II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1021
To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to establish a dairy nutrition
incentive program, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH13, 2025
Ms. K
LOBUCHAR(for herself, Mr. MARSHALL, Ms. SMITH, Mrs. GILLIBRAND,
and Mr. C
RAPO) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
A BILL
To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to establish
a dairy nutrition incentive 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 ‘‘Dairy Nutrition Incen-4
tive Program Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. DAIRY NUTRITION INCENTIVE PROGRAM. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Food and Nutrition Act of 7
2008 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.) is amended by adding at 8
the end the following: 9
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‘‘SEC. 31. DAIRY NUTRITION INCENTIVE PROGRAM. 1
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 2
‘‘(1) D
AIRY PRODUCT.—The term ‘dairy prod-3
uct’ means a product for which cow’s milk is listed 4
as— 5
‘‘(A) the first ingredient on the labeled in-6
gredients list of the product; or 7
‘‘(B) the second ingredient on the labeled 8
ingredients list of the product, if the first listed 9
ingredient is water. 10
‘‘(2) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligible en-11
tity’ means— 12
‘‘(A) a State or local governmental entity; 13
and 14
‘‘(B) a nonprofit organization. 15
‘‘(3) F
LUID MILK.—The term ‘fluid milk’ 16
means any variety of pasteurized cow’s milk that— 17
‘‘(A) is packaged in liquid form; and 18
‘‘(B) contains vitamins A and D at levels 19
consistent with the Food and Drug Administra-20
tion standards, and applicable State and local 21
standards, for fluid milk. 22
‘‘(4) N
ATURALLY NUTRIENT -RICH DAIRY.—The 23
term ‘naturally nutrient-rich dairy’ means— 24
‘‘(A) fluid milk; 25
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‘‘(B) yogurt and other cultured cow’s milk 1
dairy products; and 2
‘‘(C) cheese (including nonstandardized 3
cheese) made from cow’s milk. 4
‘‘(5) P
ROGRAM.—The term ‘program’ means 5
the dairy nutrition incentive program established 6
under subsection (b). 7
‘‘(b) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 days 8
after the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary 9
shall establish a dairy nutrition incentive program under 10
which the Secretary shall develop and test methods to in-11
crease the purchase and consumption of naturally nutri-12
ent-rich dairy by members of households that receive bene-13
fits under the supplemental nutrition assistance program 14
by providing an incentive for the purchase of naturally nu-15
trient-rich dairy at the point of purchase to members of 16
households purchasing food using those benefits. 17
‘‘(c) G
RANTS ORCOOPERATIVEAGREEMENTS.— 18
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—To carry out the program, 19
the Secretary shall enter into cooperative agreements 20
with, or provide grants to, eligible entities, on a com-21
petitive basis, for projects that meet the purpose of 22
the program described in subsection (b). 23
‘‘(2) A
PPLICATION.—An eligible entity seeking 24
to enter into a cooperative agreement or receive a 25
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grant under the program shall submit to the Sec-1
retary an application at such time, in such manner, 2
and containing such information as the Secretary 3
may require. 4
‘‘(3) S
ELECTION CRITERIA .—The Secretary 5
shall develop and make public criteria for evaluating 6
proposed projects in applications submitted under 7
paragraph (2), which shall incorporate a scientif-8
ically based strategy designed to improve diet quality 9
and nutritional outcomes through the increased pur-10
chase of naturally nutrient-rich dairy. 11
‘‘(4) P
RIORITY.—In entering into cooperative 12
agreements and awarding grants under the program, 13
the Secretary shall give priority to projects that— 14
‘‘(A) maximize the percentage of funds 15
used for direct incentives for participants in the 16
supplemental nutrition assistance program; 17
‘‘(B) include a project design— 18
‘‘(i) that provides incentives when nat-19
urally nutrient-rich dairy is purchased 20
using benefits under the supplemental nu-21
trition assistance program; and 22
‘‘(ii) in which the incentives earned 23
may be used only to purchase naturally nu-24
trient-rich dairy; 25
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‘‘(C) include project sites that serve mem-1
bers of households that participate in the sup-2
plemental nutrition assistance program; and 3
‘‘(D) incorporate the use of point-of-sale 4
systems that can electronically issue incentives 5
earned under the program. 6
‘‘(5) A
DDITIONAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE .—An 7
eligible entity may request funds from the Secretary, 8
pursuant to section 16, to offset initial costs to en-9
able electronic benefits transfer technology for elec-10
