Bill Sponsor
House Bill 7535
116th Congress(2019-2020)
Expanding SNAP Options Act of 2020
Introduced
Introduced
Introduced in House on Jul 9, 2020
Overview
Text
Introduced
Jul 9, 2020
Latest Action
Sep 3, 2020
Origin Chamber
House
Type
Bill
Bill
The primary form of legislative measure used to propose law. Depending on the chamber of origin, bills begin with a designation of either H.R. or S. Joint resolution is another form of legislative measure used to propose law.
Bill Number
7535
Congress
116
Policy Area
Agriculture and Food
Agriculture and Food
Primary focus of measure is agricultural practices; agricultural prices and marketing; agricultural education; food assistance or nutrition programs; food industry, supply, and safety; aquaculture; horticulture and plants. Measures concerning international trade in agricultural products may fall under Foreign Trade and International Finance policy area.
Sponsorship by Party
Democrat
Illinois
Democrat
District of Columbia
Republican
Illinois
Democrat
North Carolina
House Votes (0)
Senate Votes (0)
No House votes have been held for this bill.
Summary

Expanding SNAP Options Act of 2020

This bill revises the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the food stamp program) to make the online redemption of benefits, including the acceptance of Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards, more widely available by requiring the implementation of online SNAP purchasing in every state and providing funding for an online redemption portal and a technical assistance center.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) must award on a competitive basis one or more contracts to develop an EBT Online Redemption Portal to (1) allow program participants to use online or mobile electronic benefits transactions to purchase program foods from, and make online payments to, authorized program retailers under SNAP; and (2) facilitate food purchase delivery for program participants using such electronic benefits transactions.

The Food and Nutrition Service of USDA must award competitive grants or enter into cooperative agreements with nonprofit entities to establish a SNAP Online Purchasing Technical Assistance Center to provide state agencies, authorized program retailers, and program participants information on and technical assistance with accepting SNAP benefits through online transactions and use of the portal. In providing technical assistance, the center must give priority to entities that are small and limited-resource retailers.

The bill provides funding for both the online redemption portal and the technical assistance center.

USDA must maintain on its website a publicly available listing, organized and searchable by region, locality, and state, of all approved retail food stores accepting benefits from recipients of SNAP, including through online transactions.

Text (1)
Actions (3)
09/03/2020
Referred to the Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations.
07/09/2020
Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.
07/09/2020
Introduced in House
Public Record
Record Updated
Jan 11, 2023 1:45:59 PM