Commentary

Legislation for Nutrition: It Depends on You

George Miller

Legislators rely strongly on the nutrition "movement" for background information and evidence to back up nutrition-related legislation.

Editor's Note: Representative George Miller presented this keynote address to the Society for Nutrition Education Eighth Annual Meeting in San Diego, August 1975. JNE readers will note that some references are made to the then­pending "School Lunch Bill" (HR 4222), which was passed in October, 1975, by override of the President's veto.

I am a freshman Congressman and have not been in public life prior to January, 1975. .

I appreciate the invitation to speak before your orgamza­tion because it is important that efforts are made between the ~utrition movement and the legislature to keep in con­stant contact. I started my "career" in the nutrition field about five years ago when I was legislative assistant to the majority leader in the California State Senate. After about three weeks of dealing with nutrition, I found that it was over my head and that I needed help. So I went pounding on the door of the Senate Rules Committee and, after about four months, was able to persuade them to create a Select Subcommittee on Nutrition and Human Needs, which hired a nutritionist, Audrey Cross. The awareness of nutritional problems that she and that committee have brought to the California State Legislature has been very helpful.

Nutrition and legislation, I think, can be a very happy marriage.

In the Congress, I sought to serve on the Education and Labor Committee because of the nutrition programs em­bodied in its jurisdiction. I was delighted to find out that the National School Lunch Program was up for renewal as one of the first items of business. I was also delighted to find out the active role that the Chairman of that committee-the person whom many call the "Father of the School Lunch Program" Carl Perkins-plays in fostering the welfare of that program in the Congressional proc.edure: To have Carl Perk­ins watching out for your welfare IS a big plus.

"Freshman" Bill Gets Passed

One of the delights of being associated with the nutrition movement is that I guess I'm still the only freshman Congress­man who has had a bill signed by the President! Earlier this year, Alan Stone~from Senator McGovern's staff called and informed me that California was about to cut off the WIC program, close the clinics and remove the staff. We needed to extend the financing, and he asked me if I would help out. I was delighted but did not know how to go about it.

I went to Chairman Perkins and asked him if he would in­troduce a bill in committee. He said "No, it's too late to go to committee." So I said "We'll amend something on the floor;

THE AUTHOR is a Member of the House of Representatives, representing the 7th Congressional District, California, 1532 Long­worth Bldg., Washington, DC 20515.

8 / Journal of NUTRITION EDUCATION

will you help me with that?" He said "There's nothing you can amend on the floor. What you have to do is introduce a bill and get it considered by unanimous consent." I asked "Does that mean what I think it means-that everybody has to agree?" "Yes," he said. I said "Can we get everybody to agree in the committee?" He said "You don't do it that way­you do it on the floor of the Congress. You just take the bill straight from the Speaker's desk and ask for their unanimous consent. If everybody agrees, you're home free. If one person objects, you're in deep trouble."

I said "I'm going to do this" and scurried around for three days and tried to talk to ail the "right" people. On the floor of the House, I got up and was recognized by the Speaker. (I had asked him "How are you going to recognize me?" be­cause I didn't know the proceedings. He said "Oh, no prob­lem-you're a rather big fellow, and I'll find you.")

Everything went fine. Somebody asked me a question, and I answered. I had all my books and papers laid out like Clar­ence Darrow; I was really going to make a persuasive argu­ment. There were a few more questions, and I got ready to give my speech. The Speaker banged his gavel, and the bilI was over. I turned to Bella Abzug and said "What do I do now?" She said "It's over; you won." I didn't even get to make my case.

I tell this story to make an important point. The case for the WIC program had been made much earlier. The case was made by the alliance of the medical community, the nutrition­ists and the welfare organizations. The case was made very clear in our subcommittee and in our full committee. It was a program where we increased the authorization with unani­mous consent of that committee-because the case had been made clear by this lobby group: this is a vital program, deal­ing with a very vulnerable population. Therefore there was little trouble with the passage of that legislation.

School Lunch Program Challenged

The message that I would like to leave with you now is: I don't see that case being made for the National School Lunch Program. I am very concerned about the attacks I see being made on this program. I have been told by many long-term members of Congress that it is a program nobody votes against because you combine the best of the farm interests, the con­sumer interests, the education lobby and all those involved. However, that is no longer true. I think that, as the program has expanded, the professionals involved in it have failed to keep us legislators up to date on the merits of the program and what is being accomplished. It is coming under challenge.

