American Food for American Schools Act of 2026
Sponsored By: Representative Garamendi, John [D-CA-8]
Introduced
Summary
Stronger Buy American rules for school meals is the main goal: this bill would tighten domestic sourcing across child nutrition programs and add new waiver, reporting, and enforcement steps to make U.S. ingredients the default. It would apply these requirements to school lunch, school breakfast, summer feeding, child and adult care food, special milk, and snack programs.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 1 costs, 2 mixed.
Stricter Buy American rules for schools
If enacted, the bill would make school meal procurement stricter. It would require schools to purchase domestic products rather than only trying to do so "to the maximum extent practicable." It would define "domestic" to mean U.S.-grown commodities, foods processed in the U.S. with mostly U.S. ingredients, and fish caught in U.S. waters or by U.S.-flagged vessels. The change would apply to school lunch, breakfast, snacks, summer feeding, child and adult care food, and the special milk program.
New supplier penalties and contract rules
If enacted, all new contracts between schools and suppliers would have to include a Buy American compliance clause. Suppliers who use federal money to buy foreign products in violation of that clause would have to pay the Secretary an amount equal to the federal funds used. Schools could still use foreign goods already delivered even if the supplier broke the contract, but the supplier would remain liable for repayment.
Limits and public reporting on waivers
If enacted, school food authorities would generally need to request a USDA waiver before buying foreign food, except when U.S. production or quality is insufficient or items are not reasonably available. Waivers could cover no more than 5 percent of an SFA's total annual commercial food costs for each food component. USDA would have to post a public waiver list no later than one year after the first waiver and update SFA information within 90 days and product information annually. SFAs that use waivers or allowed exceptions would have to notify parents at least once each school year, and SEAs must send annual compilations to USDA.
More Buy American training funding
If enacted, the bill would raise the training program cap from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 and reauthorize the program for 2026 through 2031. The extra funding would support Buy American procurement training for school food authorities and suppliers.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Garamendi, John [D-CA-8]
CA • D
Cosponsors
Rep. Gallagher, James [R-CA-1]
CA • R
Sponsored 7/30/2026
Rep. Thompson, Mike [D-CA-4]
CA • D
Sponsored 8/10/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov