Sponsors
The bill makes school lunches universally free and protects students from meal denial and stigma while improving funding transparency, but it expands federal/state costs, reduces targeted subsidies for near-poor families, and creates implementation, oversight, and funding-risk trade-offs.
All students in participating schools will receive free lunches every school day, reducing meal-cost barriers for families and ensuring children have daily school meals.
Students in schools with unpaid meal debt will no longer be denied meals or publicly stigmatized because schools are barred from collecting unpaid lunch charges and will be reimbursed for delinquent debt.
Schools will receive a predictable national average payment ($4.86 per free lunch) with CPI-FAFH inflation adjustments, giving meal providers more stable and predictable funding.
Taxpayers and state governments will face substantially higher program costs because universal free lunches expand eligibility, which could require higher taxes or redirect funding from other programs.
Removing reduced-price categories ends targeted subsidized payments for families slightly above poverty thresholds, shifting costs to those families or to schools and reducing targeted assistance for near-poor students.
Tying the payment to CPI-FAFH with a $4.86 base risks undercompensating schools if food and labor costs rise faster than the chosen CPI measure, straining local meal programs.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Makes all students at participating schools eligible for free lunch, sets a $4.86 baseline payment with CPI adjustments, and reimburses schools for delinquent meal debt.
Introduced February 12, 2026 by S. Raja Krishnamoorthi · Last progress February 12, 2026
Makes all children enrolled in a school that participates in the National School Lunch Program automatically eligible for free lunches, eliminates reduced-price and categorical eligibility rules for lunch, sets a statutory national average payment per free lunch at $4.86 with annual inflation adjustments tied to the CPI for food away from home, and requires USDA to reimburse schools for existing delinquent meal debt and bar schools from collecting unpaid lunch charges. It also mandates data collection on delinquent debt, a GAO evaluation, and authorizes appropriations to carry out the debt-reimbursement program. Most provisions take effect one year after enactment, with some debt-collection protections effective immediately and a specified first payment-rounding date of July 1, 2027.