USDA launches food-waste reduction push with grants, research, and contractor reporting.
H.R. 2883 — NO TIME TO Waste Act · Filed by Chellie Pingree (D-ME) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 10, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill establishes a federal Office of Food Loss and Waste within the Department of Agriculture to coordinate research, grants, and public education aimed at reducing food waste by 50% by 2030. It funds regional coordinators, state block grants for food recovery infrastructure, public-private partnerships, and a national consumer awareness campaign about food storage, labeling, and composting. It also requires federal contractors to report on their food waste reduction efforts.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is establishing federal coordination, research, and grant programs to reduce food waste through infrastructure investment and public-private partnerships. It is primarily a public-health and environmental measure, not a regulatory or enforcement action.
What the text implies
- Federal contractor reporting requirement (Section 5(b)) creates new compliance burden on defense, GSA, and other federal contractors; compliance costs may be passed to government agencies or absorbed by contractors.
- Public-private partnership grants (Section 7) require 50% matching funds from non-federal sources, effectively leveraging private capital and potentially creating dependency on corporate participation for local food recovery.
- FACA exemption (Section 5(a)(4)(F)) allows Secretary to convene advisory groups on food waste without Federal Advisory Committee Act transparency requirements, reducing public visibility into stakeholder input.
- Upcycled food product definition (Section 2(10)) creates a new product category with environmental claims but no third-party certification or verification standard specified in the bill; relies on supply-chain self-reporting.
- Education campaign (Section 8) includes messaging on 'best by' date labels, which may reduce consumer confusion but could also reduce food waste by encouraging consumption of products past quality dates—potential food-safety messaging tension.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens gain access to education about food safety and waste reduction, benefit from improved food recovery infrastructure that may increase food availability for food-insecure populations, and see reduced environmental impact from lower waste. The bill imposes no direct costs on consumers and leverages private-sector participation through voluntary partnerships.
Who stands to gain
- food recovery organizations (nonprofits and private)
- food processors and aggregators
- grocery retailers and food service companies
- upcycled food product manufacturers
- composting and waste management service providers
Named in the bill
Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, Office of Food Loss and Waste, Food Loss and Waste Reduction Liaison, Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983, Federal Food Donation Act of 2008, Competitive, Special, and Facilities Research Grant Act, Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 3 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Apr 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Apr 10, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and House Committee on Agriculture · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight and Government…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,020,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 42 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Chellie Pingree, the sponsor, reported $270,550 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Food Marketplace Inc — $800,000 on 1 filing
- World Wildlife Fund, Inc. — $220,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (25,030 characters) on Sep 7, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,398 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-23.
“USDA launches food-waste reduction push with grants, research, and contractor reporting.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr2883 Report an error
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