Sponsors (9)
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
The bill modernizes and hardens EBT security and access—reducing theft, speeding replacements, and standardizing oversight—at the cost of substantial implementation and compliance expenses, administrative burdens, and some risks to access or privacy for vulnerable beneficiaries and small retailers.
Low-income SNAP households will face lower risk of benefit theft and card cloning because States must migrate to chip-enabled EBT cards and align with federal/private security standards, making transactions more secure.
SNAP participants will regain access faster and with less cost: replacement EBT cards must be issued within 3 business days and replacement fees for malfunctions or outsider fraud are prohibited.
USDA and States (including Puerto Rico) will get standardized reporting, focused assessments, and interagency recommendations to detect, track, and respond to online EBT theft and card-cloning risks, improving oversight and policy response.
States, retailers, and taxpayers face substantial costs to reissue cards, upgrade systems and terminals, and absorb ongoing fees for chip-enabled cards, which could strain budgets or shift costs to other services.
Small, rural, or very small retailers may struggle to meet equipment and cybersecurity requirements and could stop accepting EBT or delay SNAP authorization, reducing local access for beneficiaries.
The migration to new chips, terminals, and user interfaces risks short-term outages or service disruptions that could temporarily prevent beneficiaries from accessing SNAP benefits.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Requires stronger cybersecurity for SNAP EBT cards, phased migration to chip-enabled cards and retailer terminals, faster replacements, limits fees, and new reporting on online theft.
Requires the USDA to strengthen cybersecurity and digital-service rules for SNAP electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards and related online transactions, and to phase in chip-enabled EBT cards and chip-enabled payment terminals at retail locations. Sets deadlines for rulemaking and state rollouts, limits when states may charge replacement fees, requires fast replacement of damaged/stolen/frozen cards, mandates reporting on online benefit theft, and directs a Puerto Rico-specific security review. The law creates new regulatory timelines (two years to issue core rules), implementation windows for states and retailers, and reporting requirements for the Secretary of Agriculture to monitor theft and fraud. It mainly affects SNAP recipients, State agencies that operate EBT programs, retail food stores, EBT contractors, and federal program administrators by imposing technology, operational, and data-security requirements and new service standards for card replacement and fee practices.