II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1176
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to establish a new tax credit
and grant program to stimulate investment and healthy nutrition options
in food deserts, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH27, 2025
Mr. W
ARNER(for himself, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. VANHOLLEN, and Mr. MORAN)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Finance
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to establish
a new tax credit and grant program to stimulate invest-
ment and healthy nutrition options in food deserts, 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 ‘‘Healthy Food Access 4
for All Americans Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. TAX CREDIT AND GRANT PROGRAM FOR SPECIAL 6
ACCESS FOOD PROVIDERS. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.— 8
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(1) ALLOWANCE OF CREDIT .—Subpart D of 1
part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal 2
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the 3
end the following new section: 4
‘‘SEC. 45BB. SPECIAL ACCESS FOOD PROVIDER CREDIT AND 5
GRANT PROGRAM. 6
‘‘(a) E
STABLISHMENT OF CREDIT FORGROCERY 7
S
TORES.— 8
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes of section 38, 9
the special access food provider credit determined 10
under this section for any taxable year is an amount 11
equal to the lesser of— 12
‘‘(A) the amount of the allocation received 13
by the taxpayer under subsection (d)(1)(A), or 14
‘‘(B) the amount equal to— 15
‘‘(i) in the case of a qualified grocery 16
store which is placed in service during such 17
taxable year by a taxpayer which has been 18
certified as a special access food provider, 19
15 percent of the basis of such grocery 20
store, including any property used in the 21
operation of such grocery store— 22
‘‘(I) which is acquired by the tax-23
payer if the original use of such prop-24
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erty commences with the taxpayer, 1
and 2
‘‘(II) with respect to which de-3
preciation (or amortization in lieu of 4
depreciation) is allowable, or 5
‘‘(ii) in the case of a qualified renova-6
tion area which is placed in service during 7
such taxable year, 10 percent of the ren-8
ovation expenditures incurred by a tax-9
payer which has been certified as a special 10
access food provider. 11
‘‘(2) R
ENOVATION EXPENDITURES .—For pur-12
poses of paragraph (1)(B)(ii), the term ‘renovation 13
expenditures’ means amounts chargeable to capital 14
account and incurred for property (or additions or 15
improvements to property) of a character subject to 16
the allowance for depreciation in connection with the 17
renovation or rehabilitation of a grocery store. 18
‘‘(b) G
RANTPROGRAM FORFOODBANKS ANDTEM-19
PORARYACCESSMERCHANTS.— 20
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary, in coordina-21
tion with the Secretary of Agriculture, shall, subject 22
to the requirements of this section, provide a grant 23
to any entity which has been certified as a special 24
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access food provider in an amount equal to the less-1
er of— 2
‘‘(A) the amount of the allocation received 3
by the entity under subsection (d)(1)(B), or 4
‘‘(B) the amount equal to— 5
‘‘(i) in the case of a permanent food 6
bank which has been placed in service dur-7
ing the taxable year by such provider, 15 8
percent of any qualified construction ex-9
penses incurred by such provider; and 10
‘‘(ii) in the case of any provider which 11
qualifies as a temporary access merchant, 12
10 percent of any annual operational costs 13
incurred by such provider. 14
‘‘(2) T
IME FOR PAYMENT OF GRANT .—The Sec-15
retary shall make payment of any grant under para-16
graph (1) during the 60-day period beginning on the 17
later of— 18
‘‘(A) the date of the application for certifi-19
cation as a special access food provider, or 20
‘‘(B) the date— 21
‘‘(i) in the case of a permanent food 22
bank, on which the food bank for which 23
the grant is being made is placed in serv-24
ice, or 25
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‘‘(ii) in the case of a temporary access 1
merchant, the end of the taxable year in 2
which the operational costs were incurred. 3
‘‘(3) G
RANT NOT CONSIDERED INCOME FOR 4
PURPOSES OF TAXATION .—A grant under this sub-5
