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Added a technical amendment so that elderly and/or
disabled or blind residents of Guam and the Virgin
Islands can use food stamps to purchase meals in
authorized communal dining facilities, restaurants, or
group homes and be exempt from categorical ineligibility
as residents of institutions if they reside in group
homes. |
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Permitted homeless people to use their food stamps at
authorized restaurants which contract with State
agencies to offer them meals at concessional (reduced)
prices in addition to soup kitchens and homeless
shelters. |
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Expanded categorical eligibility to recipients of
certain State and local GA payments. The expansion to
local GA recipients could be implemented up to six
months after the expansion to State GA recipients. |
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Extended the existing exclusion for educational income
used for tuition and mandatory school fees to that used
to rent or purchase equipment, materials, and supplies
required to pursue a course of study. |
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Extended the exclusion for educational income to that
used in vocational education programs and programs that
provide for completion of a secondary school diploma or
obtaining GEDs. |
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Provided an exclusion for all educational income that is
similar to the existing exclusion for benefits provided
under Title IV of the Higher Education Act; i.e.,
excluded educational income to the extent it does not
exceed an allowance made available by the institution
for books, supplies, transportation, and miscellaneous
personal expenses (other than living expenses)
incidental to attending the institution. |
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Deleted the distinction between Federal and non-Federal
educational income for the purpose of excluding/counting
it as a reimbursement. |
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Excluded both cash and vendor-payment annual clothing
allowances. |
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Prohibited requiring verification of changes in medical
expenses if they have been anticipated. |
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Provided State agencies the option to use retrospective
budgeting for nonmonthly-reporting households, with
certain statutory exceptions. |
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Forgave State agency errors that occurred from their
implementation of the Hunger Prevention Act of 1988
provision that eliminated the above (retrospective
budgeting) option or from their failure to implement the
HPA provision. |
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Excluded resources a household is unlikely to be able to
sell for any significant return. |
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Excluded for AFDC/SSI recipients the same resources that
are excluded by AFDC or SSI. |
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Provided for emergency allotments to replace food lost
in a disaster. |
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Required adjusting reporting/application requirements
consistent with actual conditions in a disaster area. |
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Excluded all transitional housing vendor payments for
the homeless except for an amount equal to 50% of AFDC's
maximum shelter allowance. |
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Excluded State or local GA payments that, by State law,
are only provided in the form of vendor payments. |
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Prohibited monthly reporting/retrospective budgeting for
households that live on Indian reservations. |
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Deleted the requirement that the Department approve
State agencies' monthly report forms. |
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Authorized adult members of a household to select the
head of household at certification and recertification.
No other change in household head designation could be
made unless there is a change in household composition. |
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Added literacy training as an E&T component. |
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Included self-employment training as an E&T component. |
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Excluded nonliquid resources needed for a
self-employment E&T component. |
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Authorized two States to give priority in E&T to
volunteers. |
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Changed E&T performance standards implementation date to
October 1, 1991 from April 1, 1991. |
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Further limited student ineligibility, as follows: |
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Students between 50 and 60 may be eligible. |
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Students assigned to institutions of higher
education by E&T, UI, or a State or local
employment and training program determined as
appropriate by the Secretary may be eligible. |
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Students enrolled in institutions of higher
education as a result of participation in the
JOBS program may be eligible. |
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Full-time students who are single parents
responsible for the care of children under 12
may be eligible. |
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Required staggered issuance throughout the month on
Indian reservations. |
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Established EBT as an issuance alternative with the
following requirements: |
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State agencies must obtain prior approval from
the Department. |
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Final regulations must be issued by April 1,
1992. |
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EBT systems must be cost effective--capital
expenditures and reasonable start-up costs are
pro-rated. |
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Recipient protections (privacy, ease of use,
access to and service in retail food stores)
must be provided. |
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Other factors that State agencies must cover
satisfactorily are: participation by retailers
and banks; system security, transaction
interchange, reliability, processing speeds, and
accountability; operations testing before
implementation; and analysis of results in a
limited area prior to expansion. |
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If households are required to participate in EBT,
State agencies must assure that sufficient
retailers participate so that there are stores
able to serve minority-language populations, so
that their choices among stores is not
significantly reduced, and so that the cost of
food or transportation to get food is not
substantially increased. |
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Where EBT is mandatory, stores with 15% or more
of their sales in food stamp purchases must have
special EBT equipment in operation in all
checkout lines. For stores with less than 15%
food stamp sales, the requirements will be set
by the Department. |
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Permitted the Department to continue to conduct EBT
demonstration projects. |
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Required annual adjustments on October 1 in the $10
minimum benefit based on changes in the Thrifty Food
Plan for the 12-month period ending the previous June
rounded to the nearest $5. |
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Authorized the Department to approve up to 2 State
agencies' issuing combined allotments for up to 3 months
for households whose regular monthly allotments are $20
or less. |
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Made optional the provision that had required State
agencies to issue a combined allotment representing the
first (prorated) and second months' allotments to
households that applied after the 15th of a month. |
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Required that households entitled to expedited service
who apply after the 15th of a month must get their first
(prorated) and second months' allotments according to
expedited service processing timeframes. |
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Authorized the Secretary to issue regulations providing
for periodic reauthorization of retailers and
wholesalers. |
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Prohibited authorization as retail food stores
co-located wholesale-retail food concerns unless: 1) the
firm does a substantial retail food business or 2) the
Department determines that failure to authorize such a
firm as a retail food store would cause hardship to food
stamp households. |
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Amended the Social Security Act to permit the Department
to require each applicant retailer/wholesaler to furnish
the Social Security Number (SSN) of each individual who
is an owner or officer. |
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Limited use of SSNs to determining whether
applicants have been previously sanctioned or
convicted under Sections 12 and 15 of the Act.
