1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Suspend School Meal Debt Act”.
Suspend School Meal Debt Act
A BILL
To require that school food authorities and local educational agencies not collect unpaid meal fees during the COVID–19 pandemic, and for other purposes.
2. School meal debt during COVID–19 pandemic
Cancellation of meal debts owed as of date of enactment— The Secretary shall reimburse each school food authority and local educational agency participating in the school lunch program under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) or the school breakfast program under section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773) for the unpaid meal fees owed to such authority or agency as of the date of the enactment of this Act.
Debt collection prohibition during emergency period— Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary shall require that during the emergency period each school food authority and local educational agency described in subsection (a) may not collect unpaid meal fees or use a debt collector (as such term is defined in section 803 of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 1692a)) to collect such unpaid meal fees.
Definitions— In this section:
Emergency period— The term emergency period means the period—
beginning on the date of the enactment of this section; and
ending 30 days after the date on which the public health emergency declared by the Secretary of Health and Human Services under section 319 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247d) with respect to COVID–19 is terminated under such section.
Secretary— The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of Agriculture.
Unpaid meal fees— The term “unpaid meal fees”—
means outstanding fees owed by a household to a local educational agency or school food authority for lunches under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.) or breakfasts under section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1773); and
includes late fees associated with the outstanding fees described in subparagraph (A).