School Food Modernization Act
Sponsored By: Representative DeSaulnier
Introduced
Summary
Modernizing school food infrastructure by creating federal loan guarantees, equipment grants, and nationwide training to help schools serve healthier, safer meals and upgrade kitchens and dining spaces. The bill would target funds and technical help to districts and tribal schools with the greatest need.
Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
5 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 1 costs, 0 mixed.
Backed loans to upgrade school kitchens
If enacted, USDA would guarantee loans to help schools build or fix kitchens and buy durable equipment. Each guarantee would cover up to 80% of a loan. The bill would reserve $300 million in guarantee authority and allow up to 5% for technical help. Fees would be set to cover guarantee costs, and schools with the greatest need would get preference.
State grants to buy kitchen equipment
Starting in FY2026, and only if Congress funds it, states would get money for competitive subgrants. Schools and tribes could buy kitchen and food service equipment and improve food safety. About $35 million per year would be authorized through FY2031. States would prefer applicants with the greatest need. Up to 5% could fund technical help.
Who can apply and qualifying equipment
The bill would set definitions for the new school food funding programs. Eligible applicants would be school districts or school food authorities, tribal organizations, or consortia. "Durable equipment" would mean items over $500, like cooking, serving, or storage gear. "Infrastructure" would include kitchens, cafeterias, dining rooms, storage, and food prep areas.
Grants to train school food staff
Starting in FY2026, the bill would fund $10 million per year in competitive grants. Nonprofits, colleges, or career schools would train school food staff to meet nutrition standards and improve service. Federal funds could pay up to 80% of costs; grantees must match in cash or in-kind. Up to 5% could support technical help and outreach. The program would run through FY2031.
Cuts $45 million from Education admin
The bill would take $45 million from the Department of Education’s unobligated administrative funds. This would reduce the agency’s available admin budget, not a specific school program.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
DeSaulnier
CA • D
Cosponsors
Thompson (PA)
PA • R
Sponsored 10/10/2025
Harder (CA)
CA • D
Sponsored 10/17/2025
Pocan
WI • D
Sponsored 11/17/2025
Keating
MA • D
Sponsored 11/18/2025
Thompson (CA)
CA • D
Sponsored 11/18/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.govRelated Bills
HR7567 — Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026
Strengthens domestic food production and farm resilience. The bill reauthorizes and reshapes a wide set of farm, conservation, nutrition, broadband, research, and forestry programs through 2031 while adding targeted funding and new tools for disaster relief, supply-chain capacity, and precision agriculture. - Farmers and producers: Raises loan limits and relaxes some ownership tests to help entry and refinancing. Farm ownership caps increase to $850,000 direct and $3.5 million guaranteed, and operating loan caps rise with other updated lending and guaranteed loan rules. - Conservation, forestry, and pests: Expands conservation programs, precision-ag incentives, and emergency watershed/rehabilitation tools. It authorizes State and Tribal soil health grants with $100.0 million per year and a feral swine eradication budget of $150.0 million per year for 2025–2031. - Rural communities, broadband, nutrition, and supply chains: Boosts rural broadband with a redesigned ReConnect program funded at $350.0 million per year, creates food supply chain guaranteed loans up to $40.0 million to expand processing and storage, and makes SNAP online purchasing permanent nationwide.
HR1262 — Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act
Speeds and strengthens pediatric cancer drug development. It expands which cancer products companies must study in children, reshapes organ transplant network governance and fees, and adds new FDA international and transparency steps. - Children with cancer and researchers: Requires pediatric studies that produce clinically meaningful data on dosing, safety, and early effectiveness and widens the kinds of drug combinations studied. It also sets aside $25 million for pediatric drug studies in each of fiscal years 2026, 2027, and 2028. - Transplant patients and transplant network members: Changes Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network governance and financing by allowing quarterly registration fees, requiring those fees fund OPTN operations, improving electronic health record integration, and calling for a GAO review within two years. - FDA partners and drug makers: Creates an Abraham Accords Office to boost regulatory coordination and technical assistance abroad, and forces more transparency during generic (ANDA) reviews about whether generics are qualitatively and quantitatively the same as listed drugs. It also raises the Medicare Improvement Fund amount from $1.4 billion to $2.6 billion. Increases federal outlays by roughly $1.3 billion, driven by a $1.2 billion boost to the Medicare Improvement Fund and $75 million for pediatric studies, adding to federal spending.
HR3069 — Medicare for All Act
This bill would create a national health insurance program called "Medicare for All" to provide universal, comprehensive health coverage for every U.S. resident. It sets the benefit package, bans cost‑sharing for covered care, negotiates drug and device prices, and phases existing federal coverage into the new system during a multi‑year transition. - Families and children: Covers maternity care, pediatric services, mental health, prescription drugs, dental, vision, and more with no out‑of‑pocket costs for covered items. Children under 19 become eligible one year after enactment. - Older adults and people with disabilities: Establishes an entitlement to medically necessary long‑term services and supports in home and community settings, prioritizes independence and supports activities of daily living, and removes the 24‑month Medicare waiting period for people with disabilities. - Providers and the health system: Creates regional offices, pays institutional providers with negotiated quarterly global budgets and individual clinicians via a national fee schedule, restricts private contracting for covered services for two years, and gives the Secretary authority to negotiate prices and, if needed, license manufacture of drugs.
HR842 — Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act
Would expand Medicare to cover multi-cancer early detection screening tests. It defines eligible tests as certain FDA-cleared or approved genomic blood tests or comparable biological-sample tests and directs the Secretary to use the national coverage determinations process to decide when they are covered.
HR1993 — 25th Anniversary of 9/11 Commemorative Coin Act
Would create two commemorative coins marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and raise funds for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. The bill would direct the Secretary of the Treasury to mint up to 50,000 $5 gold coins and up to 400,000 $1 silver coins. Each coin would be at least 90 percent precious metal, meet specific weight and size specs, be legal tender, and be offered in uncirculated and proof qualities. Designs would honor victims, first responders, and survivors and include required inscriptions such as Liberty, In God We Trust, United States of America, E Pluribus Unum, and 25th Anniversary, with at least one coin bearing the inscription “Never Forget.” Sales would include a $35 surcharge on each gold coin and a $10 surcharge on each silver coin to support the museum. Issuance would be limited to the one-year period beginning January 1, 2027, and coins would be struck at the U.S. Mint in West Point to the greatest extent possible, with the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee and the Commission of Fine Arts consulted on designs. It would be structured to result in no net cost to the federal government.
HR3514 — Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act of 2025
Standardize prior authorization in Medicare Advantage plans to make approvals faster and more transparent for beneficiaries and providers. The bill would require plans that use prior authorization to adopt a secure electronic PA program, publish plan-level PA data, and follow federal timeframes and enrollee protections.
Take It Personal
Get Your Personalized Policy View
Create a free account to save research, track policy impacts, and unlock your personalized versions of these pages.
Already have an account? Sign in