section shall not be considered as gross income for 6
purposes of this chapter. 7
‘‘(c) C
ERTIFICATION AS A SPECIALACCESSFOOD 8
P
ROVIDER.— 9
‘‘(1) A
PPLICATION.—Each applicant for certifi-10
cation as a special access food provider shall submit, 11
for each grocery store, food bank, mobile market, or 12
farmers market, an application with the Secretary, 13
at such time, in such manner, and containing such 14
information as the Secretary may reasonably re-15
quire. 16
‘‘(2) C
ERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS .—For 17
purposes of certification as a special access food pro-18
vider, the Secretary, in consultation with the Sec-19
retary of Agriculture and the applicable regional 20
community development entity, shall determine 21
whether— 22
‘‘(A) in the case of an applicant seeking to 23
construct, renovate, or rehabilitate a grocery 24
store, whether such store— 25
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‘‘(i) following completion of such con-1
struction, renovation, or rehabilitation, will 2
qualify as a grocery store (as defined in 3
subsection (h)(3)), 4
‘‘(ii) is located in a food desert on the 5
date on which construction, renovation, or 6
rehabilitation begins, 7
‘‘(iii) satisfies the eligibility criteria 8
established for projects under the Healthy 9
Food Financing Initiative established 10
under section 243 of the Department of 11
Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 (7 12
U.S.C. 6953), and 13
‘‘(iv) satisfies such other criteria as is 14
determined appropriate by the Secretary, 15
in consultation with the Secretary of Agri-16
culture, or 17
‘‘(B) in the case of an applicant seeking to 18
operate a permanent food bank or as a tem-19
porary access merchant, whether such appli-20
cant— 21
‘‘(i) is an entity for which no part of 22
the net earnings of such entity inures to 23
the benefit of any private shareholder or 24
individual, 25
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‘‘(ii)(I) in the case of a permanent 1
food bank, is located in a food desert on 2
the date on which construction of such 3
food bank begins, or 4
‘‘(II) in the case of a temporary ac-5
cess merchant— 6
‘‘(aa) sells or provides food in 7
any food desert for an average of— 8
‘‘(AA) in the case of a farm-9
ers market, not less than 10 10
hours (during daylight hours) 11
each week during the calendar 12
year, or 13
‘‘(BB) in the case of a tem-14
porary access merchant which is 15
not a farmers market, not less 16
than 5 days and 50 hours each 17
week during the calendar year, or 18
‘‘(bb) satisfies such requirements 19
as are established by the Secretary of 20
Agriculture to ensure an adequate 21
level of food distribution within food 22
deserts, 23
‘‘(iii) satisfies the eligibility criteria 24
described in subparagraph (A)(iii), and 25
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‘‘(iv) satisfies such other criteria as is 1
determined appropriate by the Secretary. 2
‘‘(3) N
O ADDITIONAL USDA GRANTS FOR FARM -3
ERS MARKETS.—A farmers market shall not be eligi-4
ble for certification as a special access food provider 5
during any period in which such farmers market re-6
ceives funding pursuant to any other grant program 7
administered by the Department of Agriculture 8
(with the exception of food insecurity nutrition in-9
centive grants provided under section 4405(b) of the 10
Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (7 11
U.S.C. 7517(b))). 12
‘‘(d) A
LLOCATION OFSPECIALACCESSFOODPRO-13
VIDERCREDITS ANDGRANTS.— 14
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In each calendar year, the 15
Secretary, in coordination with the Secretary of Ag-16
riculture, shall provide allocations to entities which 17
have been certified as special access food providers 18
under subsection (c) to receive— 19
‘‘(A) in the case of an entity certified pur-20
suant to subparagraph (A) of subsection (c)(2), 21
a special access food provider credit for expend-22
itures related to a qualified grocery store or 23
qualified renovation area, and 24
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‘‘(B) in the case of an entity certified pur-1
suant to subparagraph (B) of such subsection, 2
grants for qualified construction expenses or 3
operational costs incurred by such entity. 4
‘‘(2) D
URATION OF GRANTS TO TEMPORARY AC -5
CESS MERCHANTS.—In the case of a special access 6
food provider which qualifies as a temporary access 7
