Photo by kimberlyfayeThe D.C. Council will decide tomorrow whether to override Mayor Vince Gray’s veto of a bill that would provide meals to low-income students on winter days when schools are closed.
Introduced by Councilmember Mary Cheh, the Student Nutrition on Winter Weather Days Act of 2014 — passed unanimously on consent — would mandate the Office of the State Superintendent create a plan by October 2015 to provide meals to students who receive free or reduced-price lunch when public schools are closed on inclement weather days. In his veto letter, Gray said the bill would put students and staff at risk by asking them to go out in bad weather and questioned the use of federal funds for the program.
Cheh said she was “baffled” by the veto, saying, “The bottom line about all of this is it just calls for a plan.”
“The parade of horribles identified by the mayor assumes that the bill specifies that certain actions be taken,” Cheh wrote in a notice asking for the override vote to be added to Tuesday’s Council agenda. “It does not.”
While Cheh said she was not aware of any objections from the mayor’s office, a spokesperson for Gray said “OSSE specifically told her staff that they could not support the bill with the implementation clause included. OSSE also specifically noted the challenges that the Mayor cited in his veto letter in regard to the inequity of not including charters as well as the problem with federal funding.”
The bill unanimously passed the Committee on Transportation and the Environment and the Council on both readings. To override a mayoral veto, nine Councilmembers must be in favor.
