The rule entitled Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Trafficking Controls and Fraud Investigations was published on August 21, 2013. The ICR for this rule approved the creation of a new information collection, which has been assigned the OMB Control Number 0584-0587. The Office of Management and Budget cleared the associated ICR on Sept. 23, 2013. This document announces the approval of the ICR.
This report is a census of women, infants, and children who were participating in the WIC program in April, 2012. The report includes information on participant income and nutrition risk characteristics, and estimates breastfeeding initiation rates for WIC infants.
In February, 2013, FNS published final regulations revising the definition of trafficking. It subsequently came to our attention that some states were not clear that upon its effective date, federal law takes precedence and states were expected to implement the new federal trafficking definition.
FNS is issuing a final rule to amend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program regulations to allow state agencies to deny a request for a replacement card until contact is made by the household with the state agency, if the requests for replacement cards are determined to be excessive.
Trafficking of SNAP benefits occurs when SNAP recipients sell their benefits for cash to food retailers, often at a discount. Although trafficking does not increase costs to the federal government, it is a diversion of program benefits from their intended purpose of helping low-income families access a nutritious diet. This report, the latest in a series of periodic analyses, provides estimates of the extent of trafficking during the period 2009 through 2011.
The SNAP Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program Interim Rule was published in the Federal Register on April 5, 2013
This rule amends Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) regulations to implement Section 28 of the Food and Nutrition Act (“FNA” or the “Act”) of 2008, as added by Section 241 of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids (HHFK) Act of 2010, to award grants to states for provision of nutrition education and obesity prevention programs.
The Food and Nutrition Service is changing the SNAP regulations pertaining to client benefit use, participation of retail food stores and wholesale food concerns in SNAP, and SNAP client participation in the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations.
The increased focus on SNAP integrity has required FNS and the states to review their procedures for responding to integrity issues, specifically a clarification of FNS' responsibility when a state employee is found guilty of fraud while administering the program.