Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2012

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I wish to update my colleagues on an amendment that Senator Udall of Colorado and I, along with several of our colleagues, filed at the end of debate last night. This is the amendment that would prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture from imposing needless costly restrictions on the school lunch and school breakfast programs.

We debated this amendment at length last night, so I will not do so again now. I did wish to report on some progress we are making in achieving a consensus amendment.

First, I thank the chairman of the subcommittee, Senator Kohl, and his staff, who have been very helpful to us. I also thank the ranking member of the subcommittee, Senator Blunt, and his staff, who have also worked with us.

We have worked with the USDA. So this morning I am filing another amendment with Senator Udall of Colorado that makes a few changes in the amendment. It is very consistent with the intent of the amendment that we debated last night, but it does strike the words ``and fruits.'' Since the intent of our amendment was not to change the requirements on fruit servings, I was happy to accept that suggestion from USDA.

So I have filed a new amendment. I understand it is going through the clearance process on our side of the aisle, and I hope this is an amendment we can clear and accept very shortly. But I just wanted to bring my colleagues up to date and to thank the two leaders of the subcommittee and to let my colleagues know we are making great progress.

This amendment is going to make a real difference to school districts across the country without, in any way, impairing the nutritious meals we want all our school children to receive.

I thank the Chair.

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