Farm bill policy priorities

Resource summary

Congress should advance a farm bill that restores food access, improves nutrition security, and builds a stronger, more just food system for all. CSPI vision for a farm bill includes the following:

A strong farm bill begins with a strong Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This means restoring federal funding for the program and ensuring that state agencies are resourced to deliver food assistance.

A just farm bill leaves no one behind. It would restore SNAP access for immigrants and expand SNAP eligibility so that all people in need have access.

A nutrition-forward farm bill promotes affordable, healthy diets. It would fully fund SNAP fruit and vegetable incentives, putting nutritious food more within reach for all SNAP participants. It would also make healthy choices easier when families shop for groceries, and support research needed to define, understand, and promote nutrition security.

A resilient farm bill supports communities during times of need. It would strengthen connections between local farms and public programs so more people can consistently access fruits and vegetables. It would bolster the charitable food system and ease administrative burdens for Disaster SNAP (D-SNAP) so that nutritious foods are readily accessible during emergencies and disasters.

A sustainable farm bill promotes policies and practices that reduce food loss and waste in order to create a more environmentally friendly food system. 

CSPI’s top priorities

* = indicates CSPI-led marker bill 

Urge Congress to restore federal funding for SNAP

• Restore the SNAP administrative cost-share split with the federal government and remove the benefit cost-share with states that were enacted under H.R. 1 (P.L. 119-21).
• Reinstate USDA’s authority to regularly update the Thrifty Food Plan to account for factors beyond inflation that impact affordability of a healthy diet. H.R. 1 froze all future reevaluations of the Thrifty Food Plan thereby reducing SNAP participants’ purchasing power which harms the overall economy and may lead to worse food and nutrition insecurity.  
• Reinstate funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) that was eliminated as part of H.R.1. 

Oppose restrictions on access to SNAP and urge Congress to restore access for all people, regardless of immigration status 

• Reinstate eligibility for people living in the U.S. who’ve been granted refugee, asylum, or certain other immigration statuses that were removed by H.R. 1. Congress should also eliminate the five-year waiting period for lawfully present immigrants to access SNAP.
• Repeal the arbitrary three-month time limit for SNAP participation for abled-bodied adults without dependents. Congress should also reverse the narrower criteria for meeting work requirement exemptions that were enacted through H.R. 1.
• Pass the RESTORE Act to eliminate the ban on SNAP participation for individuals with prior drug felony convictions, both increasing nutrition security and reducing recidivism.  
• Authorize funds to increase state agencies’ capacity to administer Disaster SNAP (D-SNAP) and food distribution and collect data during disasters.
• Amend the Stafford Act to automatically make D-SNAP available upon a Presidential Major Disaster declaration that authorizes Individual Assistance. This would relieve the administrative burden on state agencies for requesting approval in the event of a natural disaster.

Urge Congress to increase purchasing power for nutritious foods 

• Strengthen the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) by:
  • Increasing annual funding from $75 million to $150 million to continue national expansion, both in-store and online, with a strong focus on farmers’ markets and small grocers that connect local producers with SNAP shoppers.
  • Reducing or eliminating the match requirement to allow equitable participation from under resourced organizations and communities.
  • Prioritizing recruitment and support for diverse types of retailers — including farmers’ markets, small grocers, and culturally specific food outlets — to expand access to culturally desirable, nutritious foods.  
  • Establishing a tiered grant program or cooperative agreement between USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), and SNAP State Agencies or nonprofit/local government partners to support the statewide scaling of fruit and vegetable incentives.
• Advance integration for fruit and vegetable incentives onto electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards by:
  • Continuing to fund the Electronic Healthy Incentives Pilot (eHIP) to support existing pilot projects and reinstate evaluation of those projects.
  • Extending pilot funding to at least three more states to test and refine implementation in diverse settings. Pilot projects should require comprehensive process and outcome evaluations with specific attention to identifying and addressing the equity impacts of changes.* 

Increase the availability of nutritious food in retail and school food settings 

• USDA should finalize strong stocking standards for SNAP-authorized retailers that increase the availability of foods in-store and online that align with the FDA definition of healthy. USDA should also offer robust technical assistance and support to small food retailers to help them meet the standards.
• Congress should authorize and reinstate funds for the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS) to support local producers and improve access to nutritious food in schools. 

Invest in research to strengthen food and nutrition security 

• USDA should require standardized, robust evaluations for all SNAP food restriction waivers that include an assessment of impact on outcomes including but not limited to food purchases, food and nutrition security, consumption, diet quality, health markers, program access, and participation.
• USDA should provide publicly available annual reports with monthly data on aggregate-level SNAP purchases to give insight into affordability of foods, the timing of purchases within a monthly benefit issuance cycle, and the types of products typically purchased with SNAP funds. The last time USDA did a study on foods typically purchased by SNAP households was in 2016 using 2011 data from only one leading grocery retailer.
• USDA should reinstate annual data collection and reporting on food security. The Economic Research Reports on Household Food Security in the United States provide a critical foundation for understanding the state of hunger in the U.S. and informing policy and program interventions to address it.  
• Congress should also direct USDA’s Economic Research Service and Food and Nutrition Service, and CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, to establish an interagency working group to develop a standard mechanism, instrument(s), and methods for measuring nutrition security in research. The working group must be a cooperative effort across federal agencies and include academic and private-sector research experts in the field as collaborators and reviewers.* 

Increase healthy food access through the charitable food system 

• Congress should strengthen The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) Farm to Food Bank Projects (FTFB) by increasing funding to $25 million annually and reducing or eliminating the state match requirement. The FTFB supply chain is a key opportunity to increase nutritious donations while cutting food waste. The current funding is not enough to support the full extent of FTFB opportunities in each state and eliminating the match requirement can better support the participation of smaller producers and less-resourced states.
• Congress should authorize and reinstate funds for the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA) to support local producers and improve access to nutritious food in food banks. 

Improve food system sustainability by reducing food loss and waste 

• Standardize and clarify food date labels
  • Congress should establish a mandatory dual date-labeling scheme that limits date labeling language to one label to indicate food quality with either the phrase “BEST If Used By (or Freeze By)” or a label to indicate a discard or safety date using the term “expires on.” The legislation should end consumer-facing use of “sell by” dates.  
  • Congress should require national consumer education and outreach on the meaning of date labels to change population-level perceptions about food waste and raise awareness about how to properly interpret date labels.  

For more than 50 years, CSPI has been an influential force in the fight for a better food system. CSPI leverages our unique expertise to support passing policies that increase access to nutritious food, support healthy food, and beverage choices, and ensure a healthy diet for all consumers. 

For more information, please contact the Center for Science in the Public Interest at policy@cspinet.org.

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