Emergency Relief for Hungry Families Act of 2025

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3132 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3132

To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to exempt discounting food 
from the equal treatment requirement during a government shutdown, and 
                          for other purposes.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            November 6, 2025

Mr. Wyden (for himself and Mr. Merkley) 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 exempt discounting food 
from the equal treatment requirement during a government shutdown, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Emergency Relief for Hungry Families 
Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. EXEMPTION FROM EQUAL TREATMENT REQUIREMENT.

    Section 9(j) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 
2018(j)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(6) Exemption from equal treatment requirement.--
                    ``(A) Definition of covered period.--In this 
                paragraph, the term `covered period' means a period 
                during which--
                            ``(i) interim continuing appropriations or 
                        full-year appropriations for a fiscal year for 
                        the Department of Agriculture have lapsed; and
                            ``(ii) participants of the supplemental 
                        nutrition assistance program are not 
                        receiving--
                                    ``(I) any benefits; or
                                    ``(II) the full amount of benefits.
                    ``(B) Waiver.--Notwithstanding paragraph (2), 
                during a covered period, an authorized retail food 
                store may, without seeking a waiver, offer an 
                incentive, which shall be effective for the entire 
                duration of the covered period.
                    ``(C) Effect.--An incentive offered by an 
                authorized retail food store under subparagraph (B) 
                shall not be deemed a violation of the equal treatment 
                requirement described in section 278.2(b) of title 7, 
                Code of Federal Regulations (or a successor 
                regulation).''.
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