As Agriculture Deputy Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Brandon Lipps prepared to testify Oct. 16 before House Appropriations and Labor and Education subcommittees, USDA said it will release a new analysis of the impact of its proposed rule to refine categorical eligibility requirements under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on eligibility for school meals.

Democrats have complained that USDA did not publish its analysis of the impact on school meal eligibility in the rule.

USDA said, “When USDA published the SNAP proposal in July, it provided a regulatory impact analysis that explained the rule’s direct impact on SNAP participation. Subsequently, additional analysis was requested after the proposed rule was published on the indirect impact of the rule’s changes to SNAP on school meals programs. Today, USDA is posting this analysis in the interest of public transparency.”

“Under National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program rules, children may be certified eligible for free or reduced-price school meals through the submission of an application, or may be determined categorically eligible for free meals based on participation in another federal assistance program, such as SNAP,” USDA said.

“The informational analysis indicates that for children in households found to have income and assets above SNAP’s statutory eligibility, an estimated 96% of children will remain eligible for free or reduced-price meals if this proposed rule becomes final in its current form.

“For the remaining estimated 40,000 children — or one-tenth of 1% (0.1%) of all children receiving free or reduced lunch — their family income exceeds the congressionally set, NSLP statutory eligibility of 185% of the federal poverty line.

“The department is making the analysis available to the public on the web at http://www.regulations.gov. In addition, it is preparing to publish a notice in the Federal Register that will re-open the comment period for fourteen days to allow the public to provide input specifically related to the informational analysis.”