merchant, the Secretary shall provide the grant to 8
such provider on an annual basis for a period of not 9
greater than 10 years. 10
‘‘(e) R
ECAPTURE.— 11
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (3), 12
the Secretary shall provide for recapturing the ben-13
efit of any credit allowable or grant provided under 14
this section with respect to any qualified grocery 15
store, qualified renovation area, or permanent food 16
bank which fails to satisfy the requirements under 17
subsection (c)(2) during the 5-year period following 18
the date on which such store, area, or food bank is 19
placed in service. 20
‘‘(2) T
EMPORARY ACCESS MERCHANT .—Subject 21
to paragraph (3), the Secretary shall provide for re-22
capturing the benefit of any grant provided under 23
this section with respect to any temporary access 24
merchant which fails to satisfy the requirements 25
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under subsection (c)(2) for any year during the pe-1
riod described in subsection (d)(2). 2
‘‘(3) A
PPLICATION.—If, during any taxable 3
year, a special access food provider fails to satisfy 4
the requirements under subsection (c)(2), the tax 5
under this chapter for such taxable year shall be in-6
creased by an amount equal to the appropriate per-7
centage of the credit or grant amount as is deter-8
mined appropriate by the Secretary. 9
‘‘(f) B
ASISREDUCTION.—The basis of any qualified 10
grocery store, any grocery store which includes a qualified 11
renovation area, or any food bank, mobile market, or 12
farmers market shall be reduced by the amount of any 13
credit or grant determined under this section with respect 14
to such property. 15
‘‘(g) R
EGULATIONS.—The Secretary, in coordination 16
with the Secretary of Agriculture, shall prescribe such reg-17
ulations as may be appropriate to carry out this section, 18
including regulations which— 19
‘‘(1) prevent the abuse of the purposes of this 20
section, 21
‘‘(2) impose appropriate reporting require-22
ments, and 23
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‘‘(3) ensure that non-metropolitan areas receive 1
a proportional amount of allocations provided under 2
subsection (d). 3
‘‘(h) D
EFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section: 4
‘‘(1) F
OOD DESERT.— 5
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘food desert’ 6
means any population census tract in which— 7
‘‘(i) not less than 500 people, or 33 8
percent of the population of such tract, re-9
side— 10
‘‘(I) in the case of a tract located 11
within a metropolitan area, more than 12
1 mile from a grocery store, or 13
‘‘(II) in the case of a tract not lo-14
cated within a metropolitan area, 15
more than 10 miles from a grocery 16
store, 17
‘‘(ii) the poverty rate for such tract is 18
at least 20 percent, or 19
‘‘(iii)(I) in the case of a tract not lo-20
cated within a metropolitan area, the me-21
dian family income for such tract does not 22
exceed 80 percent of statewide median 23
family income, or 24
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‘‘(II) in the case of a tract located 1
within a metropolitan area, the median 2
family income for such tract does not ex-3
ceed 80 percent of the greater of statewide 4
median family income or the metropolitan 5
area median family income. 6
‘‘(B) A
REAS NOT WITHIN CENSUS 7
TRACTS.—In the case of an area which is not 8
tracted for population census tracts, the equiva-9
lent county divisions (as defined by the Bureau 10
of the Census) shall be used for purposes of de-11
terminations of food deserts under this para-12
graph. 13
‘‘(C) D
ETERMINATION OF FOOD 14
DESERTS.—For purposes of determining wheth-15
er a population census tract qualifies as a food 16
desert for purposes of this section, the Sec-17
retary shall make such determinations in co-18
ordination with the Secretary of Agriculture in 19
such manner as is determined appropriate, in-20
cluding use of the Food Access Research Atlas 21
established by the Department of Agriculture. 22
‘‘(2) G
ROCERIES.—The term ‘groceries’ 23
means— 24
‘‘(A) fresh and frozen produce, 25
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‘‘(B) fresh and frozen meat and seafood, 1
‘‘(C) dairy products, and 2
‘‘(D) deli products, including sliced meats, 3
cheeses, and salads. 4
‘‘(3) G
ROCERY STORE.—The term ‘grocery 5
store’ means a retail store for which forecasted sales 6
of groceries account for not less than 35 percent of 7
its total annual sales. 8
