EFFECTIVE Food Procurement Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The EFFECTIVE Food Procurement Act defines covered authorities and covered producers, including beginning, veteran, socially disadvantaged, small, and medium-sized farmers, fishers, ranchers, cooperatives, producer associations, food hubs, and other food-sector entities. USDA procurement under covered authorities must make available and purchase enough variety of foods that support equity and inclusion, religious or restricted diets, diversified and resilient supply chains, covered producers, cooperatives, organic farms, animal-welfare certification, worker well-being, collective bargaining, worker justice certification, labor peace agreements, lower greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation limits, soil health, water quality, biodiversity, water conservation, invasive species reduction, and native ecosystems. USDA must report within one year on spending percentages, suppliers, distributors, processors, producers, contract obligations, food descriptions, greenhouse gas estimates, calendar-year targets, and related measures. The bill creates a competitive procurement set-aside of at least 2 million dollars per fiscal year from section 32 funds for covered producers from fiscal years 2026 through 2031. It also creates a five-year best-value procurement pilot covering at least 20 percent of annual USDA food spending under covered authorities, requires public comment and stakeholder engagement, annual reports, technical assistance, and competitive grants of up to 100000 dollars for food safety accreditations, audits, insurance, and food safety plans.
Who Benefits and How
Beginning farmers, veteran producers, socially disadvantaged producers, small and medium-sized producers, agricultural cooperatives, producer associations, food hubs, workers, religious-diet communities, school food authorities, food banks, and climate-oriented suppliers benefit from preferred USDA procurement criteria, set-aside contracts, technical assistance, and grants.
Who Bears the Burden and How
USDA procurement administrators must define criteria, track suppliers and emissions, report to Congress, manage a set-aside, operate a five-year best-value pilot, run public comment, provide technical assistance, and administer grants. Incumbent suppliers that do not satisfy covered-producer, labor, environmental, or resilience criteria may lose contract opportunities. Grant recipients must complete food safety upgrades, audits, insurance, plans, and reports.
Key Provisions
- Requires USDA food procurement to consider equity, restricted diets, resilient supply chains, worker well-being, labor standards, climate mitigation, and environmental co-benefits.
- Requires a one-year congressional report on spending, suppliers, contract obligations, greenhouse gas estimates, and targets.
- Directs USDA to use at least 2 million dollars per year from fiscal years 2026 through 2031 for covered-producer procurement contracts.
- Creates a five-year best-value procurement pilot covering at least 20 percent of annual food spending under covered authorities.
- Provides technical assistance and grants up to 100000 dollars for food safety accreditation, audits, insurance, and food safety plans.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Reorients USDA food procurement toward covered producers, labor protections, resilient supply chains, climate criteria, a 2 million dollar annual set-aside, a best-value pilot, technical assistance, and grants.
Key Policy Areas
Agriculture, Food & Beverage, Labor, Environment, Government
Primary Purpose
Reorients USDA food procurement toward covered producers, labor protections, resilient supply chains, climate criteria, a 2 million dollar annual set-aside, a best-value pilot, technical assistance, and grants.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- beginning farmers
- veteran producers
- socially disadvantaged producers
- small producers
- food banks
- school food authorities
- workers
Identified Costs
- USDA procurement administrators
- incumbent food suppliers
- grant recipients
- federal taxpayers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMs. Adams (for herself, Ms. Lofgren, Ms. Tlaib, Mr. Fields, …
Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
beginning farmers covered by procurement definitions, covered producers competing for USDA contracts, covered producers meeting preferred sourcing criteria
Positive-direction: beginning farmers covered by procurement definitions, covered producers competing for USDA contracts, covered producers meeting preferred sourcing criteria, covered producers seeking USDA vendor status, grant recipients funding food safety upgrades, producer associations receiving procurement assistance, socially disadvantaged producers covered by definitions
Negative-direction: incumbent food suppliers outside criteria, other USDA food contractors outside set-aside
USDA contracting officers managing set-aside, USDA pilot program staff, USDA procurement reporting staff
covered entities competing for USDA contracts, vendors responding to best-value solicitations
Positive-direction: covered entities competing for USDA contracts
Negative-direction: vendors responding to best-value solicitations
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "Secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology