Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Chairman, first, let me thank our chair and our ranking member for working with me on this amendment. I appreciate the bipartisan cooperation. Also, I want to thank our staff for helping us with this.

This amendment would provide a badly needed increase to the school breakfast grant program of approximately $8.1 million. The offset for this amendment is the Secretary's administrative account and the administrative and expenses account.

These competitive grants allow States, schools, and local educational agencies to purchase important equipment for their school breakfast program. The school breakfast program is a critical tool in the fight to keep our students fed with a nutritious meal at the start of the day.

Oftentimes, this is the meal that children rely on to help them get through the day, especially toward the end of the day, when they are about ready to go home and they have not been fully fed at the beginning of the day.

The bottom line is breakfast is very, very important to the growth, health, welfare, and development of our children.

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Ms. LEE of California. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is especially critical for low-income children, many of whom who have not had a nutritious meal since the previous day of school, so I really appreciate your support.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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