Speech #1040204916

And. ironically. States with large native American populations who benefit from the food distribution program on Indian reservations would have been forced to verify the citizenship of their native American citizens. The American School Food Service Association. the National Conference of State Legislatures. and others. are very concerned about the additional mandates and administrative duties that would have been imposed upon schools and States by the "deeming" requirements and the immigrant determination process as they affect child nutrition programs. Most soup kitchen and food bank programs are run by volunteers. Requiring volunteers to do alien status checks and income verification with sponsoring families would be nearly impossible. but hiring staff for this purpose would use donated funds in ways not intended by those making the donations. School lunch and breakfast programs are run by local schools who struggle with increasing administrative and overhead costs. Requiring them to closely monitor immigrant status and sponsor incomes would have burdened them greatly according to the American School Food Service Association. Fifty million children attend school each school day in the United States. Similar arguments can be raised for other child nutrition programs such as the WIC Program.