There was an amendment on the floor where we tried to put a 35-cent cap on the price of the lunch to keep the middle­class student in the program and to expand it. It was a Re­publican amendment, and I was told by two members of the Democratic leadership that there was no way that amendment

Vol. B. No. I. January-March. 1976

INTRODUCTION TO NUTRITION Third Edition Henrietta Fleck, New York University

This widely adopted introductory text dis­cusses nutrition in an integrated treatment of its scientific, psychological, social, cul­tural, environmental, political, and eco­nomic aspects.

In the new Third Edition you will find:

• Incorporation of the 1974 Recommended Dietary Allowances

• Discussion of new theories of obesity and use of behavior modification

• A rewritten chapter on "Planning the Daily Diet According to Lifestyles" that in­cludes information on vegetarianism and a simplified method for evaluating meal ade­quacy

• An enlarged chapter on social feeding programs, public and private

• New coverage of the need for national and international nutrition policies; recent F.D.A. regulations on nutritional labeling; cross-cultural nutrition elements; and infant and child feeding

• Revised and updated references and bib­liography

• 15 illustrations-nearly half of them new to this edition

An INSTRUCTOR'S MANUAL is available. 1976

BASIC NUTRITION AND DIET THERAPY Third Edition

Corinne H. Robinson, M.S., R.D., Formerly, Head, Department of Nutrition and Diet Therapy, Drexel University, Philadelphia

The aim of the Third Edition of Basic Nu­trition and Diet Therapy is to present funda­mental information on nutrition and diet therapy to students of practical and voca­tional nursing, associate-degree nursing, dietetic technology, and other health­related fields. It is intended for use in basic courses that prepare students to apply prin­ciples of nutrition in relatively simple situa­tions. Some of the more complex problems of nutritional care are briefly described so that the bedside nurse and dietetic tech­nician will be able to assist other members of the health team.

An important concept in the· text is that the basis for all nutritional planning de­pends upon a full understanding of the principles of normal nutrition. The study of

nutrition is viewed as applicable to the student's own daily living and to her/his associations within the community. Re­peated emphasis is given to the team ap­proach in providing nutritional care. 1975

NORMAL AND THERAPEUTIC NUTRITION Fourteenth Edition

Corinne H. Robinson, M.S., R.D., Formerly, Head, Department of Nutrition and Food, Drexel University, Philadelphia

Normal and Therapeutic Nutrition is in­tended especially for students of nursing and dietetics. It will also serve as a useful reference for the practicing dietitian, nutri­tionist, nurse, physician, dentist, and home economist. The text helps the student real­ize three broad objectives:

(l) to develop a good background in the science of nutrition that can be used in making decisions in dietary planning for any age group in health and in illness. (2) to gain practical knowledge about the selection of foods according to nu­tritive values and costs, the care and preparation of foods so that nutritive values are retained, and the psycho­logic and cultural factors that govern the acceptance of foods.

(3) to learn to apply techniques of edu­cation and dietary counseling so that principles of normal and therapeutic nutrition can be interpreted to the lay­man in terms that are appropriate for his living environment.

The structure of the two main parts, "Normal Nutrition" and "Therapeutic Nu­trition," remains the same as in the pre­ceding edition; content in both parts has been correlated to maintain unity and per­mit flexibility in course planning. The text has been revised and expanded in two im­portant ways: in discussions of nutrition as a science and in the emphasis placed on nutrition education and dietary counseling. 1972

Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. 100A Brown Street, Riverside, New Jersey 08075 ~

Vol. 8, No.1, January-March, 1976 Journal of NUTRITION EDUCATION / 9

was going to pass because it was a Republican amendment. That amendment carried the day with the overwhelming ma­jority of the 75 new Democratic members because they could not make the case to themselves of how the expenditure of that money for upper middle-class kids could be rationalized. I think that is a failure on my part and a failure on your part to have them fully understand what nutrition is about.

The legislators understand the WIC program because it is aimed at the poorest of the poor, but they don't understand it when it is about their children or the banker's child. Some­body said "You mean to tell me we're going to feed Nelson Rockefeller's children?"

Congress Needs Evidence

Congress is going through a period of reevaluation of many programs-the so-called "poverty programs" of the 1960s­and they want the answers. They want the answers in terms of accountability, and, as you and I know, that is very tough to do in nutritional programs. What worries me with the WIC program is that two or three years down the road, as we look back to see what we have produced, we are going to produce a lot of healthy children, healthy babies and healthy mothers. I don't know how I am going to prove that, and that is where I need you.

