Food and Nutrition Service – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On May 13, 2002, the President signed the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. Title IV of that law, the Food Stamp Reauthorization Act of 2002, contains provisions substantively revising the Quality Control system. This rule proposes to amend the Food Stamp Program regulations to implement certain discretionary provisions concerning the Quality Control system in Sections 4118 and 4119 of the Food Stamp Reauthorization Act of 2002. This rule would establish new timeframes for completing individual Quality Control reviews and establish procedures for resolving liabilities following appeal decisions. This rule proposes to revise the negative case review procedures and provides procedures for households that break up while subject to the penalty for refusal to cooperate with a Quality Control review. This rule also proposes several additional policy changes and technical corrections, including deletion of material pertaining to enhanced administrative funding for low error rates, which was ended beginning in Fiscal Year 2003 by the statute. An interim rule published October 16, 2003, addressed certain non-discretionary provisions concerning the Quality Control system in Sections 4118 and 4119 of the Food Stamp Reauthorization Act. The high performance bonuses that replace the administrative enhanced funding are addressed in a separate rule published February 7, 2005. This rule would affect State agencies' quality control review operations, and it would alter the impact on State agencies of assessment and resolution of potential liabilities for excessive payment error rates and awarding of bonuses for superior performance. Households sampled for quality control review of their cases would be minimally affected by this rule.

USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has revised its Food Stamp Program Application for Stores, Form FNS-252 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2004. The form was revised to simplify and streamline information collected from retailers on the application and make it easier to read. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) granted a one year approval of the use of this form. FNS did not begin to use the new form until the fourth quarter of FY 2004 when the new Store Tracking and Redemption Subsystem (STARS II) became operational. We are soliciting public comments on the content, format and design of the revised Form FNS-252. As conditions of clearance for the revised retailer application, OMB is requiring that FNS translate the Form FNS-252 into Spanish and have it in active use within the year. OMB is also requiring FNS to track and report on the completion rates for questions 14c, 15b, 16, and 17b. FNS translated the Form FNS-252, into Spanish and is in the process of working with a contractor to post this information on the FNS website. We expect to have the Spanish version of Form FNS-252 in active use by the end of the fourth quarter of FY 2005. FNS is also in the process of tracking the completion rate of those questions identified by OMB, and referenced above. We will report the results upon resubmission to OMB for approval. Finally, a question asking retailers to provide the number of check-out registers that are in the store was omitted from the revised Form FNS-252 in error. FNS needs this information for program management purposes, and it impacts our ability to accurately provide point-of-sale information to third party processors and State contractors. As a result of this finding, FNS intends to add this question to the revised Form FNS-252.

This rule adds a provision to the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) regulations that authorizes for-profit centers providing child care or outside-school-hours care to participate based on the income eligibility of 25 percent of children in care for free or reduced price meals. This provision, which has been available nationwide on an interim basis through annual appropriation acts since December 2000, was permanently established by the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004. This rule permits the ongoing participation of for-profit centers in the CACFP based on the income eligibility of children in care for free or reduced price meals.

This Notice announces the annual adjustments to the ``national average payments,'' the amount of money the Federal Government provides States for lunches, afterschool snacks and breakfasts served to children participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs; to the ``maximum reimbursement rates,'' the maximum per lunch rate from Federal funds that a State can provide a school food authority for lunches served to children participating in the National School Lunch Program; and to the rate of reimbursement for a half[pi]pint of milk served to nonneedy children in a school or institution which participates in the Special Milk Program for Children. The payments and rates are prescribed on an annual basis each July. The annual payments and rates adjustments for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs reflect changes in the Food Away From Home series of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. The annual rate adjustment for the Special Milk Program reflects changes in the Producer Price Index for Fluid Milk Products. These payments and rates are in effect from July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Food and Nutrition Service announces its intention to request the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to extend approval of the information collection for the Special Milk Program for Children.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Food and Nutrition Service's (FNS) intention to request approval of revision of a currently approved collection, Forms FNS-698State Agency Profile of Integrity Practices and Procedures Report Form, FNS-699The Integrity Profile Report Form, and FNS-700 TIP Data Entry Form.

