Food and Nutrition Service April 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (``Department'') announces adjusted income eligibility guidelines to be used by State agencies in determining the income eligibility of persons applying to participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). These income eligibility guidelines are to be used in conjunction with the WIC Regulations.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. This collection is an extension, without change, of a currently approved collection to collect qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient and timely manner. The Food and Nutrition Service created this generic information collection in 2016 as part of a Federal Government-wide effort to streamline the process for seeking feedback from the public on service delivery.

This final rule implements four sections of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 Farm Bill), affecting eligibility, benefits, and program administration requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Section 4007 clarifies that participants in a SNAP Employment & Training (E&T) program are eligible for benefits if they enroll or participate in specific programs that will assist SNAP recipients in obtaining the skills needed for the current job market. Section 4008 prohibits anyone convicted of Federal aggravated sexual abuse, murder, sexual exploitation and abuse of children, sexual assault, or similar State laws, and who are also not in compliance with the terms of their sentence or parole, or are a fleeing felon, from receiving SNAP benefits. Section 4009 prohibits individuals with substantial lottery and gambling winnings from receiving SNAP benefits. Section 4015 requires all State agencies to have a system in place to verify income, eligibility, and immigration status.

This proposed rule seeks to amend the regulatory standards by which the U.S. Department of Agriculture evaluates State Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) agency requests to waive the time limit and to end the unlimited carryover of able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWD) percentage exemptions. The proposed rule would encourage broader application of the statutory ABAWD work requirement, consistent with the Administration's focus on fostering self- sufficiency. The original comment period for this proposed rule ended on April 2, 2019. FNS seeks to reopen the comment period on April 8, 2019, for a period of 3 days ending April 10, 2019.

The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS, or the Agency) proposes to make changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) regulations pertaining to the eligibility of certain SNAP retail food stores. These proposed changes are in response to the Consolidated Appropriations Acts of 2017 and 2018, which prohibited the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from implementing two retailer stocking provisions (the ``Breadth of Stock'' provision and the ``Definition of `Variety' '' provision) of the 2016 final rule titled, ``Enhancing Retailer Standards in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)'', until such a time as regulatory modifications to the definition of ``variety'' are made that would increase the number of food items that count as acceptable staple food varieties for purposes of SNAP retailer eligibility. Using existing authority in the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, the Agency proposes to modify the definition of the term ``variety'' as it pertains to the stocking requirements for SNAP authorized retail food stores. These proposed changes would provide retailers with more flexibility in meeting the enhanced stocking requirements of the 2016 final rule which were mandated by the Agricultural Act of 2014 (the 2014 Farm Bill), and align SNAP regulations with the requirements expressed in the Consolidated Appropriations Acts of 2017 and 2018. This proposed rule does not modify any other provisions or components of the 2016 final rule, ``Enhancing Retailer Standards in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).''