Historically high food prices and a protracted baby formula food safety crisis, issues that have been easy targets for Republicans before the election, have also dogged the administration in the run-up to the conference.
“The President’s number one economic priority is to address inflation and lower prices for Americans. This month, we saw some welcome moderation in food price increases at the grocery store. But we know prices are still too high,” a Biden administration official said in a briefing with reporters.
Noreen Springstead, executive director of anti-hunger organization WhyHunger, is hopeful that the conference will produce lasting results, but said that unless there is a “massive paradigm shift,” it is hard to see how the United States meets one of the Biden’s long-term goals: End hunger by 2030, especially since food inflation is hitting families so hard right now.
“If you’re a single mom with three kids and you have to put food on the table and pay rent and gas for the car, that’s just not feasible,” Springstead said.
Biden will release a series of executive actions and policies to address hunger, nutrition and health disparities, including directives for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to implement voluntary nutrition guidance and for agencies better coordinate to expand participation in federal nutrition programs.
But several key parts of the president’s plan are based on asking Congress to pass legislation, including efforts to increase access to key nutrition programs and expand the number of children who can get free school meals, the issue of a protracted political fight in Congress. Details about the summit have been scant in recent days, and many key congressional offices have not yet been briefed on specific plans. (A Biden official disputes that, saying they held hundreds of bipartisan listening sessions for the conference with advocates and members of Congress.) Lastly, Biden will encourage private and philanthropic groups to help tackle a list of long-term goals, such as ending hunger in the United States by 2030.
The Biden administration official said the president was committed to “pressing” Congress to promote specific legislation to address food insecurity and health disparities, including extending the expanded child tax credit.
Lawmakers and advocates still have high expectations for the meeting, only the second since 1969. The inaugural conference led to sweeping political changes that have lasted for decades, including a huge expansion of government nutrition programs like food stamps. Matching that up could be a challenge, given the short planning period and organizing process that one person on one of the first White House stakeholder calls described as “a group of shit.” White House officials strongly reject that characterization.
Vulnerable Democrats on Capitol Hill are hoping the president will focus on what the administration is doing to lower food prices, as demand at many food banks across the country is higher than any other. time during the pandemic.
“That’s my hope,” said a House Democratic lawmaker, who asked to speak anonymously to be candid. “But they haven’t told us anything.”
the white house conference agendawhich the administration released last Friday, includes topics on how to ensure affordable food for all children and families.
The conference, which officials in the Obama administration resisted holding, was hardly held during Biden’s tenure. White House officials were interested in the idea amid months of back-and-forth with lawmakers, according to six people familiar with the plans, including three Biden officials.
Ultimately, it was a call from the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who put the event in the books, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said at an event with Pelosi in August. A White House official questions that framework, saying the White House wanted to hold the conference all along. Congress also approved $2.5 million in funding for the meeting and prompted the White House to produce a national strategy to address hunger, nutrition and health disparities in the years to come.
Pelosi, at the event with McGovern in San Francisco, acknowledged some of the private concerns of vulnerable Democrats who are concerned that a conference on food insecurity a few weeks before the midterms is a GOP attack announcement waiting to happen. . And she stood her ground.
“This tells the country, ‘This is our priority,'” Pelosi said. “It’s a big departure from saying, ‘What’s the most politically advantageous conference we can have?'”
A Democrat involved in the planning rejected the notion that it would be politically dangerous to raise food access and affordability issues so close to the midterms amid high food prices.
“The conference is going to talk about families struggling to buy food,” the person said. “And if that’s the concern of what’s going on in the country right now, then this conference is an incredible opportunity to highlight the work that Democrats are doing to address the issue.”
Biden officials have been balancing a wide range of nonprofit and private sector groups vying for influence among thousands of stakeholders trying to help shape the conference. Any new regulation that comes out of it is likely to have a major impact on a range of issues, from food labeling to dietary guidance to federal nutritional benefits. A number of corporations and philanthropic groups are also set to reveal a wide variety of initiatives and financial commitments around the conference, according to several of the groups.
With a power shift in Congress likely to preclude any legislative action, stakeholders have been closely watching the administrative actions Biden is about to reveal.
“This administration has shown that it is willing to take really meaningful administrative action that can promote nutritional security and health in our country,” said Curt Ellis, executive director of FoodCorps, which will feature a panelist speaking during the conference and leaders from high level in the room on Wednesday. “I think the conference is going to catalyze some significant advances in management action, and I think it’s really going to lay the groundwork for what the policy agenda is for our field for the rest of this decade,” Ellis added.
Several key congressional Democrats plan to attend the event, including the Senate Agriculture chairman. Debbie Stabenow. McGovern and Sen. Cory Booker (NJ), two key forces behind the conference, plan to speak, according to people familiar with the plans.
But the White House has surprised some by deciding not to invite more congressional Democrats, including some members of the House and Senate agriculture committees. Those lawmakers will help decide how Congress spends hundreds of billions of dollars on federal hunger and nutrition programs next year during farm bill negotiations. Biden officials cited limited space at the meeting, which will be held at the Ronald Reagan Building and the International Trade Center in Washington.
White House officials and congressional Democrats argue the conference will help propel future legislation, but Democratic lawmakers and advisers admit there are no major bills scheduled to move through Congress before November, including key legislation. of reauthorization of child nutrition that has already been presented in the House.
Despite some internal tensions over the convocation, several vulnerable Democratic congressmen and their staffs say they aren’t paying much attention to the conference ahead of tough races.
“A White House conference on food insecurity just isn’t going to make a lot of headlines, so I don’t think people will really be up in arms about it,” said a Democratic Hill aide.
“Especially when DeSantis sends humans,” the person added, referring to Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Flying Migrants to Democrat-Controlled Communities.
The meager details and questions about the potential scope of Biden’s executive actions have also drawn the ire of congressional Republicans, who already criticize the Biden administration for using pandemic authorities to broadly expand access to the federal nutrition program. .
“To say we’ve been sidelined is an understatement,” said a Republican Hill aide.
A White House official says they held a bipartisan listening session with Congress to help inform the strategy.
Serious flaws in federal food safety oversight amid the lingering baby formula crisis they’re also top of mind for some defenders before the conference. A series of flaws in the federal response leading up to the crisis, especially at the FDA, helped propel two separate reviews by the agency’s problem food division. White House officials have taken a series of actions to address baby formula supplies, arguing that the conference is meant to address long-term goals related to hunger and diet-related disease, not the challenges of the supply chain. The special formula is expected to emerge as part of a broader conversation on Wednesday, according to a White House official.
“They’re compartmentalizing the big conference and the dysfunction that’s going on with the FDA food program,” said Brian Ronholm, a former deputy assistant secretary for food safety at the Department of Agriculture during the Obama administration.
Susan Mayne, a senior FDA official who oversees a major part of the food and participated in the response to infant formula after months of delaysHe is expected to attend and speak during the conference, although he is not among the list of keynote speakers the White House announced last week.
