Congress funds food-waste reduction and hunger relief through voluntary certification

What it does

This bill creates a voluntary certification program where food businesses, farms, restaurants, schools, and nonprofits can be certified if they donate excess edible food to charities or redirect it to animal feed, composting, or anaerobic digestion instead of throwing it away. The USDA will establish certification criteria, accredit third-party certifiers to verify compliance, and promote certified participants through labeling and marketing, with $3 million annually through 2030 to run the program.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core mechanism is a voluntary certification and promotion program designed to increase food donations to charities and redirect waste to alternative disposal methods. It is a public-health and environmental measure, not a regulatory mandate or industry carve-out.

What the text implies

• The program relies on third-party certifiers accredited by USDA-recognized bodies, creating a new certification market that may favor larger food businesses with resources to document and certify compliance.
• Voluntary labeling may create competitive advantage for certified participants, potentially pressuring non-certified competitors to adopt similar practices or lose market share.
• The bill coordinates with FDA and EPA but does not mandate any changes to food safety or environmental regulations—it is purely promotional, so impact depends on market uptake.

Who it affects

The bill addresses food waste and hunger simultaneously—it incentivizes donation of edible food to food-insecure populations and diverts waste from landfills, reducing environmental harm. The program is voluntary and creates no new mandates or costs on individuals; it funds infrastructure to help businesses and institutions do what many already want to do.

Who stands to gain

• waste management companies (composting, anaerobic digestion services)
• third-party certification firms
• food donation logistics providers
• food businesses with existing donation/waste-reduction infrastructure

Named in the bill

USDA (Secretary of Agriculture), FDA (Commissioner of Food and Drugs), EPA (Administrator), Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, WM (Waste Management Inc.)

Where it stands

1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.

• Mar 4, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Mar 4, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. (text: CR S1498-1499)”

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 4 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $3,004,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 48 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.

Richard Durbin, the sponsor, reported $-29,800 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• National Restaurant Association — $1,620,000 on 2 filings
• Food Marketplace Inc — $1,384,000 on 2 filings

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.