House lawmakers Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, and Anthony Gonzalez, An Ohio Republican, introduced the American Food Supply Chain Resiliency Act this week. The bipartisan legislation seeks to strengthen supply chains across the agriculture industry and lower food costs for consumers. The bill would establish Supply Chain Regional Resource Centers through cooperative agreements with the Department of Agriculture.

The centers would offer locally tailored coordination, technical assistance, and grants — leading to more resilient, diverse, and connected supply chains. USDA recently announced its intention through the Agricultural Marketing Service to create Regional Food Business Centers.

The Spanberger-Gonzalez legislation would codify the centers, renaming them Supply Chain Regional Resource Centers. Under their legislation, these Centers would support supply chain coordination in their region, fund technical assistance providers to offer guidance to food businesses and farms, and provide small grants to entities looking to expand or start their operations in a certain region.

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