Title: APHA Advocacy and Policy News

Author:

Section/SPIG: Food and Nutrition

Issue Date:

APHA appreciates the advocacy efforts of its members and the larger public health community on issues that ultimately affect the health of our entire nation. Members can obtain in-depth information on legislative updates on APHA's Web site. Information on the site is updated weekly.

Advocacy Web Sticker on FN Section web site
"Write Your Member of Congress" icon is now on the FN Section Web site. This allows section members to take action directly from our Web site.

Action Board Report
APHA's Government Relations staff works closely with the Action Board on advocacy efforts within Sections. The Action Board is made up of a representative from each Section, a member at large and three Affiliate members. This year the Action Board created working subgroups to addressed APHA's three priority areas: health disparities, access to health care and infrastructure. The health disparities workgroup contributed a lot of their expertise to staff from Senators Frist and Kennedy's offices. If you are interested in getting more involved in APHA advocacy efforts through Food &
Nutrition Section, please contact Sheryl Lee, Action Board Member.

APHA's E-Advocacy Tool: <www.capwiz.com/apha/home/>
In January, APHA purchased its first e-advocacy tool to help mobilize its members to send letters to their members of Congress electronically. APHA has organized several advocacy efforts through the system over the past six months. In June APHA used its e-advocacy tool to rally more than 1,500 public health professionals to send electronic letters to their members of Congress. APHA anticipates that these numbers will dramatically increase as we become more familiar with the system. APHA's new advocacy tool has many great features that all members and public health professionals can use when advocating on behalf of a public health issue. These resources include:

  • Mega Vote: Sign up to receive a weekly email on how your Senators and Representative voted during the week on important issues.


  • Elected Official Finder: Find biographical information on elected officials including the president, members of congress and agency heads.


  • Issues and Legislation: In this section you will find Capitol Hill Basics, pending public health legislation and key public health votes.


  • Media Guide: Send electronic letters to the editor on issues important to public health directly to your local media outlets with APHA's media advocacy tool.


  • Legislative Action Center: See the latest APHA Action Alerts. Send emails to your members of Congress on legislation important to APHA. This tool also allows members to customize APHA list.


Join APHA's Legislative Network
APHA staff works to ensure that public health is being fairly represented on Capitol Hill. APHA needs your help to ensure that our needs and accomplishments are being recognized on Capitol Hill. The most powerful message a member of Congress receives is from a constituent in his/her home district. That is why it is essential that APHA have a legislative advocacy network. Having a network of public health professionals willing to take action is essential to ensuring that the legislative priorities of APHA are addressed. While APHA will continue to request that its membership as a whole take action on issues effecting public health, the legislative network will serve as the "grass tops" of APHA's entire Advocacy network. Join Now!



Nutrition Policy Update-7/10/03

Child Nutrition:
This year, Congress is reauthorizing the federal Child Nutrition Programs, including the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the Summer Food Service Program, which are reauthorized every four or five years. APHA is working in coalition with the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA) to advocate for improvements to these programs. NANA's recommendations for reauthorization include:

  • Enhance and strengthen the Team Nutrition program by adding a state-level infrastructure and networking component called the "Team Nutrition Network." Fund by increasing the State Administrative Expense formula and dedicating the increase to nutrition education (to provide an additional $40 million annually).


  • Provide $10 million annually for grants to states or school districts for the "Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids Initiative" for creative ways to help schools provide and encourage children to consume more fruits and vegetables.


  • Give schools flexibility to decide what type(s) of milk to offer with school meals (i.e., remove the whole milk requirement).


  • Provide USDA's Food and Nutrition Service with $2 million per year to do field trainings and give grants to states to train localities on the School Meals Initiative to help schools improve the nutritional quality of meals.


  • Expand the pilot program providing free fruits and vegetables to school students as snacks.


  • Give the U.S Department of Agriculture authority to establish and enforce regulations for all foods sales anywhere on school campuses throughout the school day in schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program to ensure that foods sold outside of the school meal programs make a positive contribution to children's diets and do not undermine the national investment in school meals.


