Sponsors
Introduced June 10, 2025 by Zach Nunn · Last progress June 10, 2025
The bill strengthens detection, recovery, and enforcement against SNAP/EBT theft and provides direct reimbursement to victims, at the cost of expanded investigative powers, increased administrative/compliance costs, and heightened privacy and due-process risks for beneficiaries.
Low-income SNAP households will have a clear, reimbursable path to recover benefits stolen through fraud without that reimbursement reducing their monthly allotment or affecting ongoing eligibility.
Stronger federal investigations, interagency coordination (DOJ, FBI, DHS, Secret Service), and authorized funding/rulemaking will improve detection, prevention, prosecution, and recovery of EBT/SNAP fraud, strengthening protection of the benefits infrastructure.
USDA technical assistance and a centralized theft-reporting database should speed fraud detection and resolution of claims, reducing time to restore stolen benefits for victims and improving state-federal information-sharing.
Expanded subpoenas, warrants, centralized reporting, and broader data-sharing raise privacy and data-security risks for SNAP beneficiaries and could expose sensitive personal information.
States, EBT processors/vendors, and taxpayers may face increased compliance and administrative costs to respond to federal requests, implement security measures, process reimbursements, and report theft data.
Individuals accused of unauthorized SNAP access could face civil penalties equal to twice the stolen amount and parallel administrative or criminal actions, risking severe financial hardship and perceptions of unfair or duplicative punishment.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Gives USDA expanded investigative powers for SNAP benefit theft, allows State reimbursement to victims without cutting benefits, and creates civil penalties equal to twice stolen benefits.
Creates new federal tools to detect, investigate, and punish theft and cyber-enabled fraud targeting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and lets States reimburse households for benefits stolen through no fault of the household without reducing future benefits. It gives the USDA Inspector General expanded investigative authorities (subpoenas, warrants, data access, interagency coordination), requires USDA to maintain a centralized theft-reporting database and provide technical help, and imposes a civil penalty equal to twice the value of stolen benefits with recovered funds used to reimburse victims and support investigations.