HR2680Referred to Committee

Expanding Access to School Meals Act of 2025

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Introduced
In Committee
3
Passed One Chamber
4
Passed Both
5
Signed into Law
119th
Congress
2025-04-07
Introduced
45
Cosponsors
HR
Type

Sponsor

Josh Gottheimer
Josh Gottheimer
Democrat · NJ · Representative
Votes with party: 90.7% (528 recorded votes)

Full profile: /officials/G000583

Source: Congress.gov · FEC

Cosponsors (45)

Members who have signed on to support this bill since introduction. Source: Congress.gov.

Latest Action

The most recent step in the bill's legislative path. Committee Activity below shows referrals and reports; the full action-by-action history including floor proceedings lives at Congress.gov →

Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.

2025-04-07

Source: Congress.gov

Committee Activity

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Plain-English Summary

Expanding Access to School Meals Act of 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. 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.

Plain-English rewrite of the Congressional Research Service summary published on Congress.gov. Cached and reviewed.

Subjects

Agriculture and Food
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