I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2384 

To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to require that supplemental 

nutrition assistance program benefits be calculated with reference to 

the cost of the low-cost food plan as determined by the Secretary of 

Agriculture, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 14, 2013 

Mr. DEUTCH (for himself, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. LANGEVIN, Ms. MOORE, Mr. 

LEWIS, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. WATERS, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Ms. 

CLARKE, Mr. NADLER, Ms. BROWN of Florida, Ms. LEE of California, 

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. TITUS, Mr. HORSFORD, Mr. VELA, Mr. 

CA ́RDENAS, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. 

RUSH, Mr. POCAN, and Mr. GALLEGO) 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 

that supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits 

be calculated with reference to the cost of the low-cost 

food plan as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture, 

and for other purposes. 

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


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Food Security Im3 provement Act of 2013’’. 

4 SEC. 2. CALCULATION OF SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION AS5 SISTANCE PROGRAM BENEFITS USING COST 

6 OF LOW-COST FOOD PLAN. 

7 The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2011 

8 et seq.) is amended— 

9 (1) in section 3 (7 U.S.C. 2012) by inserting 

10 after subsection (l) the following: 

11 ‘‘(l–A) ‘Low-cost food plan’ means the cost of the diet 

12 determined by the Secretary, as described in ‘The Low13 Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal Food Plans, 2007’, pub14 lished by the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion 

15 (CNPP–20, November 2007) of the Department of Agri16 culture. The cost of such diet shall be the basis for uni17 form allotments for all households regardless of their ac18 tual composition, except that the Secretary shall— 

19 ‘‘(1) make household-size adjustments (based 

20 on the unrounded cost of such diet) taking into ac21 count economies of scale; 

22 ‘‘(2) make cost adjustments in the low-cost food 

23 plan for Hawaii and the urban and rural parts of 

24 Alaska to reflect the cost of food in Hawaii and 

25 urban and rural Alaska; 


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1 ‘‘(3) make cost adjustments in the separate 

2 low-cost food plans for Guam, and the Virgin Is3 lands of the United States, to reflect the cost of food 

4 in those States, but not to exceed the cost of food 

5 in the 50 States and the District of Columbia; and 

6 ‘‘(4) on October 1, 2015, and each October 1 

7 thereafter, adjust the cost of the diet to reflect the 

8 cost of the diet in the preceding June, and round the 

9 result to the nearest lower dollar increment for each 

10 household size.’’; 

11 (2) in section 8(a) (7 U.S.C. 2017(a)) by strik12 ing ‘‘thrifty food plan’’ each place it appears, and in13 serting ‘‘low-cost food plan’’; 

14 (3) in section 18(a)(1) (7 U.S.C. 2027(a)(1)) 

15 by striking ‘‘2012’’ and inserting ‘‘2015’’; 

16 (4) in section 19(a)(2)(A) (7 U.S.C. 

17 2028(a)(2)(A))— 

18 (A) in clause (i) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 

19 end; 

20 (B) in clause (ii)— 

21 (i) by striking ‘‘each fiscal year there22 after’’ and inserting ‘‘each of fiscal years 

23 2003 through 2014’’; and 

24 (ii) by striking the period at the end 

25 and inserting a semicolon; and 


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1 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

2 ‘‘(iii) for fiscal year 2015, 

3 $2,191,000,000; and 

4 ‘‘(iv) subject to the availability of ap5 propriations under section 18(a), for fiscal 

6 year 2016 and each fiscal year thereafter, 

7 the amount determined under clause (iii), 

8 as adjusted by the percentage by which the 

9 low-cost food plan has been adjusted under 

10 section 3(l–A)(4) between June 30, 2014, 

11 and June 30 of the immediately preceding 

12 fiscal year.’’; and 

13 (5) in section 27(a) (7 U.S.C. 2036(a)) by 

14 striking ‘‘2012’’ each place it appears and inserting 

15 ‘‘2015’’. 

Æ 


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