This interim rule reflects amendments made by section 111 of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 which require schools participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) to increase the number of food safety inspections from the one inspection currently required to two inspections per year; to post the most recent inspection report in a visible location; and to release a copy of the report to members of the public upon request. This interim rule also reflects the statutory amendment which requires State agencies to annually monitor schools' compliance with the inspection requirement (through a consolidated report from the school food authority), and to submit a report on the results of the review to the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). As a result of the statutory amendments, schools will be able to identify and correct food safety problems in a more timely and consistent manner, thereby enhancing the quality of school meals. State monitoring of the inspection requirement will allow the State agency to target their technical assistance efforts to those school food authorities (SFAs) experiencing difficulties in meeting the requirement. Collecting the number of inspections completed by schools will help the State become aware of the level of compliance with this requirement and problems associated with it.

In accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended, this final rule adjusts civil monetary penalties imposed by agencies within USDA to incorporate an inflation adjustment.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public to comment on proposed information collection related to the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), including adjustments to be made as a result of the interim rule, School Food Safety Inspections.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Food and Nutrition Service's (Agency) intention to request Office of Management and Budget's approval of a new information collection for States and schools that participate in the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. The Agency will collect reports from the states during fiscal years 2005 through 2008.

This action provides interim and final rulemaking for a proposed rule. It revises Food Stamp Program rules affecting the standards for approval and operation of Food Stamp Electronic Benefit Transfer systems. The changes will increase State agency flexibility in administering the Program and maximize the advantages afforded by the technology. The revisions will also streamline Program administration and improve customer service. Based on the comments received, a significant change to the store-and-forward provision of the proposed rule has been incorporated. The Department has decided to publish this provision only, as an interim rule, so that retailers may immediately be allowed to recoup partial payment for store-and-forward transactions denied solely for insufficient funds, and at the same time, it can solicit comments on the impact of the change. All comments received will be analyzed, and any appropriate changes to the store-and-forward provision of the rule will be incorporated into the subsequent publication of a store-and-forward final rule. The Department is publishing all of the remaining provisions from the proposed rule as a final rule.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on proposed information collections. The FNS-674 Form is a standard form used by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to collect information necessary to grant access to FNS computer systems. The collected data will be used to identify all users granted access to FNS internal systems as required by USDA and FNS Security Policy.

This notice announces the surplus and purchased commodities that the Department expects to make available for donation to States for use in providing nutrition assistance to the needy under the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2005. The commodities made available under this notice must, at the discretion of the State, be distributed to eligible recipient agencies for use in preparing meals, and/or for distribution to households for home consumption.

The 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 Program (WIC). These income eligibility guidelines are to be used in conjunction with the WIC Regulations.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Food and Nutrition Service is publishing for public comment a summary of a proposed information collection. The proposed collection is a revision of a currently approved collection of the Food Stamp Program for which approval expires on February 28, 2005. The Food Stamp Act of 1977, as amended, requires that the Food and Nutrition Service will provide all authorized retail food stores and wholesale food concerns with redemption certificates. The redemption certificates are to be used by all authorized retailers and wholesale firms to present food coupons to insured financial institutions for credit or for cash. Requirements in the Food Stamp Program regulations are the basis for the information collected on Form FNS-278B, Food Stamp Redemption Certificate and Form FNS-278-4, Wholesaler Redemption Certificate. The Food and Nutrition Service is rapidly phasing out the use of paper food coupons. Currently, 99.9 percent of all food stamp benefits are issued electronically. Forty-eight States, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and Puerto Rico have online operating Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) systems. Two States operate offline food stamp EBT systems and issue paper food coupons to recipients who move out of State and have remaining food stamp benefits. Many States have already closed out their coupon inventory completely and more will be doing the same in the upcoming year. Approximately 438,955 Redemption Certificates were processed by retailers and wholesalers in Fiscal Year 2004, and the number continues to decline due to 100 percent EBT implementation. Until all of the paper food coupons issued are redeemed, the Redemption Certificate will remain an essential document to the food stamp redemption process.

This rule finalizes amendments to the Food Stamp Program (FSP) regulations that were proposed in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), ``Food Stamp Program High Performance Bonuses'', published on December 17, 2003 in the Federal Register. The NPRM proposed regulations that would implement section 4120 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (FSRIA) which authorized the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to award bonuses to States that demonstrate high or improved performance in administering the FSP. The NPRM proposed performance measures for the high performance bonuses for fiscal year (FY) 2005 and beyond. It also proposed the data that would be used to measure the identified performance. This final rule summarizes and discusses the comments we received as well as adjusts the regulatory language when necessary in response to those comments.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Food and Nutrition Service's (FNS) intention to request an extension for a currently approved information collection, the WIC Financial Management and Participation Report with Addendum.