the best interest of the programs de-3

scribed in paragraph (1). 4

SEC. 308. TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS. 5

(a) RICHARD B. RUSSELL NATIONAL SCHOOL 6

LUNCH ACT.— 7

(1) The Richard B. Russell National School 8

Lunch Act is amended in each of sections 4, 9, 9A, 9

12, 19, 23, 24, and 25 (42 U.S.C. 1753, 10

1758,1758b, 1760, 1796a, 1769d, 1769e, 1769f) by 11

striking ‘‘Committee on Education and Labor’’ each 12

place it appears and inserting ‘‘Committee on Edu-13

cation and the Workforce’’. 14

(2) Section 9 of the Richard B. Russell Na-15

tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1758) is amend-16

ed— 17

(A) by striking ‘‘foster child’’ each place it 18

appears and inserting ‘‘foster youth’’; and 19

(B) in subsection (b)(5)(B), by striking 20

‘‘(42 U.S.C. 11434a(2))’’ and inserting ‘‘(42 21

U.S.C. 11434a(2)))’’. 22

(3) Section 12 of the Richard B. Russell Na-23

tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1760) is amend-24

ed— 25



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(A) in subsection (d)(3), by striking 1

‘‘U.S.C’’ and inserting ‘‘U.S.C.’’; 2

(B) in subsection (m)(2), in the paragraph 3

heading, by striking ‘‘AMERICAN’’ and inserting 4

‘‘AMERICAN’’; and 5

(C) in subsection (n)— 6

(i) in paragraph (3), in the paragraph 7

heading, by striking ‘‘HAWAII’’ and insert-8

ing ‘‘HAWAII’’; and 9

(ii) in paragraph (4), in the para-10

graph heading, by striking ‘‘PUERTO RICO’’ 11

and inserting ‘‘PUERTO RICO’’. 12

(4) Section 14(c) of the Richard B. Russell Na-13

tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1762a(c)) is 14

amended— 15

(A) by striking ‘‘section 311(a)(4) of the 16

Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 17

3030(a)(4))’’ and inserting ‘‘section 311(c)(4) 18

of the Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 19

3030a(c)(4))’’; and 20

(B) by striking ‘‘(42 U.S.C. 3030(b)(1))’’ 21

and inserting ‘‘(42 U.S.C. 3030a(b)(1))’’. 22

(b) CHILD NUTRITION ACT OF 1966.— 23

(1) The Child Nutrition Act of 1966 is amend-24

ed in each of sections 10 and 17 (42 U.S.C. 1779, 25



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[Discussion Draft]

1786) by striking ‘‘Committee on Education and 1

Labor’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘Com-2

mittee on Education and the Workforce’’. 3

(2) Section 7(a)(2)(B)(i) of the Child Nutrition 4

Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1776(a)(2)(B)(i)) is amend-5

ed by striking ‘‘clause (ii)’’ and inserting ‘‘clause 6

(ii))’’. 7

(3) Section 17 of the Child Nutrition Act of 8

1966 (42 U.S.C. 1786) is amended— 9

(A) in subsection (b)(21), in the paragraph 10

heading, by striking ‘‘INDIAN OR NATIVE’’ and 11

inserting ‘‘INDIAN OR NATIVE’’; 12

(B) in subsection (h)— 13

(i) in paragraph (4)— 14

(I) in subparagraph (A)(vi), by 15

striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; and 16

(II) in subparagraph (C)(iv), by 17

striking ‘‘; and’’ at the end and in-18

serting a period; 19

(ii) in paragraph (5)(D), in the sub-20

paragraph heading, by striking ‘‘INDIAN 21

OR NATIVE’’ and inserting ‘‘INDIAN OR NA-22

TIVE’’; and 23

(iii) in paragraph (8)(A)(iv)— 24



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(I) in the clause heading, by 1

striking ‘‘STATE’’ and inserting 2

‘‘STATE’’; and 3

(II) in subclause (III), in the 4

subclause heading, by striking ‘‘STATE 5

AGENCIES AND INDIAN STATE AGEN-6

CIES’’ and inserting ‘‘STATE AGEN-7

CIES AND INDIAN STATE AGENCIES’’; 8

and 9

(C) in subsection (m)(6)(C)(iv), by striking 10

‘‘(G)(i)’’ each place it appears and inserting 11

‘‘(F)(i)’’. 12

SEC. 309. BUDGETARY EFFECTS. 13

The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 14

complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, 15

shall be determined by reference to the latest statement 16

titled ‘‘Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation’’ for this 17

Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record 18

by the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget, 19

provided that such statement has been submitted prior to 20

the vote on passage. 21

SEC. 310. EFFECTIVE DATE. 22

Except as otherwise specifically provided in this Act 23

or any of the amendments made by this Act, this Act and 24



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the amendments made by this Act take effect on October 1

1, 2016. 2



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Documents

[DISCUSSION DRAFT] TH D CONGRESS SESSION H. …schoolnutrition.org/.../04_April/4.1CNRDiscussionDraft.pdf21 MODITY ASSISTANCE.—Not less than 12 22 percent of the value adjusted in