  • Require that the WIC food packages, target nutrients and nutrient needs of participants be re-evaluated at least every 10 years and revised as needed to reflect current nutrition science.


The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee was expected to mark up its child nutrition bill in late July, at the earliest. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce was expected to write its version of the Child Nutrition Bill during the August congressional recess, and introduce and mark it up in early fall. After the Senate and House bills are approved, then a conference committee will meet to work out the differences between the two bills.

Restaurant Labeling:
This year several states have taken steps to extend the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) to fast food and other chain restaurants (locally-owned, neighborhood restaurants are exempt). Legislators in Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia have introduced legislation to require labeling of calories on menu boards and of calories, saturated plus trans fat, sodium and, in some cases, carbohydrates on menus. These bills have faced tough opposition from the restaurant industry.

Litigation Against Food Companies:
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Representative Ric Keller,R-Fla., has introduced the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act, which would prohibit lawsuits against restaurants and food manufacturers related to obesity and other diet-related diseases, such as diabetes. Senator Mitch McConnell,R-Ky., is expected to introduce similar legislation in the Senate. While no one is anxious to sue food companies, litigation has proven to be a powerful tool to achieve policy and environmental changes in other areas of public health, especially tobacco. Public interest lawyers, including lawyers that have worked on tobacco, have been discussing lawsuits that could help to provide nutrition information in restaurants, decrease the availability of low-nutrition foods in schools, and reduce the marketing of high-calorie, low-nutrition foods aimed at children.


Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization:
The authorizing legislation for WIC, the National School Lunch Program and other child nutrition programs expired on Sept. 30, 2003. APHA is active in the reauthorization as a steering committee member of the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA).

USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Eric Bost and Surgeon General Richard Carmona were the lead witnesses at the July 16, 2003, hearing on Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on reauthorization was held in April. The following links provide information on the hearing testimony and the policy positions of some major organizations:

Congressional Web Links:
51-page report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) "Child Nutrition and WIC Programs: Background and Funding"
http://agriculture.senate.gov/nutri/nutriwic.pdf

Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
http://agriculture.senate.gov/Hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=709

Senate Testimony from March 4, 2003 and April 3, 2003 Hearings (3/4 = ADA, ASFSA, CBPP and others; 4/3 = USDA, FRAC, AEI)
http://agriculture.senate.gov/nutri/reauth.htm

House Committee on Education & the Workforce:
http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/108th/education/childnutrition/childnutrition.htm

House Issue Summary (about 1 page)
http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/108th/education/childnutrition/summary.htm

Nonprofit/Health Organizations Web Links:
ADA (7 page position paper from July 2003 JADA)
http://www.adajournal.org/scripts/om.dll/serve?action=searchDB&searchDBfor=art&artType=full&id=ajada50188

AEI - American Enterprise Institute (Besharov & Germanis book "Rethinking WIC")
http://www.aei.org/news/newsID.17050,filter./news_detail.asp

America's Second Harvest
http://www.secondharvest.org/policy/policies/child_reauthorization.html

ASFSA - American School Food Service Association (includes links to pending bills)
http://capwiz.com/asfsa/home/

Bread for the World
http://www.bread.org/issues/child_nutrition/recent_developments.html

CBPP - Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (analysis of NSLP overcertification estimates)
http://www.cbpp.org/7-15-03wic.htm
http://www.cbpp.org/3-21-03fa.htm

CFPA - California Food Policy Advocates
http://www.cfpa.net/CNPReauth/CNPReauth.htm

FRAC - Food Research and Action Center
http://www.frac.org/html/federal_food_programs/cnreauthor/cnrc.htm

NANA - National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity
http://cspinet.org/nutritionpolicy/priority_nutritionprogram.html

NWA - National WIC Association
http://www.nwica.org/legislative_agenda.asp

SNE - Society for Nutrition Education
http://www.sne.org/
Scroll down on left and click on "Positions and Resolutions", then click on "Platform/Policy Statement on Federal Child Nutrition Reauthorization of 2003"