[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1752 Introduced in House (IH)]
113th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1752
To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to require retail food
stores to collect, and report to the Secretary of Agriculture, detailed
information that identifies food items purchased with benefits provided
under the supplemental nutrition assistance program; and to require the
Secretary to compile and publish such information.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 25, 2013
Mr. Marino introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Agriculture
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to require retail food
stores to collect, and report to the Secretary of Agriculture, detailed
information that identifies food items purchased with benefits provided
under the supplemental nutrition assistance program; and to require the
Secretary to compile and publish such information.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``SNAP Transparency Act of 2013''.
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHING A UNIFORM REPORTING SYSTEM.
Section 4 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2013) is
amended by adding at the end the following:
``(d) Issuance of Uniform Reporting Guidelines.--
``(1) Reporting guidelines for retail food stores.--Not
later than one year after the date of the enactment of the SNAP
Transparency Act of 2013, the Secretary shall issue guidelines
in accordance with paragraph (2) that establish a uniform
reporting system regarding the food items purchased partially
or completely with benefits from the supplemental nutrition
assistance program that can be applied with reasonable
consistency by each retail food store that redeems such
benefits. Such guidelines should be issued according to best
practices of monitoring and evaluation studies and analyses.
``(2) Objectives of guidelines.--
``(A) In general.--The guidelines issued under
paragraph (1) shall provide direction to retail food
stores that redeem benefits under this program on how
to report on a quarterly basis the complete range,
identities, sizes, quantites, and costs of particular
food items purchased with such benefits. This uniform
reporting system shall ensure that the reports from
each retail food store are comparable.
``(B) Objectives.--Specifically, the guidelines
shall provide direction on what information to include
to comply with the reporting requirements established
under paragraph (1):
``(i) The established uniform, quarterly
reporting system or form to be made available
to participating retail food stores.
``(ii) The identity (including label and
brand name) of each food item purchased with
such benefits in the reporting period.
``(iii) The size of each food item
purchased with such benefits in the reporting
period.
``(iv) The number of units of each
identical food item purchased with such
benefits in the reporting period.
``(v) The aggregate cost of each identical
food item purchased with such benefits in the
reporting period.
``(vi) The address of the retail food store
in which the food item was purchased with such
benefits in the reporting period.
``(vii) Application of rigorous monitoring
and evaluation methodologies to ensure that--
``(I) the total value of benefits
redeemed by each reporting retail food
store is equal to the total retail cost
of food items purchased with such
benefits reported in the reporting
period; and
``(II) the accuracy of the
information reported in the reporting
period.
``(e) Submission and Publication of Reports.--
``(1) Submission of reports by retail food stores.--Not
later than 60 days after end of each calendar quarter, or
earlier if determined by the Secretary, and in accordance with
rules issued by the Secretary, each retail food store that
redeems benefits under the supplemental nutrition assistance
program shall submit to the Secretary a report that complies
with subsection (d).
``(2) Publication of reports by secretary.--Not later than
90 days after the end of each calendar quarter, or earlier if
determined by the Secretary, the Secretary shall compile, and
shall publish on the Internet in a format searchable by the
public as compiled, the information received in the reports
submitted under paragraph (1) for such quarter. Such
information so compiled shall include--
``(A) a comprehensive, timely, comparable, and
accessible information on the food items purchased with
benefits from the supplemental nutrition assistance
program, using the reporting requirements established
by the Secretary under subsection (d)(1);
``(B) the identity (including label and brand name)
of each food item purchased with such benefits in the
reporting period;
``(C) the size of each food item purchased with
such benefits in the reporting period;
``(D) the number of units of each identical food
item purchased with such benefits in the reporting
period;
``(E) the aggregate cost of each identical food
item purchased with such benefits in the reporting
period;
``(F) the address of the retail food store in which
the food item was purchased with such benefits in the
reporting period; and
``(G) with respect to each type of particular food
item identified, the average retail sale price of the
item purchased with such benefits.''.
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFINGS IF REQUIREMENTS ARE NOT MET.
If the information described in section 4(e)(2) of the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2013(e)(2)) with respect to
food items purchased with benefits from the supplemental nutrition
assistance program is not provided as required under section 4(e) of
such Act (7 U.S.C. 2013(e)), then the Secretary shall provide briefings
to the appropriate congressional committees, along with a detailed
explanation of why the requirements for publication on the Internet
have not been met and when they will be met, with respect to each month
for which such information is not published on the Internet.
SEC. 4. OFFSET.
Of the amount appropriated to carry out the supplemental nutrition
assistance program for each fiscal year, up to 5 percent shall be a
available to carry out the amendment made by section 2 of this Act.
SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATES.
(a) General Effective Date.--Except as provided in subsection (b),
this Act and the amendment made by this Act shall take effect on the
date of the enactment of this Act.
(b) Delayed Effective Date.--Subsection (e) of section 4 of the
Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2013), as added by section 2
of this Act, shall take effect on the 1st day of the 1st calendar
quarter that begins not less than 1 year after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
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