II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 313 

To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to expand online benefit 

redemption options under the supplemental nutrition assistance program, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 12, 2021 

Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mr. BOOKER, Ms. SMITH, Ms. 

BALDWIN, Mr. SANDERS, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Ms. ROSEN, 

Ms. HIRONO, Mr. MERKLEY, and Mr. HEINRICH) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 

A BILL 

To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to expand 

online benefit redemption options under the supplemental 

nutrition assistance program, 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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Expanding SNAP Op5 tions Act of 2021’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ONLINE PORTAL FOR SNAP BENEFIT REDEMPTION. 

7 Section 7(h)(14) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 

8 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2016(h)(14)) is amended— 


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1 (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘Subject 

2 to subparagraph (B), the’’ and inserting ‘‘The’’; and 

3 (2) by striking subparagraph (B) and inserting 

4 the following: 

5 ‘‘(B) EBT ONLINE REDEMPTION POR6 TAL.— 

7 ‘‘(i) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this 

8 subparagraph is to expand options for and 

9 access to food for eligible households by 

10 making the online redemption of program 

11 benefits, including the acceptance of EBT 

12 cards, more widely available to grocery 

13 stores, small retailers, and farmers who 

14 face barriers in implementing their own 

15 online payment portals. 

16 ‘‘(ii) CONTRACTS.—Not later than 

17 180 days after the date of enactment of 

18 the Expanding SNAP Options Act of 

19 2021, the Secretary shall award on a com20 petitive basis 1 or more contracts to 1 or 

21 more eligible entities described in clause 

22 (iii) to develop an online portal, to be 

23 known as the ‘EBT Online Redemption 

24 Portal’— 


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1 ‘‘(I) to allow program partici2 pants to use online or mobile elec3 tronic benefits transactions, including 

4 through the acceptance of EBT cards, 

5 to purchase program foods from, and 

6 make online payments to, authorized 

7 program retailers under the supple8 mental nutrition assistance program; 

9 and 

10 ‘‘(II) to facilitate food purchase 

11 delivery for program participants 

12 using the transactions described in 

13 subclause (I). 

14 ‘‘(iii) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—An eligible 

15 entity referred to in clause (ii) is any for16 profit or nonprofit entity with demon17 strable expertise in the development, oper18 ation, or maintenance of electronic pay19 ment systems (including systems with ad20 vanced security protocols), which may in21 clude expertise in benefits management or 

22 administration of State systems, as deter23 mined by the Secretary. 

24 ‘‘(iv) APPLICATION; PORTAL FEA25 TURES.— 


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1 ‘‘(I) APPLICATION.—An eligible 

2 entity shall submit to the Secretary 

3 an application at such time, in such 

4 manner, and containing such informa5 tion as the Secretary may require, in6 cluding— 

7 ‘‘(aa) a description of how 

8 the eligible entity plans to imple9 ment the requirements described 

10 in clause (v); and 

11 ‘‘(bb) a beta plan that has 

12 been user-tested. 

13 ‘‘(II) PORTAL FEATURES.—In 

14 awarding a contract to an eligible en15 tity under clause (ii), the Secretary 

16 shall give preference to an eligible en17 tity that demonstrates an ability to 

18 implement the following features of an 

19 EBT Online Redemption Portal: 

20 ‘‘(aa) Client-facing tech21 nology with a primary preference 

22 for mobile device or smartphone 

23 application. 


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1 ‘‘(bb) Fail-safe systems to 

2 maintain privacy and online secu3 rity of data. 

4 ‘‘(cc) Ability to redirect a 

5 consumer to an existing online 

6 platform of a vendor, if applica7 ble. 

8 ‘‘(dd) Ability to update as 

9 technologies evolve. 

10 ‘‘(ee) Ease of operation for 

11 program participants, including 

12 multilingual functionality. 

13 ‘‘(ff) Interoperability with 

14 delivery technologies and inter15 faces. 

