Changes to the $22 billion federal program that distributes free meals at schools won’t be coming any time soon.
A bipartisan U.S. Senate bill would have delayed requirements to reduce sodium in school meals, expanded summer meal programs and grown the Women Infants and Children (WIC) food program.
A House committee passed a sharply different bill and negotiators couldn’t hammer out differences. That leaves the child nutrition programs operating under the policies set in 20-10.
Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, which supported the Senate bill, says it’s now up to the next Congress.
“We don’t know what the president's position is going to be, so I’m not placing any bets one way or the other right now," he says.
Republicans, who will lead both Houses of Congress and the White House, have said they’d like to reign in spending on the programs.
