IIA

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 3436

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

NOVEMBER 10 (legislative day, NOVEMBER 2), 1993

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition,

and Forestry

AN ACT

To amend the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to ensure adequate

access to retail food stores by recipients of food stamps

and to maintain the integrity of the Food Stamp

Program.

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

3 SECTION 1. FOOD STAMP ACT DEFINITIONS.

4 Section 3 of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C.

5 2012) is amended by—

6 (1) amending clause (1) of subsection (k) to

7 read as follows: ‘‘(1) an establishment or house-to8 house trade route that sells food for home prepara9 tion and consumption and (A) offers for sale on a

10 continuous basis a variety of foods in each of the

11 four categories of staple foods as defined in sub-
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1 section (u), including perishable foods in at least two

2 such categories, or (B) has over 50 per centum of

3 its total sales in staple foods, as determined by vis4 ual inspection, sales records, purchase records,

5 counting of stock keeping units, or other inventory

6 or accounting recordkeeping methods that are cus7 tomary or reasonable in the retail food industry,’’;

8 and

9 (2) adding a new subsection (u) at the end

10 thereof to read as follows—

11 ‘‘(u) ‘Staple foods’ means foods in the following cat12 egories: (1) meat, poultry, or fish; (2) bread or cereals;

13 (3) vegetables or fruits; and (4) dairy products. Staple

14 foods do not include accessory food items such as coffee,

15 tea, cocoa, carbonated and uncarbonated drinks, candy,

16 condiments, and spices.’’.

17 SEC. 2. PERIODIC NOTICE.

18 Section 9(a)(2) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7

19 U.S.C. 2018(a)(2)) is amended to read as follows:

20 ‘‘(2) The Secretary shall issue regulations providing

21 for a periodic reauthorization of retail food stores and

22 wholesale food concerns, and providing for periodic notice

23 to participating retail food stores and wholesale food con24 cerns of the definitions of ‘retail food store’, ‘staple foods’,

25 ‘eligible foods’, and ‘perishable foods’.’’.
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1 SEC. 3. USE AND DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION PROVIDED

2 BY RETAIL FOOD STORES AND WHOLESALE

3 FOOD CONCERNS.

4 Section 9(c) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7

5 U.S.C. 2018(c)) is amended—

6 (1) in the second sentence by inserting after

7 ‘‘disclosed to and used by’’ the following: ‘‘(1) Fed8 eral law enforcement and investigative agencies and

9 law enforcement and investigative agencies of a

10 State government for the purposes of administering

11 or enforcing the provisions of this Act or any other

12 Federal or State law and the regulations issued

13 under this Act or such law, and (2)’’;

14 (2) by inserting after the second sentence the

15 following: ‘‘Any person who publishes, divulges, dis16 closes, or makes known in any manner or to any ex17 tent not authorized by Federal law, or the regula18 tions issued under this Act, any information ob19 tained under this subsection shall be fined not more

20 than $1,000, or imprisoned not more than one year,

21 or both.’’; and

22 (3) in the last sentence by striking ‘‘Such pur23 poses shall not exclude’’ and inserting the following:

24 ‘‘Such regulations shall establish the criteria to be

25 used by the Secretary to determine that such infor-
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1 mation is needed. Such regulations shall not pro2 hibit’’.

3 SEC. 4. DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS TESTING ACTIVITIES

4 DIRECTED AT TRAFFICKING IN COUPONS.

5 Section 17 of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C.

6 2026) is amended by adding a new subsection (l) at the

7 end thereof as follows:

8 ‘‘(l) The Secretary shall use up to $4,000,000 of the

9 funds provided in advance in appropriations Acts for

10 projects authorized by this section to conduct demonstra11 tion projects in which State or local food stamp agencies

12 test innovative ideas for working with State or local law

13 enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute coupon

14 trafficking by recipients, buyers, and retail food stores.’’.

15 SEC. 5. CONTINUING ELIGIBILITY.

16 An establishment or house-to-house trade route that

17 is otherwise authorized to accept and redeem coupons

18 under the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et

19 seq.) at the time of enactment of this Act shall be consid20 ered to meet the definition of ‘‘retail food store’’ in section

21 3(k) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977, as amended by sec22 tion 1 of this Act, until its periodic reauthorization or until

23 such time as the eligibility of the establishment or house-
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1 to-house trade route for continued participation in the

2 food stamp program is evaluated for any reason.

Passed the House of Representatives November 10,

1993.

Attest: DONNALD K. ANDERSON,

Clerk.