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119th Congress Agriculture and Food

H.R. 2680: Expanding Access to School Meals Act of 2025

Introduced

  1. Introduced (completed)Apr 7, 2025
  2. Passed House (not reached)
  3. Passed Senate (not reached)
  4. To the President (not reached)
  5. Became law (not reached)

Summary

Introduced in House, Apr 7, 2025

This bill increases student access to free school lunches and breakfasts under the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program of the Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Specifically, the bill expands program eligibility to include students in households with income at or below 224% of the federal poverty level. (Currently, students in households with income at or below 130% are eligible.) The bill also eliminates the reduced price school lunch and breakfast programs and prohibits USDA from providing reimbursements for reduced price programs.

States may use Medicaid participation data to directly certify students for free school meals. (Direct certification allows schools to approve meals without the need for a separate application for children who receive assistance under other programs.) Under current law, states may apply to participate in a USDA demonstration project to directly certify children for free and reduced price meals based on household income data acquired through Medicaid.

Read the full summary

Further, the bill increases the number of free meals a school in a high-poverty area may be reimbursed for at the free-meal rate under the Community Eligibility Provision. (This provision allows eligible schools, groups of schools, and school districts to offer free meals at no cost to all enrolled students without collecting separate applications.) Specifically, the bill increases from 1.6% to 2.5% the reimbursement multiplier, which is used to calculate how many meals USDA will reimburse the school for at the free meal rate.

Written by the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.

Roll calls

0 votes on this bill

No roll call votes have been held on this bill.

Amendments

0 offered

No amendments were offered to this bill.

Cosponsors

48

Who scored on this bill

6 points earned
  1. 1Josh Gottheimer D-NJ SponsorIntroduced, reached a cosponsor milestone2 events+6
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Introductions and cosponsorships count toward weekly caps and show no points.

Other bills by Josh Gottheimer

History

  1. Apr 7, 2025Introduced in the House by Josh Gottheimer.
Show the full action history (2 actions)
  1. Apr 7, 2025Introduced in House
  2. Apr 7, 2025Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.