Lawmakers demand an end to ‘sham’ transaction fees that are adding to the cost of school lunches

A group of senators has demanded that U.S. officials prohibit transaction fees on school meal accounts, arguing that the companies that process students’ lunch payments are unnecessarily raising costs for families.

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack sent Wednesday evening, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and seven other senators urged immediate action from the Agriculture Department, which administers the program that serves billions of meals to students nationally each year.



“These fees represent usurious profiteering by payment processors and must be stopped,” read Wednesday’s letter, which, in addition to Warren, Sanders and Fetterman, was signed by Sens. Bob Casey, of Pennsylvania, Debbie Stabenow, of Michigan, Sherrod Brown, of Ohio, Raphael Warnock of Georgia, and Brian Schatz, of Hawaii. We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly.

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