The legislation I have introduced! and that Senator Mc­Govern has introduced2-along with a lot of coauthors in both Houses-may mean the survival of the school lunch feeding program. I think that without adequate nutrition edu­cation in the elementary and secondary schools, and without adequate training and ability to get the message across, the attacks on the feeding program itself are going to become more and more severe-because the case is not made. I can make the case in my District, which encompasses some of the wealthiest areas of California. I cannot make the case in Congress with 435 people who are more concerned with what they are doing than what I am doing. That is why I need to plead for your help.

I think we will get the school lunch bill passed with little trouble from here on in. I think the raising of the eligibility limits is going to have a dramatic impact on that program­both in participation and awareness. However the next time it comes before Congress, it is going to come under very severe challenge. My question to you is: will we have the evidence to justify the expansion of that program if that is the desired goal of the Congress or even the maintenance of the greatly expanded program we will produce this year? The answer rests on your shoulders. I cannot do it, and I dare say that most other members of Congress cannot, either. While we are backed with tremendous staff help such as Marian Wy­man and Alan Stone, the work load does not allow them to do the kind of research that you are capable of doing.

No longer can this kind of program be allowed to live on its laurels because the farm community has changed, the food situation is changing, pricing of food commodities for this program is changing, and it is going to come under severe threats. It is going to have to be maintained on evidence. I am a victim of my law school training: I can go as far as the facts and the evidence a)low me to. I need that evidence-just as other people who have been strong proponents of this legisla­tion in the Congress a long time before I was there have got to have that evidence.

When you stand on the floor of the House, somebody who was a former school principal says "Well I don't know what this program does. All's I know is that when I walk by the trash can, 80% of the food is in there. Why are we paying

'HR 8584, the 1975 nutrition education bill introduced in the House ( Miller-Calif.)

'51945, the 1975 nutrition education bill introduced in the Senate (McGovern-S. Dak.)

10 I Journal of NUTRITION EDUCATION

for the food? The kids don't want it, and you can't teach 'em to eat it. Why are we forcing them to eat something they don't want?" On the floor of the Congress, with the Press reporting it, that is a very demagogic yet effective statement, one we have to deal with. The problem of wastage in the program has got to be dealt with by you. Whether it is a change in the approach about the Four Food Groups, an updating of your reliance on food technology or a direct confrontation with the food industry, somehow that wastage has got to be cut down.

I think it is cut down through education. However the edu­cation has got to go home. It may very well mean a direct confrontation by this lobby and those elements of the food industry that still produce foods that have no nutritional merit. Families need to be educated as to the detriments of those foods.

In a time when programs are competing like they have never competed before for Federal dollars, and when the whole country at all levels is going through major reevaluation of the expenditure of thm:e dollars, we have got to work almost overtime in trying to produce the evidence. More than just simply trying to produce it because it is there, we have got to raise the awareness of the legislature as to this question.

Role of Nutrition "Movement"

I dare say that my efforts and the efforts of others who have long tried to work for better nutrition in this country are only as good as you are. I am a firm believer that legisla­tors are on1y as good as their staff. I take some license with that and consider all of you my staff! How do you like it-for a buck a year or whatever it is? I say that because it is your papers, your books, your testimony that we rely on. It is your papers, your books, your testimony that we recite and regurgi­tate on the floor of the Congress for those who don't sit on the Committee.

We need to look at the freshman class in Congress. Many of them were elected from areas that had never elected a liberal in the history of that district. They represent districts in which the registration is of the opposite party. They have got to bring home the evidence if they are going to cast their vote. Otherwise they can only bring home the demagogic statements of those who don't know what they are talking about; some of those statements make great "press."

I hope and believe that the National Nutrition Education Bill will be given a full hearing in this session of Congress. I think that there is certainly-given the chairman of the Edu­cation and Labor Committee on which I reside-sympathy and interest in nutrition. On the Senate side, Senator Mc­Govern is already making efforts. I hope that we can build an effective lobbying interest on behalf of this legislation because this bill is the answer to many of the concerns about the school lunch program. We can make the case that the ex­penditures of monies that are now being made could have a greater efficiency in terms of cost/benefit if we could combine the educational process with the feeding process. That is the case that has got to be made, and that is the case that will be heard. Everybody in Washington is competing for dollars. I think we can show that, by the investment of the $75 million called for in this bill, we can make far more effective the $3 or $4 billion that we are spending in those feeding programs and can have a much more long-lasting effect.

I would hope that, in those endeavors this group and allied groups want to undertake in regard to nutrition, you would look on me as a vehicle for much of that work. I would be delighted to help because I have personally never been let down in terms of the background work by people interested in nutrition or food service. I have always found them to be very effective and hardworking, and I would enjoy very much if we could-continue the relationship I hope we have built up in the rather short time I have been in Congress.

Vol. 8, No. I, January·March, 1976