‘‘(4) M
ETROPOLITAN AREA.—The term ‘metro-9
politan area’ has the same meaning given the term 10
‘metropolitan statistical area’ under section 11
143(k)(2)(B). 12
‘‘(5) Q
UALIFIED CONSTRUCTION EXPENSES .— 13
The term ‘qualified construction expenses’ means 14
any costs incurred by the special access food pro-15
vider before the date on which a permanent food 16
bank is placed in service relating to the planning, 17
design, and construction of such food bank. 18
‘‘(6) Q
UALIFIED GROCERY STORE .—The term 19
‘qualified grocery store’ means a grocery store 20
which, on the date on which construction of such 21
store begins, is located in a food desert. 22
‘‘(7) Q
UALIFIED RENOVATION AREA .—The term 23
‘qualified renovation area’ means any area of a gro-24
cery store in which groceries are sold, provided that 25
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such grocery store, on the date on which renovation 1
of such area begins, is located in a food desert. 2
‘‘(8) R
EGIONAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT EN -3
TITY.— 4
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘regional 5
community development entity’ means any do-6
mestic corporation or partnership if— 7
‘‘(i) the primary mission of the entity 8
is serving, or providing investment capital 9
for, low-income communities or low-income 10
persons, 11
‘‘(ii) the entity maintains account-12
ability to residents of low-income commu-13
nities through their representation on any 14
governing board of the entity or on any ad-15
visory board to the entity, and 16
‘‘(iii) the entity is certified by the Sec-17
retary for purposes of this section as being 18
a regional community development entity. 19
‘‘(B) L
OCAL GOVERNMENT .—In the case of 20
a grocery store for which there is no entity de-21
scribed in subparagraph (A) within a 50-mile 22
radius, the chief executive officer (or the equiv-23
alent) of the local jurisdiction in which the gro-24
cery store will be located may serve as the re-25
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gional community development entity for pur-1
poses of subsection (c)(2). 2
‘‘(9) S
ECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE .—The term 3
‘Secretary of Agriculture’ means the Secretary of 4
Agriculture or the Secretary’s delegate. 5
‘‘(10) T
EMPORARY ACCESS MERCHANT .—The 6
term ‘temporary access merchant’ means a mobile 7
market, a farmers market, or a temporary or mobile 8
food bank (as such terms are defined by the Sec-9
retary, in coordination with the Secretary of Agri-10
culture)— 11
‘‘(A) which is operated by a special access 12
food provider; and 13
‘‘(B) for which the primary purpose is food 14
distribution within food deserts.’’. 15
(b) C
REDITPART OFGENERALBUSINESSCREDIT.— 16
Section 38(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 17
amended by striking ‘‘plus’’ at the end of paragraph (40), 18
by striking the period at the end of paragraph (41) and 19
inserting ‘‘, plus’’, and by adding at the end the following 20
new paragraph: 21
‘‘(42) the special access food provider credit de-22
termined under section 45BB(a).’’. 23
(c) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 24
for subpart D of part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 25
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of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by add-1
ing at the end the following new item: 2
‘‘Sec. 45BB. Special access food provider credit and grant program.’’.
(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 3
are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 4
necessary to carry out the purposes of this section. 5
(e) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 6
this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 7
the date of the enactment of this Act. 8
SEC. 3. UPDATES TO FOOD ACCESS RESEARCH ATLAS. 9
Section 243 of the Department of Agriculture Reor-10
ganization Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. 6953) is amended— 11
(1) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub-12
section (e); and 13
(2) by inserting after subsection (c) the fol-14
lowing: 15
‘‘(d) F
OODACCESSRESEARCHATLAS.—Not less fre-16
quently than once each year, the Secretary shall update 17
the Food Access Research Atlas of the Secretary to ac-18
count for food retailers that are placed in service during 19
that year.’’. 20
Æ
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