I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2818
To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to improve
the child and adult care food program, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL10, 2025
Ms. B
ONAMICI(for herself, Mr. MACKENZIE, Mr. LANDSMAN, Mr.
F
ITZPATRICK, Ms. SA´NCHEZ, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CASTROof Texas, Mrs.
W
ATSONCOLEMAN, Ms. SALINAS, Mr. MANNION, Ms. TITUS, and Mr.
M
CGOVERN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Education and Workforce
A BILL
To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch
Act to improve the child and adult care food program,
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. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Early Childhood Nutri-4
tion Improvement Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. ELIGIBILITY CERTIFICATION CRITERIA FOR PRO-1
PRIETARY CHILD CARE CENTERS. 2
Section 17(a)(6) of the Richard B. Russell National 3
School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1766(a)(6)) is amended— 4
(1) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), 5
by striking ‘‘criteria:’’ and inserting ‘‘criteria—’’; 6
(2) in subparagraph (E), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 7
the end; 8
(3) in subparagraph (F), by striking the period 9
at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 10
(4) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(G) in the case of an institution described 12
in paragraph (2)(B), the eligibility of such in-13
stitution shall be determined on an annual basis 14
in accordance with this section.’’. 15
SEC. 3. REVIEW OF SERIOUS DEFICIENCY PROCESS. 16
Section 17(d)(5) of the Richard B. Russell National 17
School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1766(d)(5)) is amended by 18
adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(F) S
ERIOUS DEFICIENCY PROCESS .— 20
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 21
year after the date of the enactment of this 22
subparagraph, the Secretary shall review 23
and issue guidance and, as appropriate, 24
regulations regarding the serious deficiency 25
process for the program under this section. 26
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‘‘(ii) REVIEW.—In carrying out clause 1
(i), the Secretary shall review, at a min-2
imum, the processes for, and those in-3
volved in— 4
‘‘(I) determining when there is a 5
serious deficiency with respect to an 6
institution or a family or group day 7
care home, including— 8
‘‘(aa) what measures auto-9
matically result in a finding of 10
serious deficiency; and 11
‘‘(bb) how to differentiate 12
between— 13
‘‘(AA) a reasonable 14
margin of human error and 15
systematic or intentional 16
noncompliance; and 17
‘‘(BB) State-specific re-18
quirements and Federal reg-19
ulations; 20
‘‘(II) appealing and mediating a 21
finding of serious deficiency with re-22
spect to an institution or a family or 23
group day care home, including— 24
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‘‘(aa) findings related to 1
State-specific requirements; and 2
‘‘(bb) processes for ensuring 3
officials involved in appeals and 4
mediation are fair and impartial; 5
‘‘(III) determining the cir-6
cumstances under which a corrective 7
action plan is acceptable; 8
‘‘(IV) termination and disquali-9
fication of institutions, family or 10
group day care homes, and individuals 11
under this paragraph, including main-12
tenance of the list under subpara-13
graph (E); and 14
‘‘(V) determining opportunities 15
for strengthening the processes in-16
tended to reduce additional State 17
agency requirements on institutions or 18
family or group day care homes that 19
are in addition to those required 20
under Federal law, including— 21
‘‘(aa) State evaluation of 22
practices used at the time of re-23
view; 24
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‘‘(bb) regional approval of 1
such additional State agency re-2
quirements; and 3
‘‘(cc) oversight through the 4
management evaluation process. 5
‘‘(iii) S
TATE-SPECIFIC REQUIRE -6
MENTS.—The Secretary may not consider 7
State-specific requirements in determining 8
non-compliance or serious deficiency. 9
‘‘(iv) G
UIDANCE AND REGULA -10
TIONS.— 11
‘‘(I) I
N GENERAL.—After con-12
ducting the review under clause (ii), 13
the Secretary shall make findings 14
from the information collected and 15
issue guidance and, as appropriate, 16
regulations from such findings that 17
will— 18
‘‘(aa) streamline and mod-19
ernize the program; 20
‘‘(bb) reduce the paperwork 21
burden on parents; and 22
‘‘(cc) assist sponsoring orga-23
nizations, State agencies, and the 24
Food and Nutrition Service in 25
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ensuring a fair, uniform, and ef-1
fective administration of the seri-2
ous deficiency process, while re-3
taining program integrity. 4
‘‘(II) S
COPE.—The guidance or, 5
as appropriate, regulations made or 6
issued under subclause (I) shall in-7
clude— 8
‘‘(aa) clarity on the required 9
measures for noncompliance, in-10
cluding— 11
