II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 993
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to cancel existing school meal debt,
to expand the authority of the Commodity Credit Corporation for use
in nutrition assistance programming, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH12, 2025
Mr. F
ETTERMAN(for himself, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, and Mr. WELCH) intro-
duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to cancel existing
school meal debt, to expand the authority of the Com-
modity Credit Corporation for use in nutrition assistance
programming, 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 ‘‘School Lunch Debt 4
Cancellation Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. CANCELLATION OF SCHOOL MEAL DEBT. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 7
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture 8
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•S 993 IS
shall cancel and eliminate all debts owed by households 1
as of the date of enactment of this Act for school meals 2
under— 3
(1) the school lunch program established under 4
the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act 5
(42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.), including through commu-6
nity eligibility under section 11(a)(1)(F) of that Act 7
(42 U.S.C. 1759a(a)(1)(F)); and 8
(2) the school breakfast program under section 9
4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 10
1773). 11
(b) P
AYMENT OFCANCELLEDDEBT.—The Secretary 12
of Agriculture shall— 13
(1) use the funds of the Commodity Credit Cor-14
poration to pay the amount of debt cancelled under 15
subsection (a) to each local educational authority to 16
which the debt is owed by the applicable households; 17
and 18
(2) provide confirmation of the cancelled debt 19
to each applicable household. 20
(c) C
ANCELLATIONAUTHORITY.—Section 7 of the 21
Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 22
1756) is amended by adding at the end the following: 23
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‘‘(e) SCHOOLMEALDEBTCANCELLATIONAUTHOR-1
ITY.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the 2
Secretary— 3
‘‘(1) may cancel and eliminate all debts owed by 4
households for school meals under the school lunch 5
program under this Act and the school breakfast 6
program under section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act 7
of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773); and 8
‘‘(2) shall— 9
‘‘(A) use the funds of the Commodity 10
Credit Corporation to pay the amount of debt 11
cancelled under paragraph (1) to each local 12
educational authority to which the debt is owed 13
by the applicable households; and 14
‘‘(B) provide confirmation of the cancelled 15
debt to each applicable household.’’. 16
SEC. 3. USE OF COMMODITY CREDIT CORPORATION FUNDS 17
FOR OTHER NUTRITION PROGRAMS. 18
(a) C
OMMODITYSUPPLEMENTAL FOODPROGRAM.— 19
Section 4(a) of the Agriculture and Consumer Protection 20
Act of 1973 (7 U.S.C. 612c note; Public Law 93–86) is 21
amended, in the first sentence— 22
(1) by striking ‘‘2023’’ and inserting ‘‘2030’’; 23
and 24
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(2) by inserting ‘‘and funds of the Commodity 1
Credit Corporation’’ after ‘‘Treasury’’. 2
(b) E
MERGENCY FOODASSISTANCEPROGRAM.— 3
Section 204 of the Emergency Food Assistance Act of 4
1983 (7 U.S.C. 7508) is amended— 5
(1) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘the funds’’ 6
and all that follows through ‘‘the States’’ and insert-7
ing ‘‘any funds of the Commodity Credit Corpora-8
tion used to carry out this Act’’; and 9
(2) by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(c) C
OMMODITYCREDITCORPORATIONFUNDS.—In 11
addition to any other funds made available, of the funds 12
of the Commodity Credit Corporation, the Secretary may 13
use such sums as are necessary to carry out this Act.’’. 14
Æ
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