Sponsors (9)
The bill improves EBT security, speed of card replacement, and fraud reporting—benefiting SNAP recipients and oversight—at the cost of added federal/state/retailer expenses, administrative burdens, and potential short-term access or privacy risks, with small providers and rural communities most likely to be harmed.
Millions of SNAP recipients (especially low-income households) will get more secure EBT payments and lower risk of card-skimming, cloning, and online benefit theft because states and retailers must move to chip-enabled cards/terminals and adopt stronger security standards.
Households will regain access faster and with less cost when cards fail or are lost: federal rules require replacement cards within 3 business days and waive replacement fees for beneficiaries (including fraud victims).
More standardized reporting, audits, and public (and classified where appropriate) assessments will improve detection of fraud patterns and give USDA, states, and Congress clearer data to target countermeasures and policy fixes.
States, USDA, retailers, and taxpayers will face substantial new administrative and implementation costs (reissuing cards, upgrading systems, enforcing standards, producing reports), which could strain budgets and divert resources from other services.
Some beneficiaries may temporarily or permanently lose convenient access to SNAP where small or rural retailers cannot afford or meet terminal upgrade and compliance deadlines, shrinking local acceptance options.
Publishing reporting, lists of compromised merchants, and public security assessments — and producing detailed reports on vulnerabilities — risks exposing sensitive operational details or vulnerabilities if redaction fails, potentially aiding bad actors.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Mandates chip-enabled EBT cards and merchant terminal upgrades, strengthens online-transaction security and reporting, speeds card replacement, and limits certain replacement fees.
Official title: To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to require the promulgation of cybersecurity and digital service regulations relating to the use of EBT cards under the supplemental nutrition assistance program, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 24, 2026 by Daniel Goldman · Last progress February 24, 2026
Requires new cybersecurity and digital-service rules for SNAP electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards and online transactions, including a phased migration to chip-enabled cards, stronger protections against online benefit theft, faster replacement cards, and limits on replacement fees. The USDA must issue rules, collect and report data on online theft, require chip-enabled payment terminals for authorized SNAP retailers, and produce security reports for Puerto Rico. Implements deadlines for rulemaking and state compliance (ranging from 60 days to 5 years for different provisions), requires consultations with federal and state partners, and creates recurring reporting and review requirements to monitor fraud, merchant compromise, and program security improvements.