118th Congress Agriculture and Food
S. 2713: Farmers Feeding America Act of 2023
Introduced
- Introduced (completed)
- Passed Senate (not reached)
- Passed House (not reached)
- To the President (not reached)
- Became law (not reached)
Summary
This bill reauthorizes The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), increases funding for the program, and provides additional delivery options for geographically isolated states (i.e., Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam).
TEFAP is a federal program that helps supplement the diets of people with low income by providing them with emergency food assistance at no cost. Through TEFAP, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) purchases a variety of commodities and makes those food products (e.g., canned, frozen, dried, and fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, meat, dairy, and whole-grain and enriched grain products) available to state distributing agencies.
The bill increases funding for purchasing commodities under the program.
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Further, the bill directs USDA to coordinate with geographically isolated states to (1) establish alternative delivery options for allocated commodities, and (2) allow for the states to order commodities through the USDA Department of Defense Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.
USDA may also provide geographically isolated states the ability to directly purchase domestically grown food in lieu of receiving a portion of the commodities. Under this option, USDA may distribute as cash to the state up to 20% of the cash value of the commodities that are allocated to the state under TEFAP.
Further, USDA may consider additional factors beyond lowest price in determining winning bids for contracts for fresh produce packages (including product variety and transportation distance).
Written by the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.
Roll calls
No roll call votes have been held on this bill.
Amendments
No amendments were offered to this bill.
Cosponsors
- John Fetterman D-PA
- Tina Smith D-MN
- Peter Welch D-VT
- Martin Heinrich D-NM
- Sheldon Whitehouse D-RI
- Richard Blumenthal D-CT
- Timothy Kaine D-VA
- Alejandro Padilla D-CA
- Amy Klobuchar D-MN
- Raphael Warnock D-GA
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Other bills by Robert Casey
History
- Introduced in the Senate by Robert Casey.
Show the full action history (2 actions)
- Introduced in Senate
- Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.