‘‘(AA) an allowance for 12
a reasonable margin of 13
human error; and 14
‘‘(BB) a distinction be-15
tween a reasonable margin 16
of human error and system-17
atic or intentional non-18
compliance; 19
‘‘(bb) a formal appeals and 20
mediation process that— 21
‘‘(AA) is conducted by 22
a trained official who is 23
independent from and not 24
affiliated with any person or 25
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agency involved in the deter-1
mination being appealed or 2
mediated; 3
‘‘(BB) provides an op-4
portunity for a fair hearing 5
for any institution or family 6
or group day care home de-7
termined to have a serious 8
deficiency finding or inad-9
equate corrective action 10
plan; and 11
‘‘(CC) provides for the 12
evaluation and resolution of 13
disputes over State agency 14
requirements on institutions 15
or family or group day care 16
homes that are in addition 17
to those required under Fed-18
eral law; 19
‘‘(cc) timeframes for accept-20
able corrective action plans for 21
group or family day care homes 22
that are consistent with correc-23
tive action timeframes for child 24
care centers; and 25
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‘‘(dd) a process to dismiss a 1
serious deficiency upon correction 2
of such deficiency.’’. 3
SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF REIMBURSEMENTS FOR ADDI-4
TIONAL MEAL OR SNACK. 5
Section 17(f)(2) of the Richard B. Russell National 6
School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1766(f)(2)) is amended— 7
(1) by striking ‘‘(2)(A) Subject to subparagraph 8
(B) of this paragraph’’ and inserting the following: 9
‘‘(2) D
ISBURSEMENTS.— 10
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to subpara-11
graph (B)’’; and 12
(2) by amending subparagraph (B) to read as 13
follows: 14
‘‘(B) L
IMITATION.—No reimbursement 15
may be made to any institution under this para-16
graph, or to family or group day care home 17
sponsoring organizations under paragraph (3), 18
for more than— 19
‘‘(i) 2 meals and 1 supplement or 1 20
meal and 2 supplements per day per child; 21
or 22
‘‘(ii) 3 meals and 1 supplement or 2 23
meals and 2 supplements per day per 24
child, in the case of child care during 25
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which there are 8 or more hours between 1
the beginning of the first meal service pe-2
riod and the beginning of the fourth meal 3
service period. 4
‘‘(C) S
TUDY ON THIRD MEAL .—The Sec-5
retary shall— 6
‘‘(i) conduct a study, not later than 2 7
years after the date of the enactment of 8
this subparagraph, on— 9
‘‘(I) the prevalence of third meal 10
reimbursement by program operators; 11
‘‘(II) the role of the additional 12
meal in effectively supporting working 13
families; 14
‘‘(III) the contribution of the ad-15
ditional meal to the local economy; 16
and 17
‘‘(IV) the contribution of the ad-18
ditional meal to the economic viability 19
of child care and afterschool pro-20
grams, including in rural areas; 21
‘‘(ii) submit a report to the Com-22
mittee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and For-23
estry of the Senate and the Committee on 24
Education and the Workforce of the House 25
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of Representatives that includes the find-1
ings of the study required under clause (i); 2
and 3
‘‘(iii) based on the findings of such re-4
port, provide guidance to program opera-5
tors to— 6
‘‘(I) improve implementation of 7
the program under this section; 8
‘‘(II) maximize the utility of the 9
additional meal in supporting working 10
families; and 11
‘‘(III) limit unnecessary costs to 12
program operators and parents of 13
participating children.’’. 14
SEC. 5. ADJUSTMENTS. 15
Section 17(f)(3)(A) of the Richard B. Russell Na-16
tional School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1766(f)(3)(A)) is 17
amended by striking ‘‘Consumer Price Index for food at 18
home’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘Consumer 19
Price Index for food away from home’’. 20
SEC. 6. ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON PAPERWORK REDUC-21
TION. 22
Section 17 of the Richard B. Russell National School 23
Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1766) is amended by adding at the 24
end the following: 25
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‘‘(v) ADVISORYCOMMITTEE ONPAPERWORKREDUC-1
TION.— 2
‘‘(1) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 3
days after the date of the enactment of this sub-4
section, the Secretary shall establish an advisory 5
committee (referred to in this subsection as the ‘Ad-6
visory Committee’) to carry out the duties described 7
in paragraph (2). 8
‘‘(2) D
UTIES.—The duties of the Advisory 9
Committee shall be to— 10
‘‘(A) examine the feasibility of reducing 11
unnecessary or duplicative paperwork resulting 12
from regulations and recordkeeping require-13
ments, including paperwork resulting from ad-14
ditional State requirements, for those partici-15
pating or seeking to participate in the program 16
under this section, including State agencies, 17
