§5313 Development of Comprehensive Plan for National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Program

Summary

The Secretaries must make and carry out a detailed national plan for nutrition monitoring and related research with help from the Board. The plan must collect and report, on a continuous basis, how Americans eat and their nutrition health, and track trends. It must look separately at groups like preschool and school-age children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, older people, low-income groups, Black and Hispanic populations, and others the Secretaries choose. The plan must sample low-income groups to measure food and household spending, use of food aid, and times when benefits do not give an adequate diet. It must support research to create common methods and tools, keep national diet and nutrient data banks, help State and local agencies build monitoring systems, and guide Federal agency nutrition work. At a minimum, the plan must keep and coordinate NHANES and NFCS. By 1991 it must set up continuous, stratified sampling so reliable estimates can be made for high-risk groups and areas and so data can be analyzed quickly (including yearly when needed). The plan must coordinate other Federal efforts (like CDC and FDA studies), include military and institutional populations when appropriate, finish analysis of surveys collected before 1984 during the plan’s first year, and improve methods, standards, baselines, training, and data sharing. It must assign tasks to each Federal agency and form the basis for ten years of budget requests. Within 12 months after October 22, 1990, a proposed plan must be published for at least 60 days of public comment, and the final plan must be sent to the President and Congress and published within 60 days after that comment period. The plan cannot change laws about which agency gets or must use appropriated funds.