The US Senate has unanimously passed the FISCAL Act, which makes it easier for students to access plant-based milk in school meals.
In a major step forward for dietary inclusivity, the US Senate has voted in favour of a bipartisan bill that will empower schools to offer non-dairy milk for the first time in the 80-year history of the National School Lunch Program.
The unanimous decision comes days after the federal shutdown ended, and follows a similar decision by the Senate Agriculture Committee in June.
Current federal law only guarantees students a substitute for cow’s milk if a parent submits a physician’s note documenting a disability, and prohibits schools from proactively offering plant-based milk on the lunch line. The National School Lunch Act, meanwhile, requires kids to have cow’s milk on their trays for schools to be reimbursed by the government.
The Freedom in School Cafeterias and Lunches (FISCAL) Act, introduced by Senator John Fetterman (a Democrat from Pennsylvania), enables schools to offer dairy-free milk and requires them to provide the option to kids with a note from parents and legal guardians as well.
“Not only is the FISCAL Act scientifically sound, but it will soon combat an immense amount of food waste and officially end the 80-year-old ‘cow’s milk only’ mandate in our nation’s schools,” Dotsie Bausch, founder and executive director of Switch4Good, which facilitated the legislation with Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy.
FISCAL Act addresses lactose intolerance and food waste
Bausch’s comment on food waste is a nod to the fact that 30% of milk cartons served in schools are thrown in the trash unopened, according to the USDA. Another study found that kids discard 150 million gallons of milk per year, leading to food waste amounting to $400M in tax dollar losses.
Saving that money is partly why the bill has support from across the aisle. Fetterman was joined by Senators Cory Booker (a Democrat from New Jersey) and John Kennedy (a Republican from Louisiana) on the legislation.
The FISCAL Act is a companion measure to the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which seeks to overturn an Obama-era reform that prohibited full-fat and 2% milk from being part of the school lunch programme. That bill has garnered bipartisan support in both chambers of the government, including from Fetterman, who co-sponsored it.
The FISCAL Act ties both dairy and plant-based alternatives together – either both win, or neither. One of its main drivers is lactose intolerance, which affects around half of the nearly 30 million children who benefit from the National School Lunch Program.
Lactose malabsorption rates are especially high among people of colour, with 65% of Hispanic and 75% of Black Americans suffering from the condition. That number rises to 90% for Asian Americans and 95% for Native Americans.
“Passage of S 222 as amended will pull the federal government into the modern era, providing options for lactose-intolerant kids in K-12 public schools and reducing immense milk wastage,” said Wayne Pacelle, the president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy.
Can plant-based milk bill find support in the House?
The USDA already reimburses schools for 1% and non-fat cow’s milk, providing $1B to institutions across the country. Under the FISCAL Act, schools would be reimbursed for non-dairy milk too.
The existing school lunch law states that schools “shall offer students a variety of fluid milk”; Fetterman and co’s proposal would see “fluid milk” be replaced with “milk, including fluid milk and plant-based milk”.
It is the 2025 version of the Addressing Digestive Distress in Stomachs of Our Youth (ADD SOY) Act from two years ago, and its provisions seem to have garnered wide public support too. In a recent survey, two-thirds of American adults agreed that school students should have access to plant-based meals and dairy-free milk.
“Putting parents in charge of their children’s nutrition at school is long overdue, as is removing the unnecessary red tape that prevents students from being served healthy nondairy milks at school,” said Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which conducted that poll.
With the Senate’s passage, the bill will now move to the House of Representatives for a vote, before heading to President Donald Trump’s desk to be signed into law. But it faces opposition from the American Farm Bureau Federation, which has already spent $325,000 on lobbying efforts this year alone, and may well have a say in how the votes in the two chambers turn out.
“All students should be able to access the nutrition they need to thrive and receive beverages they can actually drink,” said Chloë Waterman, senior programme manager at Friends of the Earth. “Removing barriers for students to access non-dairy milk options will help school meals align more with dietary science, expand healthy choices for families, and reduce food waste.”
The FISCAL Act’s progress comes less than a month after Democratic Congresswomen Nydia Velázquez and Alma Adams introduced the Plant Powered School Meals Pilot Act, which seeks to create a $10M grant programme to provide plant-based milk and entrées to school students.
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