WORKING TOGETHER TO END HUNGER: 2025 Legislative and Policy Achievements

Rev. Eugene Cho
Topic:
8 Min Read

A series of administrative and congressional actions this year dealt devastating blows to the United States’ international assistance and domestic social safety net programs that millions of families rely on in times of crisis. 

Bread members and partners responded with urgency and resolve. In 2025, Bread held more than 300 Congressional meetings in Washington, D.C., organized over 350 more grassroots Congressional meetings, and held 400-plus Offerings of Letters. Together, advocates have sent more than 138,000 personalized letters to their elected leaders in the House and Senate.

Our collective efforts could not save all the programs and infrastructure that Bread has championed, tested, and improved over the years from being dismantled (as with USAID) or fundamentally reshaped (as with SNAP). 

Yet our advocacy mattered. Together, we were able to protect many lifesaving anti-hunger programs, blunt harmful proposals, and create opportunities for future progress. 

Again and again, Bread members and partners elevated the voices of people experiencing hunger and the moral concerns of faith leaders in Congressional negotiations. We protected effective programs from deep cuts (as with global nutrition, food aid, and more), secured targeted improvements and funding for key programs (as with the Child Tax Credit and WIC), and built momentum for programs that are poised for action next year (as with the Modern WIC Act, NAP-to-SNAP, and more). 

We are operating in a tough environment. But smart, sustained congressional advocacy can still shape outcomes, and bipartisan support to address hunger is still visible in Congress. 

When we raise our voices together, we can protect and build on programs that are saving and improving lives both around the world and at home. 

POLICY AND LEGISLATIVE ACHIEVEMENTS 

  1. Child Tax Credit
    Bread championed a Child Tax Credit designed to cut child poverty and hunger through full refundability, monthly payments (versus annual payments), and maintained access for mixed-status households.

    Congress did not adopt all of these priorities, but Bread’s advocacy helped extend the CTC provisions that were set to expire and ensure the refundability amount did not revert to pre-pandemic levels. The reconciliation bill not only retained the credit, it included an increase in the per-child benefit from $2,000 to $2,200.

    In a challenging fiscal environment, preserving and strengthening the Child Tax Credit was a meaningful step.
  2. Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
    Bread worked to fully fund WIC, protect the Cash Value Benefit, and advance the bipartisan Modern WIC Act (to modernize enrollment and increase child participation).

    Early in the year, Bread advocacy contributed to Congress fully funding WIC at $7.6 billion for FY2025 with no cuts to the Cash Value Benefit.

    In FY26 funding discussions, White House and House of Representatives’ budget proposals threatened underfunding for WIC by cutting the Cash Value Benefit for fruits and vegetables. In part because of Bread’s advocacy, this was ultimately preserved. The November continuing resolution that ended the government shutdown fully funded WIC for FY26 at $8.2 billion. This funding ensures uninterrupted access to nutrition services for families for the full fiscal year while Congress negotiates other provisions of the continuing resolution that will expire on January 31, 2026.

    Bread also expanded bipartisan support for the MODERN WIC Act in the House, securing 15 new Republican and Democratic co-sponsors. This growing support positions the bill for action in 2026.
  3. International Appropriations and Programs
    Bread advocated for strong funding for international programs that improve nutrition, health, and food security—particularly for women, adolescents, and children—and for the protection of time-tested programs historically housed at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

    Our FY2025 requests were largely met:
    • Global nutrition was funded at $168 million (above our $165 million request),
    • Feed the Future received $960 million,
    • Food for Peace received $1.619 billion, and
    • McGovern-Dole Food for Education received $240 million.
    During rescissions negotiations, some proposals would have eliminated these programs entirely. Bread’s long-term advocacy helped prevent that outcome. Final legislation included language ensuring that rescinded funds would not disrupt Food for Peace or McGovern-Dole, and protected food assistance components within PEPFAR.

    For FY26, Congress appropriated $1.2 billion for Food for Peace and $240 million for McGovern-Dole. These are slight reductions from FY25 but significantly better than the President’s Budget Request, which proposed eliminating both programs.

