S. 1888 — United States Foundation for International Food Security Act of 2025

This section designates the Act as the “United States Foundation for International Food Security Act of 2025” and sets forth its table of contents.

This section defines the term "appropriate congressional committees" as (1) the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, (2) the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, (3) the Senate Committee on Appropriations, (4) the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, (5) the House Committee on Agriculture, and (6) the House Committee on Appropriations.

This section recognizes the establishment of the United States Foundation for International Food Security (Foundation) as a private, nonprofit corporation in the District of Columbia that is not a federal agency or establishment and whose board members, officers, and employees are not federal employees. It prohibits any transfer or consolidation of the Foundation or its functions with a federal department, agency, or entity absent an act of Congress; directs the board to ensure 501(c) tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code; and specifies purposes to accelerate locally led agriculture investments for food security and resilience in crop, poultry, aquaculture, and livestock sectors—including financing and training for inputs, infrastructure such as irrigation and storage, applied research, and technology deployment—while partnering with existing entities, coordinating with the United States Foundation for International Conservation, complementing U.S. government programs such as those of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, advancing U.S. national security interests, and prioritizing U.S. foreign policy and taxpayer dollars.

This section establishes governance for the Foundation through a voting Board of Directors of up to 15 members qualified in agricultural production, economics, international finance, impact funding, research, or national security fields and including members of both major political parties in relatively equal numbers. The Board elects a chairperson for a 4-year term by quorum; all voting directors have equal rights and serve terms of up to 5 years (renewable once); a majority constitutes a quorum; the Board meets at least twice per year, maintains full decision-making authority, hires and evaluates the executive director, establishes bylaws (including selection policies, ethical standards, conflict rules, wind-down plans returning unobligated funds to Treasury, and project criteria), and limits administrative expenses to industry standards; directors serve without pay but receive travel reimbursement and are not federal employees. This section further establishes a nonvoting Board of Advisors—including executive branch representatives, the Secretary of State (or designee), the CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (or designee), and two land-grant university deans with international agriculture programs—to provide advice per bylaws. This section requires the Board's initial meeting within 120 days of enactment, the naming of an executive director within 120 days thereafter, and hiring of a qualified executive director to serve at the Board's pleasure.

This section establishes the corporate powers and obligations of the Foundation, including (1) authority to conduct business throughout the United States and abroad, with principal offices in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area and a designated agent in Washington, DC, for service of process; (2) standard corporate powers to accept and manage gifts or property, acquire and dispose of assets, sue and defend in court (with directors liable only for gross negligence), enter contracts, and fund eligible projects via grants, equity investments (with returns to the Foundation), or concessional lending; (3) authority to hold federal funds and use interest or investment income earned thereon, with investments limited to U.S. obligations or those guaranteed by the United States; and (4) a limitation on U.S. liability for the Foundation's debts, defaults, acts, or omissions, holding the federal government harmless from related court awards.

This section requires the Foundation to establish an outcome-based funding strategy that sets measurable targets for populations served (e.g., increased crop and animal productivity, farmer profits, or decreased hunger rates) and employs a portfolio, multi-year approach accepting failure of individual programs if overall portfolio targets are met. The section further requires an efficient financing and evaluation process prioritizing defined outcomes, assessing and countering corruption risks, favoring funding for locally based or run partners able to sustain projects and achieve outcomes, and minimizing unnecessary activity reporting. Additionally, the section mandates accountability through impact evaluations using comparison groups; allows Foundation assessment of grantee or investee evaluation methodologies for efficiency, with acceptance in lieu of new evaluations; provides dedicated funding for grantees or investees lacking evaluation capacity; and authorizes third-party evaluations to verify in-house results. The section requires the Foundation to incorporate safeguards, policies, and guidelines consistent with international best practices into all support agreements and to establish or contract for an independent accountability mechanism offering (1) compliance reviews of adherence to funding requirements, (2) dispute resolution for implementer concerns on venture impacts, and (3) advisory reporting to the Board on ventures, policies, and practices.

This section directs the Foundation to award funding—including project financing, credit risk insurance, grants, concessional lending, or credit—for eligible projects that increase agricultural productivity and incomes while ensuring and sustaining food security by supporting farmers' transition from subsistence to higher-value, profit-generating crops. Eligible ventures must (1) include non-U.S. government cost matching; (2) incorporate independently verified outcomes measured by rigorous impact evaluations (e.g., increases in yields or infrastructure); (3) avoid duplicating other funders' work or displacing profit-making ventures; (4) leverage existing infrastructure and community-led development; (5) advance U.S. national security interests; (6) demonstrate post-funding sustainability or capacity-building for local entities; and (7) prioritize food-insecure populations based on relevant assessments. Before funding ventures, the Board must establish country eligibility criteria and prioritize ventures in countries that (1) advance U.S. national security priorities; (2) demonstrate leadership in modernizing agricultural food systems with private-sector partnerships; and (3) commit to policy reforms, cofinancing, long-term sustainability, and stakeholder collaboration to boost production, resilience, food safety, processing, logistics, and supply chains. To maximize impact, the Foundation must coordinate with other donors and seek additional contributions; funding must go to ventures achieving performance indicators such as (1) increased agricultural production via research, financing, extension services, and technology adoption; (2) improved nutrition through greater access to nutritious foods, diet diversification, and market opportunities; (3) resilient food systems against shocks; and (4) new revenue sources linking investors to agribusiness. (Thus, funding may be terminated for countries failing requirements, missing performance indicators, or not advancing U.S. security priorities.)

This section prohibits the Foundation from providing support to any government or government-owned or -controlled entity determined by the Secretary of State to (1) have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism under specified laws (i.e., Export Control Reform Act of 2018 §1754(c)(1)(A)(i), Foreign Assistance Act §620A(a), Arms Export Control Act §40(d), or other relevant provisions); (2) have repeatedly engaged with foreign terrorist organizations designated under Immigration and Nationality Act §219; or (3) have engaged in a consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights under Foreign Assistance Act §§116(a) or 502B(a)(2) or other relevant provisions. The section further prohibits the Foundation from engaging in any dealings prohibited under U.S. sanctions laws or regulations, including with persons on the Office of Foreign Assets Control's list of specially designated nationals and blocked persons, except as authorized by the Secretary of State or Treasury. The President may waive these prohibitions for any such government or entity by notifying the appropriate congressional committees at least 45 days before the waiver takes effect.

This section requires the Executive Director of the Foundation, not later than two years after enactment and annually thereafter by March 31 during which the Foundation is operational, to submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report approved by the Board of Directors that contains the Foundation's expectations for the year ahead and describes (1) goals for the upcoming year to increase efficiency and advance U.S. policy objectives and national security; (2) lessons learned and best practices from prior fiscal year projects; (3) project-specific and portfolio-level progress against key performance indicators and section 6 outcomes, including taxpayer benefits; (4) assessments of grant-making processes, project selection efficiencies, and outcome evaluations; (5) publicity of funding and projects in selected countries to expand U.S. recognition; and (6) an independent annual financial audit.

This section authorizes the Secretary of State to award annual grants to the Foundation using funds appropriated to the Department of State for international disaster assistance (i.e., chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961). It requires (1) cost matching from non-U.S. government sources to the maximum extent practicable, (2) consultation by the Secretary and the Foundation's Executive Director with specified Senate and House committees within 180 days of enactment on implementation and proposed activities, and (3) prohibition on using Foundation grant funds for activities intended to influence pending legislation.