May 10, 2021

PROGRESSIVES PUSH FOR UNIVERSAL SCHOOL MEALS: Even as President Joe Biden is urging Congress to use his latest proposals as an opportunity to expand some food aid and school lunch programs, progressives say it's time to make school meals free for everyone, report Helena Bottemiller Evich and yours truly . 

Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation in their respective chambers on Friday that would make breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks free to all school children without means testing.

Money on the mind: The bills don’t allocate any specific funding and have not received a score from the Congressional Budget Office. School meals cost about $19 billion in 2019, when they were not universally without cost to students. It’s unclear how many of the nation’s 50 million public school children would participate in school breakfast and lunch if they were free.

Republicans, including Senate Agriculture ranking member Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, have criticized the potential costs of such an expansion. 

But Omar told POLITICO the need for providing meals is too great to be concerned about the cost, though she expects it won’t break the bank. “When you make programs universal, you get rid of a lot of administrative costs,” Omar said.

What’s next: Proponents of the bill say the goal is to introduce the measure now to push efforts to go further in the next reconciliation package. But they are not ruling out other options, such with a stand-alone bill or child nutrition reauthorization.