family child care homes, child care centers, and 18
sponsoring organizations; and 19
‘‘(B) provide recommendations to the Sec-20
retary to reduce such paperwork for partici-21
pants in the program under this section while 22
ensuring that proper accountability and pro-23
gram integrity are maintained. 24
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‘‘(3) MEMBERSHIP.—The Advisory Committee 1
shall be composed of not fewer than 14 members, of 2
whom: 3
‘‘(A) 1 shall be a representative of a public 4
nonprofit center. 5
‘‘(B) 1 shall be a representative of a pri-6
vate nonprofit center. 7
‘‘(C) 1 shall be a representative of a family 8
or group day care home. 9
‘‘(D) 1 shall be a representative of a Head 10
Start center. 11
‘‘(E) 1 shall be a representative of a for- 12
profit center. 13
‘‘(F) 1 shall be a representative of an 14
emergency shelter. 15
‘‘(G) 1 shall be a representative of an 16
adult day care center. 17
‘‘(H) 1 shall be a representative of a State 18
agency. 19
‘‘(I) 1 shall be a representative of a spon-20
soring organization for the entities referred to 21
in subparagraphs (A), (B), (D), (E), (F), and 22
(G). 23
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‘‘(J) 1 shall be a representative of a spon-1
soring organization of family or group day care 2
homes. 3
‘‘(K) 1 shall be a representative of an anti- 4
hunger advocacy organization. 5
‘‘(L) 1 shall be a representative of an at- 6
risk, after school program. 7
‘‘(M) 1 shall be a representative of a child 8
care advocacy organization. 9
‘‘(N) 1 shall be a representative of an ad-10
vocacy organization representing parents with 11
young children. 12
‘‘(4) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In developing the rec-13
ommendations described in paragraph (2)(B), the 14
Advisory Committee shall consider— 15
‘‘(A) information, recommendations, and 16
reports from the Paperwork Reduction Work 17
Group established by the Food and Nutrition 18
Service pursuant to section 119(i) of the Child 19
Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 20
2004 (Public Law 108–265; 118 Stat. 755); 21
‘‘(B) the use of electronic systems and rec-22
ordkeeping technologies to reduce paperwork 23
for program participants and program opera-24
tors; and 25
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‘‘(C) duplicative requirements across mul-1
tiple Federal programs. 2
‘‘(5) G
UIDANCE AND REGULATIONS .—Not later 3
than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this 4
subsection, the Secretary shall issue guidance and, 5
as appropriate, regulations based on the rec-6
ommendations described in paragraph (2)(B) for 7
streamlined and consolidated paperwork and record-8
keeping requirements for the program, including rec-9
ommendations and actions taken to reduce paper-10
work for parents and program operators by— 11
‘‘(A) streamlining and modernizing appli-12
cations; and 13
‘‘(B) streamlining and modernizing the 14
monitoring and auditing of programmatic docu-15
mentation and recordkeeping, including— 16
‘‘(i) eliminating the use of the enroll-17
ment form for the purpose of claiming 18
meals; 19
‘‘(ii) allowing the use of direct certifi-20
cation in all States; 21
‘‘(iii) requiring States to accept as 22
documentation digital forms, digitized and 23
electronic signatures, and electronic 24
records; 25
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‘‘(iv) allowing the use of electronic 1
data collection systems containing all re-2
quired Federal child and adult care food 3
program standards; 4
‘‘(v) addressing non-mandated State- 5
specific requirements; and 6
‘‘(vi) requiring the adoption of gen-7
erally accepted technologies for client-fac-8
ing technology, virtual visits, and tech-9
nology used for administrative functions by 10
the child and adult care food program to 11
reduce the burden on participants and pro-12
gram operators and administrators. 13
‘‘(6) R
EPORT.— 14
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 15
days after issuing the guidance and, as appro-16
priate, regulations described in paragraph (5), 17
the Secretary shall submit a report to the Com-18
mittee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 19
of the Senate and the Committee on Education 20
and the Workforce of the House of Representa-21
tives containing the information described in 22
subparagraph (B). 23
‘‘(B) C
ONTENTS.—The report under sub-24
paragraph (A) shall contain the following: 25
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‘‘(i) With respect to each instance in 1
which the Secretary did not implement a 2
recommendation of the Advisory Com-3
mittee, an explanation with respect to why 4
such recommendation was not imple-5
mented. 6
‘‘(ii) Additional recommendations with 7
respect to legislative action that may fur-8
ther strengthen and streamline the pro-9
gram application and monitoring process 10
and reduce administrative burdens on 11
grantees, program participants, and local, 12
State, and Federal governments.’’. 13
Æ
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