Tom Harkin: “The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 includes several provisions intended to improve program…”

“The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 includes several provisions intended to improve program integrity and to provide local educational agencies with new tools with which to improve the administration of the school lunch and school breakfast programs. One of the steps that we have taken in this bill is to allow various Federal programs to share information that they may have about a child's income or participation status with local educational agencies so as to enable the local educational agency, using that information, to verify a child's eligibility status for free or reduced-price school lunches or school breakfasts. In most cases, this bill has not amended any laws outside of the jurisdiction of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry in order to accomplish this goal--with one exception. The bill does amend section 1902(a)(7) of the Social Security Act, a section pertaining to the Medicaid program. This change to Medicaid law allows, at the option of a State, the sharing of Medicaid information with local educational agencies for the purpose of verifying the certification of children for free or reduced price lunches or breakfasts under Federal child nutrition programs.”