16 ‘‘(gg) Identification of par17 ticipating retailers within geo18 graphic proximity to the user. 

19 ‘‘(hh) Ability to perform sin20 gle transactions using mixed ten21 der, including a single trans22 action for eligible food items 

23 using an EBT card and non24 eligible items using another form 

25 of payment. 


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1 ‘‘(ii) Adherence to a com2 prehensive business continuity 

3 and disaster recovery plan— 

4 ‘‘(AA) to allow the por5 tal to recover from any 

6 interruption of service; and 

7 ‘‘(BB) that includes 

8 sufficient back-up systems, 

9 equipment, facilities, and 

10 trained personnel to imple11 ment the plan. 

12 ‘‘(v) REQUIREMENTS.— 

13 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—The Online 

14 EBT Redemption Portal developed by 

15 the eligible entity awarded the con16 tract under clause (ii) shall— 

17 ‘‘(aa) enable the integrated 

18 processing of an online EBT 

19 transaction by providing a plat20 form and facilitating the pur21 chasing interaction between the 

22 consumer, retailer, third-party 

23 processors (for EBT card proc24 essing and the secure online 

25 entry of a personal identification 


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1 number), and delivery vendor, as 

2 applicable; 

3 ‘‘(bb) to deter fraud, have in 

4 place for program participants 

5 privacy and security protections, 

6 similar to protections provided 

7 under existing electronic benefit 

8 transfer methods, including entry 

9 of a personal identification num10 ber in a manner that complies 

11 with the guidelines of leading na12 tional consensus standards orga13 nizations, as determined by the 

14 Secretary, for encrypting per15 sonal identification number 

16 entry; 

17 ‘‘(cc) be secure and operate 

18 in a manner that maintains pro19 gram integrity, including food 

20 item eligibility; 

21 ‘‘(dd) be available in an ini22 tial or beta version not later than 

23 120 days after the date on which 

24 the eligible entity is awarded the 

25 contract; 


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1 ‘‘(ee) be ready to be fully de2 ployed in all States not later than 

3 180 days after the date described 

4 in item (dd); 

5 ‘‘(ff) be available for use by 

6 any retail food store or wholesale 

7 food concern authorized under 

8 section 9 to accept and redeem 

9 benefits under the supplemental 

10 nutrition assistance program— 

11 ‘‘(AA) at no charge be12 yond a nominal fee that is 

13 not more than reasonably 

14 necessary to support mainte15 nance of the portal and sub16 ject to the approval of the 

17 Secretary; and 

18 ‘‘(BB) on an applica19 tion-based and browser20 based platform for 

21 smartphones and a browser22 based online platform for 

23 tablets and computers; 

24 ‘‘(gg) adhere to commercial 

25 standards for service level availVerDate Sep 11 2014 19:08 Feb 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S313.IS S313

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1 ability to ensure the viability of 

2 the portal and the use of the por3 tal by retail food stores and 

4 wholesale food concerns author5 ized under section 9 to accept 

6 and redeem benefits under the 

7 supplemental nutrition assistance 

8 program; and 

9 ‘‘(hh) perform ongoing 

10 maintenance services and retailer 

11 enrollment and termination of 

12 enrollment activities to ensure 

13 continuous operability of the por14 tal. 

15 ‘‘(II) EVALUATION OF BETA

16 VERSION.—The Secretary shall con17 duct a review of the initial or beta 

18 version of the Online EBT Redemp19 tion Portal under subclause (I)(dd), 

20 including by soliciting feedback from 

21 program participants. 

22 ‘‘(vi) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not 

23 later than 240 days after the date of en24 actment of the Expanding SNAP Options 

25 Act of 2021, the Secretary shall submit to 


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1 Congress a report on the status of activi2 ties carried out under this subparagraph. 

3 ‘‘(vii) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIA4 TIONS.—There is appropriated to the Sec5 retary, out of funds of the Treasury not 

6 otherwise appropriated, $25,000,000 to 

7 provide under the contract described in 

8 clause (ii).’’. 

