I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1538
To amend the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973 to establish
a pilot grant program to award grants to facilitate home delivery of
commodities under the commodity supplemental food program, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY24, 2025
Mr. N
UNNof Iowa (for himself and Ms. CROCKETT) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To amend the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act
of 1973 to establish a pilot grant program to award
grants to facilitate home delivery of commodities under
the commodity supplemental food program, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Delivering for Rural 4
Seniors Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. COMMODITY SUPPLEMENTAL FOOD PROGRAM DE-1
LIVERY PILOT PROGRAM. 2
The Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 3
1973 (7 U.S.C. 612c note) is amended by inserting after 4
section 5 the following: 5
‘‘SEC. 5A. COMMODITY SUPPLEMENTAL FOOD PROGRAM 6
DELIVERY PILOT PROGRAM. 7
‘‘(a) P
URPOSE.—The purposes of this section are— 8
‘‘(1) to award grants for the operation of 9
projects that increase the access of low-income elder-10
ly persons to commodities through home delivery; 11
and 12
‘‘(2) to evaluate such projects. 13
‘‘(b) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall award, on 14
a competitive basis, grants to State agencies to carry out 15
the activities described in subsection (e). 16
‘‘(c) M
AXIMUMGRANTAWARD.—A grant awarded to 17
a State agency under this section may be in an amount 18
not greater than the lesser of— 19
‘‘(1) the State’s commodity supplemental food 20
program caseload at time of application multiplied 21
by 60; or 22
‘‘(2) $4,000,000. 23
‘‘(d) A
PPLICATION.—A State agency seeking a grant 24
under this section shall submit to the Secretary an appli-25
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cation at such time, in such manner, and containing such 1
information as the Secretary may require. 2
‘‘(e) G
RANTUSES.—A State agency awarded a grant 3
under this section shall distribute grant funds to eligible 4
entities to operate projects that facilitate home delivery 5
of commodities to participants in the commodity supple-6
mental food program, including with respect to costs asso-7
ciated with— 8
‘‘(1) transportation and distribution of com-9
modities to participants in the commodity supple-10
mental food program, including transportation and 11
distribution services provided by a third party; 12
‘‘(2) staffing required to operate home delivery 13
services; and 14
‘‘(3) outreach to participants or potential par-15
ticipants in the commodity supplemental food pro-16
gram with respect to home delivery. 17
‘‘(f) P
RIORITY.—A State agency awarded a grant 18
under this section shall prioritize eligible entities that 19
serve participants in the commodity supplemental food 20
program who reside in a rural area. 21
‘‘(g) R
EPORT TO THE SECRETARY.—No later than 22
180 days after the end of the fiscal year in which a State 23
agency is awarded a grant under this section and has dis-24
tributed grant funds to eligible entities, and in each suc-25
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ceeding fiscal year until grant funds are expended, a State 1
agency shall submit a report to the Secretary that in-2
cludes— 3
‘‘(1) a summary of the activities carried out 4
under the project, including the quantity of commod-5
ities delivered, number of participants in the com-6
modity supplemental food program served, and total 7
number of deliveries; 8
‘‘(2) an assessment of the effectiveness of the 9
project, including— 10
‘‘(A) a calculation of the average cost per 11
delivery; and 12
‘‘(B) an evaluation of any services provided 13
by a third party; and 14
‘‘(3) best practices regarding use of home deliv-15
ery to improve the effectiveness of the commodity 16
supplemental food program. 17
‘‘(h) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 18
‘‘(1) C
OMMODITY SUPPLEMENTAL FOOD PRO -19
GRAM.—The term ‘commodity supplemental food 20
program’ means the program established under sec-21
tion 4. 22
‘‘(2) CFR
TERMS.—The terms ‘local agency’, 23
‘State agency’, and ‘subdistributing agency’ have the 24
meanings given such terms in section 247.1 of title 25
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7, Code of Federal Regulations (or successor regula-1
tions). 2
‘‘(3) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligible en-3
tity’ means— 4
‘‘(A) a local agency; or 5
‘‘(B) a subdistributing agency. 6
‘‘(4) R
URAL AREA.—The term ‘rural area’ has 7
the meaning given such term in section 343(a) of 8
the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act 9
(7 U.S.C. 1991(a)). 10
‘‘(i) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.—There is 11
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 12
$10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2028, 13
to remain available until expended.’’. 14
Æ
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