Sponsors (4)
The bill increases federal coordination, definitions, grants, and technical support to reduce food loss and waste and expand donations—helping low‑income households and building local capacity—while increasing taxpayer costs and imposing matching, reporting, and compliance requirements that may limit participation by smaller or resource‑constrained governments, nonprofits, and businesses.
Low-income individuals and households receive more rescued and donated food as the bill expands recovery, donation requirements, and distribution networks.
State, local, and Tribal governments and nonprofits gain grants, technical assistance, and infrastructure funding that build capacity to collect data, store and distribute surplus food, and run pilot projects.
Federal coordination, standardized measurement, and public reporting (including a GHG tracking goal) create transparency, comparability, and a national framework to replicate successful food‑waste reduction approaches.
Federal spending authorizations across multiple provisions increase taxpayer costs (recurring annual authorizations and pilot/grant funding).
Matching and non‑Federal cost‑share requirements (including some high match rates) will strain local budgets and may exclude low‑resource jurisdictions, small nonprofits, and tribal or rural communities from participating.
New reporting, donation, labeling, and compliance requirements could raise costs and administrative burdens for retailers, contractors, manufacturers, and small businesses.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Creates a USDA Office of Food Loss and Waste, funds regional and partnership grants, mandates interagency coordination and contractor reporting, and funds a national education campaign to cut food loss/waste 50% by 2030.
Official title: Authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out activities to reduce food loss and waste, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 9, 2025 by Christopher A. Coons · Last progress April 9, 2025
Creates a new USDA Office of Food Loss and Waste and funds grants, regional coordinators, and public–private partnership programs to research, measure, reduce, and recover food loss and food waste across the supply chain. It requires interagency coordination among USDA, EPA, and FDA, strengthens federal reporting and contractor requirements on food prevention and recovery, and funds a national education campaign and pilot projects to meet a goal of reducing food loss and waste 50% from 2016 levels by 2030. The bill authorizes modest annual funding for FY2026–2030 for the Office, state/tribal block grants, regional coordinators, grant programs for public–private partnerships, and outreach/education activities; it also expands eligible applicants for certain USDA pilot programs, requires data collection and public reporting, and sets matching requirements for grants.