9 SEC. 3. BROAD ACCEPTANCE OF SNAP BENEFITS THROUGH 

10 ONLINE TRANSACTIONS. 

11 Section 7(k) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 

12 (7 U.S.C. 2016(k)) is amended— 

13 (1) by striking ‘‘on-line’’ each place it appears 

14 and inserting ‘‘online’’; 

15 (2) in paragraph (1)— 

16 (A) by striking ‘‘Subject to paragraph (4), 

17 the’’ and inserting ‘‘The’’; and 

18 (B) by inserting ‘‘in any State’’ after 

19 ‘‘stores’’; and 

20 (3) by striking paragraph (4) and inserting the 

21 following: 

22 ‘‘(4) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 

23 ‘‘(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 


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1 ‘‘(i) COVERED ENTITY.—The term 

2 ‘covered entity’ means a public or private 

3 nonprofit entity. 

4 ‘‘(ii) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term 

5 ‘eligible entity’ means a retail food store or 

6 wholesale food concern authorized under 

7 section 9 to accept and redeem benefits 

8 under the supplemental nutrition assist9 ance program. 

10 ‘‘(B) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTER.— 

11 The Secretary, acting through the Adminis12 trator of the Food and Nutrition Service, shall, 

13 on a competitive basis, award 1 or more grants 

14 to, or enter into 1 or more cooperative agree15 ments with, 1 or more covered entities to estab16 lish a technical assistance center, to be known 

17 as the ‘SNAP Online Purchasing Technical As18 sistance Center’, to provide— 

19 ‘‘(i) to State agencies, eligible entities, 

20 and program participants information on 

21 and technical assistance with, as applica22 ble— 

23 ‘‘(I) accepting program benefits 

24 through online transactions; 


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1 ‘‘(II) using the EBT Online Re2 demption Portal described in sub3 section (h)(14)(B); 

4 ‘‘(III) in the case of State agen5 cies, conducting outreach to eligible 

6 entities to ensure that those eligible 

7 entities are informed of the technical 

8 assistance provided by the center; 

9 ‘‘(IV) research, training, and best 

10 practices relating to redeeming pro11 gram benefits through online trans12 actions; and 

13 ‘‘(V) facilitating communication 

14 between eligible entities, applicable 

15 State agencies, and the Department 

16 of Agriculture; and 

17 ‘‘(ii) to eligible entities direct grants 

18 to defray the technological costs of car19 rying out the activities described in sub20 clauses (I) and (II) of clause (i). 

21 ‘‘(C) QUALIFICATIONS.—At least 1 covered 

22 entity that receives a grant or enters into a co23 operative agreement under subparagraph (B) 

24 shall have expertise in providing technical asVerDate Sep 11 2014 19:08 Feb 27, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S313.IS S313

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1 sistance to food retailers operating under a 

2 Federal nutrition program. 

3 ‘‘(D) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PRIORITY.— 

4 In providing technical assistance to eligible enti5 ties, the SNAP Online Purchasing Technical 

6 Assistance Center shall give priority to eligible 

7 entities that are small and limited-resource re8 tailers. 

9 ‘‘(E) FUNDING.—There is appropriated to 

10 the Secretary, out of funds of the Treasury not 

11 otherwise appropriated, $75,000,000 to carry 

12 out this paragraph, to remain available until ex13 pended, of which not more than 3 percent may 

14 be used by the Secretary for administrative ex15 penses. 

16 ‘‘(5) PUBLICATION OF ONLINE VENDORS.—The 

17 Secretary shall maintain on the website of the De18 partment of Agriculture a publicly available listing, 

19 organized and searchable by region, locality, and 

20 State, of all approved retail food stores accepting 

21 benefits from recipients of supplemental nutrition 

22 assistance, including through online transactions.’’. 

Æ 


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