On Dec. 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021 that temporarily expands student eligibility of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008.
Building on best practices to date and consistent with USDA’s efforts to improve customer service and increase state flexibility within the bounds of the law, while continuing to encourage states as laboratories of innovation, FNS is once again expanding allowable activities for states seeking to use vendor/private staff in call centers
On April 15, 2019, FNS published the final rule for The SNAP Student Eligibility, Convicted Felons, Lottery and Gambling and State Verification Provisions of the Agricultural Act of 2014.
In a continuous effort to provide state agencies with opportunities for greater flexibility, FNS will provide longer approval periods for the administrative waivers listed below as these waivers have been shown to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of SNAP operations.
The purpose of this memo is to transmit national target areas and procedures for SNAP Management Evaluations for FY 2019. The FNS national office, in collaboration with FNS regional offices, has identified three national target areas and eight at-risk program areas where resources should be directed for FY 2019.
Consistent with USDA's efforts to increase state flexibility within the bounds of the law, FNS is expanding allowable activities for states seeking to use non-merit system personnel in call centers. With FNS approval, states may now use non-merit personnel to provide basic case-specific information that is readily available in the system to a SNAP applicant or participant, such as application or case status, benefit issuance date, and status of submitted verifications.
This memo discusses SNAP applications and other documents being sent by clients to the USDA Office of Civil Rights instead of the appropriate state SNAP office. The memo outlines best practices states can use to make submission instructions clearer for clients.
FNS is issuing this policy memo in response to inquiries about how state agencies are required to inform households about required and missing verification and how this interacts with other Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) requirements, including whether a state may close a case on the 30th day following application.
This memorandum provides additional implementation guidance regarding the final rule titled the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Review of Major Changes in Program Design and Management Evaluations (“Major Changes Rule”) published in the Federal Register on Jan. 19, 2016.