Democratic lawmakers are upset over the Trump administration's announcement that the healthy school meal standards advocated by former First Lady Michelle Obama are being pulled back.
Newly confirmed Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced his department is moving to "Make School Meals Great Again" by giving schools greater freedom in complying with the former first lady's school lunch rules. The regulation on school lunches caused controversy when students complained about the quality of lunches and often referred to them as "prison food."
Democratic Reps. Jim McGovern (Mass.), Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), and Chellie Pingree (Maine) criticized Perdue's actions in a joint statement.
"Just days into his new job as Secretary of USDA, Secretary Perdue has decided to put special interests ahead of the health of America's children," DeLauro said.
"It is outrageous that President Trump and his administration are now pushing a policy that weakens the essential nutrition standards which have strengthened access to healthy food for so many students," McGovern said.
"It's disappointing that one of Secretary Perdue's first actions as the head of USDA is to rollback school nutrition standards with this rule," Pingree said.
Other Democratic lawmakers took to Twitter to criticize the Trump administration's actions.
Schools need the resources to make good, healthy lunches the norm. Moving backward is not the answer. https://t.co/SJfG5hG3jA
— Rep. Joe Courtney (@RepJoeCourtney) May 1, 2017
First lady vows to fight healthy school-lunch rollback https://t.co/1Dux3KjnpT to #Ivanka talk to your father!Beautiful "babies" nutrition
— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) May 1, 2017
Very concerned about the new @USDA plan to relax nutrition standards in school lunches, announced in Leesburg today: https://t.co/wSDaIiHfX0 https://t.co/pqQt6PyaLA
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) May 1, 2017
Rolling back school meal nutrition standards is bad for kids. Healthy meals & healthy minds go together. https://t.co/Se5EEGQNNj
— Rep. Jamie Raskin (@RepRaskin) May 1, 2017
Former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile called the policy change "petty and vindictive."
Let's say this: How foolish? This move -- coupled with the Ag's Dept hit on school lunch and nutrition programs. Petty and vindictive. https://t.co/ouQb21qepy
— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) May 2, 2017