WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, today delivered the following opening statement at the Agriculture Committee markup of S. 222, Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025. The legislation increases the availability of both whole milk and non-dairy beverages in the National School Lunch Program.
A rough transcript of Klobuchar’s full opening statement is available below and a video can be downloaded here.
Senator Klobuchar: Thank you very much. Thank you, Chairman.
And I wanted to first of all say how important this bill is, and that it's National Dairy Month, so it's very appropriate. I'm pleased that we have agreement to consider the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, but also some accompanying policies to increase non-dairy alternatives.
And I'm grateful for all the committee members that worked on this legislation, especially Senators Marshall, Welch, Fetterman, Booker, Schiff, Slotkin, Moran, Justice, and of course, the Chairman and myself.
When this committee makes a decision to come together and to figure out a way forward, we can be successful. The Ag Committee has a long tradition of doing this, and our work on this bill is consistent with that tradition.
Even as we are positive about this bill and the work that we need to do, we must also
acknowledge that the House just sent us a bill that cuts nearly $300 billion from nutrition programs, which will cut millions from the SNAP program, and actually, in a sleight of hand, put it over to the States. I think I just saw Kansas alone was $50 million. North Carolina, $400 million. And in fact, 41 of these states have balanced budgets, and so they won't even be able to do this without cutting other things.
A lot of the governors are standing up, but this is right in front of us, so we have to remember that even when it comes to dairy, USDA’s own research has found that the number one purchased product by SNAP recipients is milk, and the kind of milk here that we're talking about.
So while I'm glad we're moving forward on this bill that's in front of us, I hope that we're not going to rush headlong into ill conceived and poorly planned policies when it comes to Ag, when we have the ability to work together on a Farm Bill moving forward and that these severe SNAP cuts, which affect kids and affect our farmers and our local grocery stores in a big way, as well as the states we represent who can't take this cost shift, are going to be affected by this, and it will forever change the way if we can ever do a Farm Bill again.
So while I am happy we're moving forward on this, Mr. Chairman, and glad we're able to work out, and I think it shows our ability to do this. I hope we see this, as it shows our ability, that we could actually do a Farm Bill too, but not with these severe SNAP cuts.
Thank you.
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