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Requires the Census Bureau to collect more detailed income and benefit data beginning in fiscal year 2025 to improve how poverty is measured, creates a temporary commission and reporting deadlines, and protects personally identifiable information. Separately, it changes many SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) rules: it tightens or clarifies work and reporting requirements, adds state matching obligations for administration funds in phases, increases state reporting and enforcement authority, and adds penalties and disqualification rules for retailers and improper use of EBT/retailer systems.
Declares the Table of Contents for the Act with the phrase: "The table of contents for this Act is as follows:" but does not list any specific headings or provisions in the provided text.
Defines “Federal benefit” as benefits, refundable tax credits, or other assistance under a long list of named programs (for example: Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, Section 8 housing, Pell Grants, Head Start, and many others).
Defines “resource unit” as all co-resident individuals related by birth, marriage, or adoption, plus co-resident unrelated children, foster children, unmarried partners, and their relatives.
Defines “market income” to include individual earnings, interest, dividends, rents/royalties/estates/trusts, monetary value of employer-sponsored health insurance, and other forms of income as determined by the Director.
Defines “entitlement and other income” to include unemployment compensation, workers’ compensation, Social Security, veterans’ payments, survivor benefits, certain disability and pension income, alimony, child support, outside financial assistance, and Medicare.
Primary impacts fall into two buckets: measurement and administration. For measurement, low-income households and benefit recipients will be subject to more accurate poverty measurement; researchers, policymakers, and Congress will receive improved data and new measures starting in 2027. The Census Bureau and other federal agencies must collect and share detailed administrative data and comply with confidentiality rules. For SNAP, eligible households may face stricter or more precisely enforced work and reporting requirements; some individuals could lose benefits if they fail to meet changed work/reporting rules. State governments will incur administrative burdens and fiscal impacts from new reporting duties and phased matching requirements; they must update systems, track outcomes, and enforce retailer/participant rules. SNAP retailers (especially small stores) face greater compliance obligations and risk of disqualification or penalties. USDA will have increased oversight, reporting, and enforcement responsibilities. Overall, poor and low-income families are the most directly affected groups, states and local agencies will bear administrative and fiscal burdens, retailers and EBT processors face compliance/enforcement impacts, and the Census and GAO gain new responsibilities to produce and audit improved poverty measures.
Adds additional findings/purposes to the congressional declaration of policy for the supplemental nutrition assistance program to emphasize increasing employment, encouraging healthy marriage, and promoting 'prosperous self-sufficiency.'
Modifies the definition provision for 'food' by adding an introductory qualification that the listed foods, food products, meals, and other items qualify only if they are 'essential, as determined by the Secretary.'
Replaces the introductory matter preceding clause (i) of section 6(d)(1)(A) with new text (the text of the replacement is inserted by the amendment).
Multiple amendments to the hour-based work requirement rules in section 6(o), including (but not limited to) expanding supervised job search language to include in-person supervised job search programs; changing geographic references from 'area' to 'county or county equivalent'; requiring conjunction change from 'or' to 'and' in a clause; replacing a clause to exclude counties located in labor market areas with unemployment over 10 percent; reducing a threshold from 15 percent to 5 percent in paragraph (6)(D); redesignating paragraph (7) as (8); adding a new paragraph (7) limiting combined spouse work hours in married couple households with children; and adding a new paragraph (9) stating that the limitation under subsection (d)(4)(F)(i) shall not apply to any work requirement under this subsection.
Adds a new subsection (d) to section 4 of the Act establishing State matching fund requirements (percentages of funds received for program administration) for participating States, with a schedule of percentages for fiscal years 2025 through 2033 and thereafter.
Inserts additional text into section 5(a) by adding language after the second sentence and inserting specified text in the second sentence (the exact insertions are made by the amendment).
Adds a new paragraph (5) to section 6(d) requiring individuals to cooperate with any SNAP fraud investigation (including participation in meetings requested by fraud investigators and administrative hearings) as a condition of eligibility.
Adds a new subsection (15) to section 7(h) establishing rules for registering authorized users of EBT cards (requiring registration of at least one household member and an authorized representative, limiting authorized users to no more than five individuals) and specifying progressive consequences for unauthorized uses (requirements to review rights, and benefit suspensions of specified durations), with administration consistent with specified sections.
Modifies the clause governing periodic reauthorization to make reauthorization annual for retail food stores or wholesale food concerns that are medium- or high-risk for fraudulent transactions as determined by the Food and Nutrition Service's fraud detection system.
Adds a new subsection (y) to section 11 requiring the Secretary to publish an annual State activity report for SNAP containing substantially the same information as the Food and Nutrition Service's 'Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program State Activity Report Fiscal Year 2016.'
And 2 more affected sections...
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Introduced March 27, 2025 by Mike Lee · Last progress March 27, 2025
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Introduced in Senate