Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Suspend School Meal Debt Act of 2020”.
Suspend School Meal Debt Act of 2020
A BILL
To prohibit school food authorities and local educational agencies from collecting unpaid school meal fees during the COVID–19 pandemic, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 School meal debt during COVID–19 pandemic
Definition of emergency period— In this section, the term emergency period means the period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act and ending on the date that is 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) on January 31, 2020, with respect to COVID–19 is terminated.
Debt collection prohibition— Notwithstanding any other provision of law, during the emergency period, a school food authority or a 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) may not—
collect unpaid meal fees (including late fees associated with unpaid meals) under those programs; or
use a debt collector (as defined in section 803 of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 1692a)) to collect those unpaid meal fees.
Cancellation of meal debts— The Secretary of Agriculture shall reimburse each school food authority and local educational agency participating in a program described in subsection (b) for unpaid meal fees (including late fees associated with unpaid meals) owed to that authority or agency as of the date of enactment of this Act.