HR5655-119

Introduced

To amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to require mandatory certification for certain students and reduce stigma associated with unpaid school meal fees, and for other purposes.

119th Congress Introduced Sep 30, 2025

Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.

Summary

What This Bill Does

The bill amends the National School Lunch Act to make reimbursement of unpaid meal debt mandatory rather than discretionary, requires local agencies to revise meal claims retroactively when children are approved for free/reduced. It relies on compliance mandates and appropriations. The main policy areas are Government, Education, and Agriculture.

Who Benefits and How

Children with meal debt would be affected, Low-income families would be affected, and School food authorities would be affected.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Local educational agencies would be affected.

Key Provisions

  • Amends the National School Lunch Act to make reimbursement of unpaid meal debt mandatory rather than discretionary, requires local agencies to revise meal claims retroactively when children are approved for free/reduced...

Evidence Chain:

This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.

At a Glance

What This Bill Does

The bill amends the National School Lunch Act to make reimbursement of unpaid meal debt mandatory rather than discretionary, requires local agencies to revise meal claims retroactively when children are approved for free/reduced.

Key Policy Areas

Government, Education, Agriculture

Primary Purpose

The bill amends the National School Lunch Act to make reimbursement of unpaid meal debt mandatory rather than discretionary, requires local agencies to revise meal claims retroactively when children are approved for free/reduced.

Policy Domains

Government Education Agriculture

Whole bill

Identified Gains
  • Children with meal debt
  • Low-income families
  • School food authorities
Model: codex-gpt-5:bulk-repair | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: ih
Low-income families:
Children with meal debt:
School food authorities:
Identified Costs
  • Local educational agencies
Model: codex-gpt-5:bulk-repair | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: ih
Local educational agencies:

Legislative Progress

Introduced
Introduced Committee Passed
Sep 30, 2025

Ms. Omar (for herself, Ms. Barragán, Mr. Bishop, Ms. Brownley, …

Stakeholder Effects

cui bono?

How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.

General Public
2 mentions across 1 clause
+2 positive

Children with meal debt, Low-income families

Education
1 mention across 1 clause
-1 negative

Local educational agencies

Food & Beverage
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

School food authorities

1/2
sections analyzed
Full impact breakdown

Bill Structure & Actor Mappings

Who is "The Secretary" in each section?

Domains
Government Education Agriculture

We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.

Learn more about our methodology