Sponsors (10)
Introduced February 26, 2026 by Ronald Lee Wyden · Last progress February 26, 2026
The bill strengthens EBT security, access, and transparency for SNAP recipients (including faster, free replacements and chip-enabled protections) but requires significant state and retailer upgrades, creates implementation and privacy risks, and could produce uneven protections if federal standards are reduced.
Millions of SNAP households will get stronger, chip-enabled and online EBT protections that reduce card fraud and benefit theft.
SNAP recipients will receive replacement EBT cards quickly and without fees — mailed or in-person within 3 business days — reducing temporary loss of benefits and access barriers.
Recipients and agencies will have better account access, standardized fraud reporting, and public outage data that improve transparency, oversight, and the ability to identify and fix problems.
States, EBT vendors, and many small retailers will face substantial upfront and ongoing costs to adopt chip cards and upgrade terminals and systems — costs that could strain budgets and be passed to consumers.
Benefit access could be temporarily reduced during transitions (outages, terminal incompatibilities, rollout delays, or noncompliant rural stores losing SNAP authorization), harming low-income and rural households who rely on SNAP.
Removing or weakening federal rulemaking risks uneven or weaker security protections across states, potentially leaving some recipients with lower safeguards against fraud.
Based on analysis of 16 sections of legislative text.
Mandates federal EBT cybersecurity rules, moves SNAP to chip-enabled cards, requires quick replacement service and fee limits, and requires chip-enabled terminals for SNAP retailers.
Requires new federal cybersecurity and digital-service rules for SNAP EBT cards and related mobile technologies, directs states to move to chip-enabled cards on a multi-year schedule, and mandates faster replacement and limited fees for lost or damaged cards. It also requires tighter protections for online EBT transactions, a chip-enabled payment terminal requirement for SNAP retailers, reporting to Congress on theft and on Puerto Rico card security, and reorganizes existing administrative duties. The bill creates specific deadlines for rulemaking and card rollouts, requires states to deliver replacement cards quickly, bans replacement fees in several common situations, and imposes new reporting and cybersecurity requirements on USDA, states, retailers, and payment processors. It does not appropriate new funds but does create compliance costs and reporting obligations for states and businesses.