Earlier this week we wrote about two important pieces of legislation that we encouraged Congress to pass during its lame duck session:  The Food Safety Modernization Act and reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act.

On Tuesday, the Senate passed the Food Safety Bill.  We commend the Senate for its hard work and commitment to passing this bill, and we urge the House of Representatives to finish work on this bill before the end of this session.  After all, our industry is committed to our consumers and our top priority is to ensure the safety and quality of our products.

Today, members of the House voted to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act, which will provide necessary funding to federal child nutrition programs.  We applaud Congress for passing it and support the positive impact this piece of legislation will have on our nation’s children.  The beverage industry has a longstanding commitment to the health and wellness of our nation’s children.  America’s leading beverage companies have already delivered on our commitment to change the beverage landscape in schools with our national School Beverage Guidelines, which removed full-calorie soft drinks and replaced them with more lower-calorie, nutritious, smaller-portion beverage options.   In fact, the guidelines provide a solid foundation for developing a new federal nutrition standard for all foods and beverages sold in schools.

Check out our news release on today’s legislative action, and be sure to let us know your thoughts on these Congressional happenings on Facebook and Twitter.