By Mary Whitfill
Features Editor

The Congress of the United States is currently pushing a bill that will keep pizza and french fries in school lunch lines and fight the attempts of the Obama administration to take unhealthy foods out of schools.

The final version of a spending bill released Monday would override the school lunch standards proposed by the Agriculture Department (USDA) earlier this year.

The proposed standards would have limited the use of potatoes and called for the use of more whole grains. The standards would have also defined that in order for tomato paste on pizza to be counted as a vegetable, one half of a cup must be used per serving. Currently, one eighth of a cup of tomato paste counts as a vegetable.)

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, frozen pizza companies, the salt industry and potato growers have all lobbied Congress to block of delay the standards.  School meals that are funded by the federal government must include a certain amount of vegetables and USDA’s proposals could have forced pizza-makers and potato growers out of the school lunch business.

Some opponents argue that the federal government shouldn’t be controlling what students eat. Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee have called the propositions “burdensome and costly regulations.”

Both the House and the Senate are expected to vote on the bill this week.