Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I have introduced the Encouraging Americans to Save Act (EASA). This legislation makes common sense reforms to the saver's tax credit by making the credit refundable and restructuring it as a government matching contribution that is directly deposited into a worker's retirement savings account. This bill would offer matching contributions for the first time to millions of middle and lower income individuals not covered by an employer-sponsored retirement plan, including those who save through an IRA under a State or local government savings program--such as OregonSaves. The government match is also available to middle and lower income savers who participate in an employer-sponsored plan. The government match provided by the bill would both encourage saving and help middle and low income earners build assets by providing an immediate, meaningful return on their personal contributions. The legislation would also require the Treasury Department to reestablish the Obama administration's MyRA program, as IRAs established under that program would serve as the default account to hold government matching contributions in case a saver's retirement plan or IRA is unable to accept the government matching contribution. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. ______

By Mr. WYDEN:

S. 3637. A bill to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to establish a program for the procurement of domestically grown unprocessed fruits and vegetables to provide healthier school meals, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Local School Foods Expansion Act to establish a permanent program that will provide schools with locally-grown, unprocessed fruits and vegetables.

Hunger is a huge problem in Oregon, and this pain has a huge impact in schools. In Oregon, one in four children experience food insecurity and they face a great challenge keeping up with learning on empty stomachs. I have supported Federal school lunch programs for many years, and I strongly believe that the best programs rely on local producers and make an effort to ensure lunches are healthy and nutritious.

The Local School Foods Expansion Act is a common sense approach to child nutrition that empowers children while strengthening the local economy and contributing to vibrant communities. The bill amends the National School Lunch Program to make permanent a program that increases opportunities for lunch programs to procure locally-grown, unprocessed fruits and vegetables. The bill directs the Secretary of Agriculture to expand the very successful pilot procurement programs to at least 15 States, and contains a mandatory appropriation of nine million dollars in each fiscal year from 2019 to 2023.

No child should be hungry in school, and it's critical that their meals contain nutritious fruits and vegetables. At the same time, we must work to maintain domestic production of fruits and vegetables by ensuring that hardworking farmers have a fair and reliable market for their produce. The Local School Foods Expansion Act tackles both objectives by providing hungry kids with local, unprocessed fruits and vegetables.

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