I 

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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘SNAP Transparency 

5 Act of 2013’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHING A UNIFORM REPORTING SYSTEM. 

2 Section 4 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 

3 U.S.C. 2013) is amended by adding at the end the fol4 lowing: 

5 ‘‘(d) ISSUANCE OF UNIFORM REPORTING GUIDE6 LINES.— 

7 ‘‘(1) REPORTING GUIDELINES FOR RETAIL

8 FOOD STORES.—Not later than one year after the 

9 date of the enactment of the SNAP Transparency 

10 Act of 2013, the Secretary shall issue guidelines in 

11 accordance with paragraph (2) that establish a uni12 form reporting system regarding the food items pur13 chased partially or completely with benefits from the 

14 supplemental nutrition assistance program that can 

15 be applied with reasonable consistency by each retail 

16 food store that redeems such benefits. Such guide17 lines should be issued according to best practices of 

18 monitoring and evaluation studies and analyses. 

19 ‘‘(2) OBJECTIVES OF GUIDELINES.— 

20 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The guidelines issued 

21 under paragraph (1) shall provide direction to 

22 retail food stores that redeem benefits under 

23 this program on how to report on a quarterly 

24 basis the complete range, identities, sizes, 

25 quantites, and costs of particular food items 

26 purchased with such benefits. This uniform reVerDate Mar 15 2010 00:53 May 01, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1752.IH H1752

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1 porting system shall ensure that the reports 

2 from each retail food store are comparable. 

3 ‘‘(B) OBJECTIVES.—Specifically, the 

4 guidelines shall provide direction on what infor5 mation to include to comply with the reporting 

6 requirements established under paragraph (1): 

7 ‘‘(i) The established uniform, quar8 terly reporting system or form to be made 

9 available to participating retail food stores. 

10 ‘‘(ii) The identity (including label and 

11 brand name) of each food item purchased 

12 with such benefits in the reporting period. 

13 ‘‘(iii) The size of each food item pur14 chased with such benefits in the reporting 

15 period. 

16 ‘‘(iv) The number of units of each 

17 identical food item purchased with such 

18 benefits in the reporting period. 

19 ‘‘(v) The aggregate cost of each iden20 tical food item purchased with such bene21 fits in the reporting period. 

22 ‘‘(vi) The address of the retail food 

23 store in which the food item was purchased 

24 with such benefits in the reporting period. 


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1 ‘‘(vii) Application of rigorous moni2 toring and evaluation methodologies to en3 sure that— 

4 ‘‘(I) the total value of benefits re5 deemed by each reporting retail food 

6 store is equal to the total retail cost 

7 of food items purchased with such 

8 benefits reported in the reporting pe9 riod; and 

10 ‘‘(II) the accuracy of the infor11 mation reported in the reporting pe12 riod. 

13 ‘‘(e) SUBMISSION AND PUBLICATION OF REPORTS.— 

14 ‘‘(1) SUBMISSION OF REPORTS BY RETAIL FOOD

15 STORES.—Not later than 60 days after end of each 

16 calendar quarter, or earlier if determined by the Sec17 retary, and in accordance with rules issued by the 

18 Secretary, each retail food store that redeems bene19 fits under the supplemental nutrition assistance pro20 gram shall submit to the Secretary a report that 

21 complies with subsection (d). 

22 ‘‘(2) PUBLICATION OF REPORTS BY SEC23 RETARY.—Not later than 90 days after the end of 

24 each calendar quarter, or earlier if determined by 

25 the Secretary, the Secretary shall compile, and shall 


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1 publish on the Internet in a format searchable by 

2 the public as compiled, the information received in 

3 the reports submitted under paragraph (1) for such 

4 quarter. Such information so compiled shall in5 clude— 

6 ‘‘(A) a comprehensive, timely, comparable, 

7 and accessible information on the food items 

8 purchased with benefits from the supplemental 

9 nutrition assistance program, using the report10 ing requirements established by the Secretary 

11 under subsection (d)(1); 

12 ‘‘(B) the identity (including label and 

13 brand name) of each food item purchased with 

14 such benefits in the reporting period; 

15 ‘‘(C) the size of each food item purchased 

16 with such benefits in the reporting period; 

17 ‘‘(D) the number of units of each identical 

18 food item purchased with such benefits in the 

19 reporting period; 

20 ‘‘(E) the aggregate cost of each identical 

21 food item purchased with such benefits in the 

22 reporting period; 

23 ‘‘(F) the address of the retail food store in 

24 which the food item was purchased with such 

25 benefits in the reporting period; and 


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1 ‘‘(G) with respect to each type of par2 ticular food item identified, the average retail 

3 sale price of the item purchased with such bene4 fits.’’. 

5 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFINGS IF REQUIREMENTS 

6 ARE NOT MET. 

7 If the information described in section 4(e)(2) of the 

8 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 

9 2013(e)(2)) with respect to food items purchased with 

10 benefits from the supplemental nutrition assistance pro11 gram is not provided as required under section 4(e) of 

12 such Act (7 U.S.C. 2013(e)), then the Secretary shall pro13 vide briefings to the appropriate congressional committees, 

14 along with a detailed explanation of why the requirements 

15 for publication on the Internet have not been met and 

16 when they will be met, with respect to each month for 

17 which such information is not published on the Internet. 

18 SEC. 4. OFFSET. 

19 Of the amount appropriated to carry out the supple20 mental nutrition assistance program for each fiscal year, 

21 up to 5 percent shall be a available to carry out the 

22 amendment made by section 2 of this Act. 

23 SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATES. 

24 (a) GENERAL EFFECTIVE DATE.—Except as pro25 vided in subsection (b), this Act and the amendment made 


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1 by this Act shall take effect on the date of the enactment 

2 of this Act. 

3 (b) DELAYED EFFECTIVE DATE.—Subsection (e) of 

4 section 4 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 

5 2013), as added by section 2 of this Act, shall take effect 

6 on the 1st day of the 1st calendar quarter that begins 

7 not less than 1 year after the date of the enactment of 

8 this Act. 

Æ 


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