    At the same time, the international aid landscape changed dramatically. In March, 83 percent of USAID programs were cut. By July, USAID officially ceased operations, and remaining programs were transferred to the Department of State. Bread worked with coalition partners on advocacy to the House Foreign Affairs Committee during consideration of the State Department Reauthorization bill to protect global nutrition and food security programs in their new institutional home, and we are pleased with language in the legislation that governs the work of the Global Food Security Office and the Global Health Security Office. While the bill is unlikely to pass this Congress, it successfully established congressional recognition of the importance of Feed the Future, food aid, and global nutrition—an important foundation against future cuts.
  4. Farm Bill
    Bread urged Congress to pass a full five-year Farm Bill that protected SNAP, robustly funded GusNIP (the SNAP nutrition incentive program), ended the felony ban on SNAP through the RESTORE Act, and preserved McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Food for Peace.

    Instead, Congress reauthorized some conservation and other programs in H.R. 1, the reconciliation bill, and in the November continuing resolution that ended the government shutdown, extended the existing Farm Bill through FY2026.

    Within that context, Bread helped advance bipartisan food date labeling reform to reduce food waste, supporting active bills in both chambers (H.R. 4987 and S. 2541). Our advocacy was instrumental in securing a Senate lead co-sponsor.

    Bread also supported bipartisan legislation to strengthen local and regional food systems after USDA terminated the Local Food for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance programs. Companion bills designed to support local farmers and enhance community food systems were introduced in both chambers (S. 2338 and H.R. 4782).

    2025’s H.R. 1, the reconciliation bill, instituted major changes to SNAP, including stricter work requirements, removal of exemptions for veterans and people experiencing homelessness, benefit cuts for some lawfully present immigrants such as refugees and asylum seekers, elimination of the Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant (SNAP-Ed), and major cost and administrative shifts to states. Bread strongly opposed these changes throughout the reconciliation process. Notably, one of only two House Republicans to vote against the reconciliation bill cited hunger concerns—and personally thanked a Bread advocate in his district for elevating the issue and his shared commitment to ending food insecurity.
  5. LATE BREAKING: African Growth and Opportunity Act
    Bread urged Congress to reauthorize the African Growth and Opportunity Act, legislation that provides tariff-free trade between the U.S. and sub-Saharan African countries. AGOA incentivizes countries to open their economies, strengthen free markets, and expand agricultural production for export to the United States.

    Despite Bread and community advocacy, the program officially expired on September 30 after Congress was unable to reach consensus on reauthorization before the deadline. The White House recommended a one-year extension, which some lawmakers viewed as too short, while others proposed changes.

    In late December, the Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee introduced, and the Committee passed, a three-year reauthorization of the program that preserves AGOA’s existing framework, making no changes to the previous version in an effort to maintain bipartisan support and ensure the program’s survival. Bread’s advocacy for AGOA had continued after expiration via meetings with key lawmakers, and we submitted a letter for the record in support of AGOA per a request from Ways and Means Committee leadership. In 2026, Congress will work towards finding a solution for passing a reauthorization and getting signed into law.

LOOKING AHEAD

Hunger does not wait for elections or political consensus. Families today have to choose between paying for rent, medicine, or food. Globally, The Lancet projects that cuts to USAID funding initiated this year could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, including 4.5 million children under five. In the U.S., states are grappling with how to absorb the new costs and administrative burdens for SNAP, which most states are unlikely to be able to afford by FY27. 

Bread’s role in this moment is persistence grounded in hope and evidence. 

As we look to 2026, we will build on the work of 2025: protecting proven programs and pursuing meaningful improvements to them, equipping new advocates, and sharing stories of impact. We will also expand our state-based advocacy efforts and local partnerships as states work to tackle increasing costs for social safety net programs. 

We invite you to join us in this work. On February 10, we will host a national call to launch our 2026 Offering of Letters, a campaign focused on strengthening domestic and international child hunger programs by writing directly to your members of Congress in the House and Senate.

In all we do, we seek to keep hunger at the center of national priorities. And throughout 2026, Bread will continue bringing together voices across the political spectrum, rooted in faith and moral conviction, to remind leaders that ending hunger is not a partisan cause, but a human one.

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