Expanding SNAP Options Act of 2020
Latest action · Jul 2, 2020 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. (text: CR S4228-4229)
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJul 2, 2020
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
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.
Cosponsors 4
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Jul 2, 2020 to Sep 9, 2020, with 1 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-IL | Tammy Duckworth | Original | Jul 2, 2020 |
| D-NJ | Cory A. Booker | Jul 21, 2020 | |
| D-NV | Jacky Rosen | Jul 29, 2020 | |
| D-MN | Tina Smith | Sep 9, 2020 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jul 2, 2020Introduced in Senate
- Jul 2, 2020Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. (text: CR S4228-4229)
Related bills 1
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR 7535 | Expanding SNAP Options Act of 2020 | Related bill | Sep 3, 2020 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Agriculture and Food.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Jul 2, 2020Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.