(Civil money penalties/disqualifications and
violations/enforcement provisions). |
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Required the Department to restrict access to
SSNs to the satisfaction of the Secretary of
DHHS and provide proper safeguards against
unauthorized disclosure. |
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Amended the Internal Revenue Code to permit the
Department to require each applicant retailer/wholesaler
to furnish the employer ID number (EIN) assigned to the
store. |
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Restricted use of EINs as for SSNs. |
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Restricted access as for SSNs, except that the
Secretary of the Treasury must be satisfied with
the restrictions. |
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Required that explanations to applicants about filing
rights, expedited service requirements, and provision of
benefits from the date of application must be on or near
the front cover (rather than on the front cover). |
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Provided that one adult representative of the household
may make all necessary certifications at application for
the household. |
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Required the use of standard estimates of shelter
expenses, unless the household verifies higher expenses,
for homeless households that do not have free shelter. |
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Authorized the Department to preclude the use of
estimates for homeless households with extremely low
shelter costs. |
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Required that State agencies designate rural areas and
use mail issuance within those areas unless mail losses
of the household or within the area exceed tolerances. |
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Authorized the Secretary to assign nutrition education
of eligible households to the Cooperative Extension
Service. |
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Required that GA and FSP applications be combined if
there is a single Statewide application for the GA
program. |
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Required that FSP applications and information be
provided to applicants for local GA programs that are
administered by the same agency that administers the FSP. |
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Extended the current requirement that individual Social
Security applicants/recipients be informed about food
stamp benefits and the availability of a simple food
stamp application at Social Security offices to
individual SSI applicants/recipients. (NOTE: This
provision is in addition to the current requirement in
the Act that SSI applicants and recipients who are or
will be in pure SSI households must be assisted in
completing FSP applications in Social Security offices
and be certified based on information in Social Security
files.) |
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Required that GAO audit and report to Congress by
December 31, 1991 on Social Security and SSI joint
processing provisions. |
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Permitted imposition of a civil money penalty of $20,000
for each violation (not to exceed $40,000 during a
2-year period) in lieu of disqualification for food
stamp trafficking. |
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Added evidence that ownership/management did not know
of, approve, benefit from, or participate in violations
to the criteria for establishing that firms have an
effective policy and program in effect to prevent
violations of the Act and regulations (criteria for
imposing CMPs in lieu of disqualifications). |
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Provided for permanent disqualification of firms found
to have sold firearms, ammunition, explosives, or
controlled substances for food stamps. |
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Permitted imposition of CMPs (as in two bullets
above) in lieu of disqualification. |
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Permitted imposition of fines, in amounts established by
the Department, against firms that accept food stamps
that are not accompanied by the corresponding book
cover, other than the denomination used for making
change. |
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Permitted imposition of fines (in amounts established by
the Department) against any person, not approved by the
Secretary to accept and redeem food stamps, who violates
any provision of the Act or regulations, including
violations concerning the sale of eligible items for
food stamps. |
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Required that a household disqualified for intentional
program violations (IPVs) must choose the repayment
method on the date a notice demanding such a choice is
received.
