H.R. 5003 would amend and reauthorize child nutrition programs and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Those authorizations would extend through 2021.
CBO estimates that enacting this legislation would decrease direct spending by $128 million over the 2017-2021 period and by $59 million over the 2017-2026 period for the child nutrition programs. Enacting the bill would increase revenues by $8 million over the same period.
Additionally, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 5003 would increase discretionary costs by $29.8 billion over the 2017-2021 period, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts. Most of those costs would be for the reauthorization of WIC.
Pay-as-you-go procedures apply because enacting the legislation would affect direct spending and revenues. CBO estimates that enacting the legislation would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits by more than $5 billion in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.
The bill would impose new requirements on states and on school districts that implement child nutrition programs. Those requirements would be intergovernmental mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). In aggregate, CBO estimates that the costs of intergovernmental mandates in the bill would fall below the threshold established in UMRA ($77 million in 2016, adjusted annually for inflation). The bill contains no private-sector mandates as defined in UMRA.
