Political Quotes

“Yet as this program is being implemented, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez) brought to my attention a serious and unintended consequence of the program, children of junior enlisted personnel living in privatized housing were being denied free or reduced price meals at lunchtime. Due to DOD accounting changes, servicemembers receiving a housing allowance under the privatized housing program were being treated differently from those who were assigned traditional housing and not paid an allowance. This is because the income-based National School Lunch Program considered the housing allowance, but not the actual house income. For this reason, servicemembers living in traditional base housing at no cost were presumed to have less income than servicemembers of the same rank who received a housing allowance, but used those funds to pay a private contractor for rent and utilities.”