States Sue Trump Administration Over Plan to Allow More Salt in School Food

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration was sued by a half-dozen states over its plan to allow more salt and less whole grain in school food programs -- a decision that rolled back rules put in place by former President Barack Obama to improve childhood nutrition.

The suit, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, claims the U.S. Agriculture Department implemented a final version of the national guidelines for breakfasts and lunches in schools in 2018 without giving states a chance to weigh in as required by Congress and without offering scientific evidence that the move would benefit the health of children.

The administration "is trying to gut the critical nutrition standards of the food our children are fed each and every day," James, a Democrat, said at a press conference in front of a public school in Brooklyn. The government is ignoring rules that were “based on medically sound research and analysis.”

The suit was filed Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan. New York is joined by California, Illinois, New Mexico, Minnesota, the District of Columbia and GOP-led Vermont.

The states’ suit is one of many attacks on Trump initiatives that have sought to reverse or undermine Obama-era policies, from environmental rules to the Affordable Care Act. Politicians in mostly Democratic high-tax areas have also assailed a new federal cap on deductions for state and local taxes, known as SALT, which triggered another suit last year.

"Since President Trump has been in office, attorneys general all across this nation have been challenging these federal rollbacks -- from the Muslim ban to the Affordable Care Act repeal to the transgender military ban, to the citizenship question on the census questionnaire," James said. "This time they are attacking the health, the safety, of our children."

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has eliminated the final maximum sodium target that was scheduled to take effect in the school year beginning in fall 2022, and cut in half the amount of whole grains required to be served starting in fall 2019, according to the complaint. Perdue said the change would make meals more palatable and keep kids from turning to less-healthy options.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a parallel suit on Wednesday in federal court in Maryland, saying the new Trump rules deviate from Congress’s "unambiguous" directive that school-meal rules be based on nutritional science. In doing so, the suit says, the U.S. relied on "impermissible and unsound extra-statutory factors such as students’ perceived taste preferences," the group said in the Maryland suit.

Last year, almost 30 million children -- mostly from low-income and minority families -- ate about 5 billion school lunches while more than 14 million children ate school breakfasts, according to the complaint. Three-quarters of the lunches and 85 percent of the breakfasts were provided for free or at reduced prices.

The Obama-era standards included phased-in salt restrictions on a 10-year timeline to reduce the sodium content of school meals and increase the whole grains served in schools.

The USDA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

"A healthy diet is important for all Americans, but it is especially important for the development of our youth," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg, Steve Stroth

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