Saving Lives and Taxpayer Dollars Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2252 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2252

  To require United States foreign assistance commodities to be made
       available for their intended purposes before they expire.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 10, 2025

  Mrs. Shaheen (for herself and Mr. Schatz) introduced the following
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

  To require United States foreign assistance commodities to be made
       available for their intended purposes before they expire.

    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 ``Saving Lives and Taxpayer Dollars
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Foreign assistance commodities, including food,
        medicine, family planning products, and vaccines, provide
        critical support to people who are recovering from the
        aftermath of natural disasters, fleeing conflict or war,
        residing in refugee camps, or living in developing communities
        with limited access to health care.
            (2) United States investments in global health bolster
        economic growth for partner countries, produce returns on
        investment for the United States economy, create an estimated
        600,000 jobs in the United States, and generated an estimated
        $104,000,000,000 in economic activity during the 15-year period
        between 2007 and 2022.
            (3) Reliable access to vaccines and medications, including
        pre-exposure prophylaxis and antiretroviral drugs to prevent
        the spread of HIV and vaccines to prevent the transmission of
        communicable diseases such as polio and drug-resistant
        tuberculosis, make everyone safer.
            (4) United States food assistance benefits United States
        farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses, while addressing global
        food insecurity. United States farmers annually supply an
        estimated 40 percent of all international food assistance,
        which is valued at approximately $2,000,000,000.
            (5) Greater access to family planning products and services
        has the potential to prevent up to 30 percent of the 295,000
        annual maternal deaths and save the lives of approximately
        1,400,000 children who are younger than 5 years old.
            (6) The voluntary destruction of foreign assistance
        commodities intended for beneficiaries at risk of food
        insecurity and famine, sexual violence, maternal and infant
        death and disease is unethical and contrary to United States
        interests and moral obligations.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON THE DESTRUCTION OF FOREIGN ASSISTANCE PRODUCTS
              AND COMMODITIES.

    Section 102 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151-
1) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (b), by adding at the end the following:
            ``(18) Perishable and nonperishable foreign assistance
        commodities and products, including medicine, vaccines, medical
        devices, food and food commodities that are procured, managed,
        controlled, or held in warehouses, ships, shipping containers,
        or any other storage facility, by the United States Government
        or by a foreign assistance implementing partner of the United
        States Government shall be made available to intended
        beneficiaries, including through donation, for their intended
        purpose and before the date on which such commodities and
        products spoil or expire.''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(d)(1) In this subsection--
            ``(A) the term `appropriate congressional committees'
        means--
                    ``(i) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the
                Senate;
                    ``(ii) the Committee on Appropriations of the
                Senate;
                    ``(iii) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the
                House of Representatives; and
                    ``(iv) the Committee on Appropriations of the House
                of Representatives; and
            ``(B) the term `commodity' means a product or commodity
        referred to in subsection (b)(18).
    ``(2) If any commodity is in the possession or control of a foreign
assistance implementing partner of the United States, the Secretary of
State, the Secretary of Agriculture, or the Administrator of the United
States Agency for International Development, as appropriate, shall
release such funds as may be necessary, on an expedited basis, to
ensure the delivery or donation of the commodity to intended
beneficiaries before the applicable spoilage or expiration date.
    ``(3) No commodity may be destroyed unless every effort has been
made to sell, donate, or otherwise make available the commodity,
whichever is more likely to ensure the commodity will be received and
utilized by its intended beneficiaries, before the applicable spoilage
or expiration date.
    ``(4)(A) Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of
the Saving Lives and Taxpayer Dollars Act, and annually thereafter, the
Secretary of State, in coordination with the Administrator of the
United States Agency for International Development and the Secretary of
Agriculture, as appropriate, shall submit a report to the appropriate
congressional committees that describes any commodity that expired,
spoiled, or was destroyed without delivery to an intended beneficiary.
    ``(B) The report required under subparagraph (A) shall include, for
each expired, spoiled, or destroyed commodity --
            ``(i) a description of all negotiations, planning, and
        efforts to make the commodity available to intended
        beneficiaries;
            ``(ii) the reason the commodity was not made available to
        intended beneficiaries;
            ``(iii) the purpose of the commodity and the geographic
        locations of all intended beneficiaries of such commodity;
            ``(iv) the procured and market value of the commodity; and
            ``(v) the cost incurred to destroy the commodity.''.
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