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Extended criminal penalties for food stamp abuse to
computer access devices. |
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Imposed a $250,000 fine or 20 years imprisonment against
individuals who knowingly use or possess food stamps or
authorization cards in any unauthorized manner if such
coupons or authorization cards are of a value of $5,000
or more. Retained current penalties if value in $100 or
more but less than $5,000. |
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Increased fines for felony trafficking from $10,000 to
$20,000. |
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Reduced the percentage of recovered overissuances that
may be retained by State agencies to 25% of fraud/IPV
recoveries and 10% of unintentional household error
recoveries for FYs 1991-95. |
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Barred further collection of most QC sanctions for FYs
1983-85. |
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Reduced enhanced ADP funding from 75 to 63% beginning FY
1992 for systems approved subsequent to enactment. |
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Provided $75 million annually to be allocated among
State agencies for E&T. |
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$15 million is to be allocated in each FY
1992-95 based on State agency performance. |
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$60 million is to be allocated for FY 1992 based
on the formula used in FY 1991 with certain
adjustments related to the proportion of work
registrants. |
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For FYs 1993-95, $60 million is to be allocated
based on each State agency's proportion of work
registrants. |
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Guaranteed each State at least $50,000 for E&T each FY. |
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Extended SSI/elderly cash-out projects through FY 1995. |
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Prohibited approval of demonstration projects subsequent
to enactment unless: |
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benefits are increased to the extent necessary
to compensate for State or local sales tax or
the tax on food is waived for such households or
the Secretary determines that increases are
unnecessary because of the limited nature of
items taxed, and |
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the State pays the cost of the increased
allotments. |
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Authorized the Secretary to conduct demonstration
projects to test improved consistency or coordination
between the food stamp E&T program and JOBS by waiving
E&T requirements. Required evaluations of the
demonstration projects and limited their operation to 4
years. |
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Authorized four demonstration projects, in both urban
and rural areas, in which pure AFDC households may be
issued food stamp allotments following AFDC rules. |
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Required the Secretary to submit a report to the House
Committee on Agriculture and the Senate Committee on
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry evaluating the
results of a project within 6 months of terminating it. |
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Subject to appropriations, mandated the Secretary to
make grants, totaling as much as $5 million in each of
FYs 1992-95, to public or private nonprofit
organizations to fund food stamp outreach demonstration
projects and related evaluations to increase
participation by eligible low-income households in the
FSP. |
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Authorized such sums as are necessary for each of FYs
1991-1995. |
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Continued the requirement for "15th of the month"
reports for the purpose of determining whether
supplemental appropriations will be needed. |
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Retained procedures for reducing allotments in the event
appropriations will not be sufficient. |
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Authorized the Department to use not more than $2
million of FSP demonstration project funding in any
fiscal year to make 2-year competitive grants to enhance
interagency cooperation in nutrition education
activities, and develop cost-effective ways to inform
people eligible for the FSP about nutrition, resource
management, and community nutrition education programs. |
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Provided NAP block grant funding in the amounts of $974
million for FY 1991, $1,013 million for FY 1992, $1,051
million for FY 1993, $1,091 million for FY 1994, and
$1,133 million for FY 1995. |
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Mandated a GAO study of the nutritional needs of Puerto
Ricans. Required a report to be submitted to the
appropriate House and Senate Committees by 8/1/92. |
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Mandated a review of regulations and for the approval of
ADP and information retrieval systems maintained by
States to determine the extent to which the regulations
and standards contribute to more effective and efficient
systems. Required that: |
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-- |
the Department revise regulations to take into
account the above review; |
|
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States incorporate all or part of systems in use
elsewhere unless they can document that the
design and operation of an alternate system
would be less costly; |
|
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the Department establish standards to define the
extent of modifications of the systems for which
Federal payments shall be made; |
|
-- |
proposed systems meet the Department's standards
for timely implementation of proper changes;
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criteria for the approval of a system for
payments include the cost effectiveness of the
proposed system; |
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Required the Department to conduct reviews as are
necessary to ensure that systems: |
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-- |
comply with conditions of initial funding
approvals and |
|
-- |
adequately support program delivery. |
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Required the Department, subsequent to the initial
review in the first bullet, to establish standards for
approval of systems. |
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Required States to implement standards within a
reasonable period of time established by the Department. |
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Required the Department to conduct periodic reviews of
systems to ensure compliance with the standards. |
|
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Required the Department to report to Congress on the
extent to which States have developed and are operating
effective systems that support FSP delivery.
|
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Established a Welfare Simplification and Coordination
Advisory Committee that will: |
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|
-- |
have 9-15 members appointed by the Secretary of
Agriculture |
|
-- |
identify policies in the FSP, cash and medical
programs under the SSA, and housing programs
that differ and, thus, make it difficult to
administer such programs or to apply for and
receive benefits from more than one of the
programs |
|
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recommend common policies |
|
-- |
report to Congress and the Secretaries of USDA,
HHS, and HUD by April 1, 1992. |
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Made most provisions effective the first of the month
120 days after publication of regulations but not later
than February 1, 1992; some other provisions were
effective the first day of the month 120 days after the
publication of regulations but not later than August 1,
1991 or October 1, 1991 or April 1, 1992; others are
effective upon enactment or retroactive to October 1,
1990. |
