Reps. Omar, Pingree Lead Letter Urging USDA to Reverse Decision to End School Meal Waivers
WASHINGTON— Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) wrote a letter in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue's claim that extending school meal waivers would go beyond the scope of the USDA's authority. The members previously wrote a letter to Secretary Perdue earlier this month to ask for an extension of school meal waivers.
In March, Congress authorized the use of waivers in the MEALS Act and the COVID-19 Child Nutrition Response Act in order to continue to provide school meals for children during the pandemic. Schools and non-profit partners across the country have utilized these waivers to prevent child hunger. Specifically, the members urged the Department to renew waivers for the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and Seamless Summer Option (SSO) and to waive the Area Eligibility Requirement during the entirety of the 2020-2021 school year.
The school meal waivers expire on August 31, 2020 and will make it more difficult for school meal programs to continue to operate this fall. The existing flexibility for simplified pick-up for parents and guardians will also end.
"We are writing to express our disapproval of your decision not to extend all school meal waivers through the 2020-2021 school year," the members wrote. "We urge you to immediately reverse your decision and extend all of the waivers using your authority under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). At a moment when as many as 17 million children did not get enough to eat this summer, this decision is not only based in an incorrect understanding of the law, but it is also irresponsible and cruel.
A PDF of the letter can be found here, and the full text of the letter is below.
The Honorable Sonny Perdue Secretary
U.S. Department of Agriculture 1400 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20250
Dear Secretary Perdue:
August 28, 2020
We are writing to express our disapproval of your decision not to extend all school meal waivers through the 2020-2021 school year. We urge you to immediately reverse your decision and extend all of the waivers using your authority under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). At a moment when as many as 17 million children did not get enough to eat this summer, this decision is not only based in an incorrect understanding of the law, but it is also irresponsible and cruel.
You wrote in your letter to us dated August 21, 2020 that extending these waivers would go beyond the scope of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (Department) authority.3 This is not correct. Congress provided the Department clear authority to issue all of these waivers under FFCRA.4 The Department has already used its authority under FFCRA to extend other school meal waivers for the duration of the 2020-2021 school year, including the non-congregate meal service waiver, the meal pattern waiver, and the parent/guardian pickup waiver.5 These actions indicate that the Department agrees that these authorities under FFCRA can be applied during the 2019-2020 school year as long as the waiver is issued prior to the sunset date of September 30, 2020 prescribed in section 2202(e).6
In your August 21, 2020, letter you also expressed concern about whether the Department has budgetary authority to extend waivers. However, section 2102 of FFCRA, the Maintaining Essential Access to Lunch for Students (MEALS) Act introduced by Rep. Omar, explicitly provides the Department with the authority to issue waivers that increase costs to the federal government, and the authority under this section does not sunset. The Department already cited budgetary authority from this section of FFCRA in its existing area eligibility waiver.
As we discussed in our letter to you on August 7, 2020, your decision not to extend these waivers will make it more difficult, if not impossible, for school meal programs to continue to operate this fall, and for families to access nutritious meals for their children. Further, neglecting to extend these waivers will exacerbate the already perilous financial situation school meal programs are facing.
We therefore urge you to immediately reverse your decision to not extend all school meal waivers.
Please contact Maria Martirosyan at Maria.Martirosyan@mail.house.gov with any questions. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter, and we look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
___________________
Ilhan Omar
Chellie Pingree
Alma S. Adams, Ph.D
Earl Blumenauer
Cheri Bustos
Tony Cárdenas
David N. Cicilline
Yvette D. Clarke
Steve Cohen
Jim Costa
TJ Cox
Cindy Axne
Julia Brownley
Salud Carbajal
Judy Chu
Gilbert R. Cisneros, Jr.
Emanuel Cleaver, II
Jim Cooper
Joe Courtney
Angie Craig
Henry Cuellar
Danny K. Davis
Mark DeSaulnier
Veronica Escobar
Adriano Espaillat
Ruben Gallego
Jesús G. "Chuy" García
Jimmy Gomez
Alcee L. Hastings
Denny Heck
Jared Huffman
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Joseph P. Kennedy, III
Derek Kilmer
Ron Kind
Rick Larsen
Barbara Lee
Susan A. Davis
Peter A. DeFazio
Debbie Dingell
Anna Eshoo
Marcia L. Fudge
John Garamendi
Sylvia R. Garcia
Josh Harder
Jahana Hayes
Steven Horsford
Pramila Jayapal
Marcy Kaptur
William Richard Keating
Ro Khanna
Andy Kim
Ann McLane Kuster
John B. Larson
Susie Lee
Andy Levin
Zoe Lofgren
Stephen F. Lynch
Sean Patrick Maloney
Betty McCollum
Jerry McNerney
Joseph D. Morelle
Jerrold Nadler
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Jimmy Panetta
Mark Pocan
David Price
Harley Rouda
Bobby Rush
Linda T. Sánchez
Jan Schakowsky
Robert C. "Bobby" Scott
Ted Lieu
Alan Lowenthal
Carolyn B. Maloney
Doris Matsui
James P. McGovern
Gwen Moore
Seth Moulton
Grace F. Napolitano
Frank Pallone, Jr.
Ed Perlmutter
Ayanna Pressley
Jamie Raskin
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Tim Ryan
Mary Gay Scanlon
Kim Schrier, M.D.
Donna E. Shalala
Adam Smith
Jackie Speier
Mike Thompson
Dina Titus
Paul Tonko
Lori Trahan
Juan Vargas
Bonnie Watson Coleman
Jennifer Wexton
Frederica Wilson
Darren Soto
Abigail D. Spanberger
Mark Takano
Bennie Thompson
Rashida Tlaib
Norma J. Torres
David Trone
Filemon Vela
Nydia Velázquez
Peter Welch
Susan Wild
John Yarmuth