II 111th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 194 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES January 9, 2009 Mr. Casey (for himself, Ms. Snowe, and Mr. Voinovich) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry A BILL To amend the Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 to require the Secretary of Agriculture to help offset the costs of intrastate transportation, storage, and distribution of bonus commodities provided to States and food assistance agencies under the emergency food assistance program.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Bonus TEFAP Assistance Act of 2009.

2.

Assistance for costs of distributing bonus commodities

(a)

Purposes

The purposes of this section are— (1)to encourage States and food assistance agencies to accept commodities acquired by the Secretary of Agriculture for farm support and surplus removal activities; and (2)to offset the costs of the States and food assistance agencies for the intrastate transportation, storage, and distribution of the commodities. (b)

Costs of distributing bonus commodities

Section 202 of the Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 (7 U.S.C. 7502) is amended by inserting after subsection (a) the following: (b)

Costs of distributing bonus commodities

(1)

In general

The Secretary shall use funds made available under section 32 of the Act of August 24, 1935 (7 U.S.C. 612c), to provide funding described in paragraph (2) to eligible recipient agencies to offset the costs of the agencies for intrastate transportation, storage, and distribution of commodities described in subsection (a). (2)

Funding

The Secretary shall provide funding described in paragraph (1) to an eligible recipient agency at a rate equal to the lower of $0.05 per pound or $0.05 per dollar value of commodities described in subsection (a) that are made available under this Act to, and accepted by, the eligible recipient agency. .