The Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 (TEFAA) ( P.L. 98-8) was a supplemental

appropriations act An appropriation, also known as supply bill or spending bill, is a proposed law that authorizes the expenditure of government funds. It is a bill that sets money aside for specific spending. In some democracies, approval of the legislature is ne ...

for FY 1983 that, among other things, explicitly authorized a discretionary

commodity In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. The price of a comm ...

donation A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as blo ...

effort begun in 1981 by the

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

. The initial effort was limited to disposal of excess commodities held by the

Commodity Credit Corporation The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is a wholly owned United States government corporation that was created in 1933 to "stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices" (federally chartered by the CCC Charter Act of 1948 (P.L. 80-806) ...

(CCC) by donating them to states. This

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

also authorized

funding Funding is the act of providing resources to finance a need, program, or project. While this is usually in the form of money, it can also take the form of effort or time from an organization or company. Generally, this word is used when a firm uses ...

to help states and local emergency feeding organizations with the storage and distribution costs of handling the commodities. This is the origin of the current

Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 The Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 (P.L. 98-92) amended the original Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983 (P.L. 98-8) to authorize multi-year funding and commodity donations from excess Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) invent ...

(P.L. 98-92, as amended; 7 U.S.C. 7501 et seq.).

References

* {{Ronald Reagan United States Department of Agriculture United States federal appropriations legislation