tronic point-of-sale systems described in paragraph 11
(4)(D) for project sites selected under the program. 12
‘‘(d) E
VALUATION.— 13
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide 14
for an independent evaluation of each project carried 15
out under the program that measures, to the max-16
imum extent practicable, the effect of incentives on 17
purchases of naturally nutrient-rich dairy by mem-18
bers of households that receive benefits under the 19
supplemental nutrition assistance program. 20
‘‘(2) M
ETHODOLOGY REQUIREMENT .—The 21
independent evaluation under paragraph (1) shall 22
use rigorous methodologies, such as random assign-23
ment or other methods that are capable of producing 24
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scientifically valid information regarding activities 1
that are effective. 2
‘‘(3) D
ISCONTINUANCE.— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 4
subparagraph (B), subject to availability of 5
funds, nothing in this section shall limit the 6
continuation of a project carried out under the 7
program. 8
‘‘(B) N
ONCOMPLIANCE.—The Secretary 9
may discontinue a project or close a project site 10
under the program if the project— 11
‘‘(i) does not comply with the require-12
ments under this section; 13
‘‘(ii) does not comply with the require-14
ments of the grant awarded or cooperative 15
agreement entered into under the program, 16
as applicable; or 17
‘‘(iii) if the Secretary determines that 18
the results of the independent evaluation of 19
the project under paragraph (1) are not 20
satisfactory. 21
‘‘(4) P
UBLIC DISSEMINATION .—The Secretary 22
shall make publicly available the results of each 23
independent evaluation carried out under paragraph 24
(1). 25
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‘‘(e) REPORT.—Not later than December 31 of the 1
first full calendar year following the date of establishment 2
of the program, and biennially thereafter, the Secretary 3
shall submit to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, 4
and Forestry of the Senate and the Committee on Agri-5
culture of the House of Representatives a report that in-6
cludes a description of— 7
‘‘(1) the status of each project carried out 8
under the program; and 9
‘‘(2) the results of each completed evaluation 10
under paragraph (1) during the period covered by 11
the report. 12
‘‘(f) F
UNDING.— 13
‘‘(1) M
ANDATORY FUNDING .—There is appro-14
priated to the Secretary, out of any funds in the 15
Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $10,000,000 16
for each fiscal year to carry out this section. 17
‘‘(2) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 18
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In addition to the 19
funds made available under paragraph (1), 20
there is authorized to be appropriated to the 21
Secretary to carry out this section $10,000,000 22
for fiscal year 2025 and each fiscal year there-23
after. 24
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‘‘(B) APPROPRIATIONS IN ADVANCE .— 1
With respect to any funds made available under 2
subparagraph (A), only funds appropriated in 3
advance specifically to carry out this section 4
shall be available to carry out this section. 5
‘‘(3) E
VALUATION COSTS.—Of the funds made 6
available to carry out this section for a fiscal year, 7
the Secretary shall use not more than 7 percent to 8
carry out subsection (d). 9
‘‘(4) L
IMITATION ON USE.—Funds made avail-10
able to carry out this section shall not be used for 11
any project that limits the use of benefits under the 12
supplemental nutrition assistance program.’’. 13
(b) T
RANSITIONFROMHEALTHYFLUIDMILKIN-14
CENTIVESPROJECTS.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Agriculture 16
(referred to in this subsection as the ‘‘Secretary’’) 17
shall transition projects carried out under section 18
4208 of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 19
(7 U.S.C. 2026a) to be carried out as part of the 20
dairy nutrition incentive program established under 21
section 31 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. 22
(2) N
O INTERRUPTION.—In carrying out para-23
graph (1), the Secretary shall ensure that— 24
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(A) there is no interruption in projects 1
being carried out under section 4208 of the Ag-2
riculture Improvement Act of 2018 (7 U.S.C. 3
2026a) during the transition described in that 4
paragraph; and 5
(B) any additional authorities or flexibili-6
ties under the dairy nutrition incentive program 7
established under section 31 of the Food and 8
Nutrition Act of 2008 shall be applied to the 9
projects described in subparagraph (A). 10
(3) R
EPEAL.—Effective 1 year after the date 11
on which the Secretary certifies that the Secretary 12
has completed carrying out paragraph (1), section 13
4208 of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 14
(7 U.S.C. 2026a) is repealed. 15
Æ
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