White House expects Congress to consider easing regulations

NEW YORK CITY -- The Obama administration expects Congress to consider pulling back on some of the healthier meals regulations in the school lunch and breakfast programs if it passes an omnibus appropriations bill in the lame duck session, according to Sam Kass, the White House nutrition adviser and executive director of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move program.

Kass told attendees at the James Beard Conference in New York City that the administration's first goal is "just preventing all the success from being rolled back. We will see more efforts in the lame duck session. We need to be very diligent in putting on the pressure."

Kass noted that as a White House official, he cannot tell people to lobby, but he said, "Pressure works. People on the Hill don't like people calling them. Engaged citizens have an impact. People's voices need to be clear. Write op-eds, make sure the school nutrition directors know what you want and need."

Kass did not say what he expects Congress to do, but the House version of the fiscal year 2015 Agriculture Appropriations bill contains a provision that would allow schools whose officials say they have lost money on the school lunch program for six months to go back to rules before the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act was implemented.

The Senate bill contains a softer provision.

Although neither the full House nor the Senate has passed an agriculture appropriations bill, appropriators are expected to work on an omnibus bill that would incorporate provisions from the bills that have been considered by the agriculture appropriations subcommittees.

Advocates for the healthier meals rules hope to keep the Senate version of the school meals section, but one issue of particular interest is whether there is an attempt to roll back the requirement that each student take a half-cup of fruits or vegetables at each meal.

The School Nutrition Association has proposed giving students the option of taking the fruit or vegetable.

Antibiotics

Some food activists have criticized the Obama administration's program urging antibiotics companies to voluntarily stop selling their products for animal growth promotion rather than therapeutic purposes.

But Kass told conference attendees he "would argue that we have taken incredibly aggressive steps" that accomplished what activists wanted in the law.

Once the label on a drug is changed to state it is to be used for therapeutic purposes rather than growth, the sale of that drug for growth promotion will be "a violation of the law," he said, noting that rulemaking on the drugs would have been very time consuming.

Kass said it remains to be seen whether the voluntary program is effective, but said the administration is working hard to develop a process to obtain that data.

He also said activists should urge consumers not to buy and eat meat from animals that have been grown with antibiotics for growth promotion.

But one problem, Kass said, is antibiotic-free meat is more expensive and "people are not buying." Activists, he said, need to find language "that makes this more compelling."

"The world is a messy place," Kass said. "Sometimes you can work with someone and find common ground, other times you have to battle it out. My experience is the reality does not match the level of cynicism we have. We don't give ourselves enough credit for the incredible amount of change we've made in an incredibly short period of time."