Tell Congress to fund critical nutrition initiatives

Congress must support efforts to address the risks from excessive sodium in food and facilitate transparency for consumers, allowing them to make more informed choices for themselves and their families about what they eat. Specifically, we are asking Congress to:

• Provide $1 million for critical technical assistance to aid schools in successful sodium reduction;

• Remove a policy rider blocking the FDA from advancing longer-term voluntary sodium-reduction targets for industry; and

• Provide $6 million for FDA’s consumer-awareness education campaigns for the updated Nutrition Facts panel and menu labeling.

Please act today and tell Congress to fund support these efforts.

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Dear Senator {contact_data~lastName},

As your constituent, I’m requesting that you prioritize the following nutrition issues in the fiscal year (FY) 2020 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies spending bill:
•	$1,000,000 for critical technical assistance to aid schools in successful sodium reduction and asking for a report to Congress by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on sodium-reduction progress in the school food program;
•	Removal of the rider (Sec. 755) blocking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from advancing longer-term voluntary sodium-reduction targets for industry; 
•	$6,000,000 for FDA’s consumer-awareness education campaigns for the updated Nutrition Facts panel ($3,000,000) and menu labeling ($3,000,000).

The House FY 2020 spending bill similarly provided $1,000,000 for technical assistance to schools, removed the Sec. 755 rider, and provided $2,000,000 for FDA’s education campaigns (lower than the ask of $6,000,000). These three important actions would support efforts to address the risks from excessive sodium in food and facilitate transparency for consumers, allowing them to make more informed choices for themselves and their families about what they eat.

First, dedicated funding is needed to help schools meet recommended limits of sodium in school meals. Schools were on track to reduce high amounts of sodium by meeting three targets over ten years. Yet USDA subsequently delayed the second sodium-reduction targets (Target 2) by seven years (originally set for SY2017-2018 to SY2024-2025) and eliminated the third targets entirely (originally set for SY2022-2023). Current levels are still well above the recommended amounts for sodium consumption for children.

Second, I urge you to remove the rider (Sec. 755) that blocks FDA from moving forward with voluntary sodium-reduction targets for the food manufacturing industry and ask that no further efforts be expended on further delaying the process. I fully support efforts to inform consumers on the appropriate amounts of sodium in our diet and believe moving forward with the voluntary targets will help facilitate those efforts.

Finally, I applaud the FDA’s support for consumer-awareness education campaigns for the updated Nutrition Facts panel and menu labeling as part of its Nutrition Innovation Strategy. Dedicated funding is needed to ensure that these changes are effective. These nutrition policies are powerful and will help consumers make better informed choices about what they eat while encouraging companies to provide healthier food options. FDA needs adequate funding to ensure that consumers understand and fully benefit from these policies.

Thank you for your consideration of these requests.

Sincerely,

{user_data~First} {user_data~Last}
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