I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4855 

To direct the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study 

to evaluate the effects of the post-incarceration ban under section 115 

of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act 

of 1996 on participation in the supplemental nutrition assistance program 

by drug felons, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 25, 2023 

Mr. CRAWFORD introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Agriculture 

A BILL 

To direct the Comptroller General of the United States to 

conduct a study to evaluate the effects of the postincarceration ban under section 115 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 

1996 on participation in the supplemental nutrition assistance program by drug felons, 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 ‘‘SNAP Ban Study 

5 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. STUDY OF SNAP BAN AND WAIVER PROVISIONS AF2 FECTING DRUG FELONS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Comptroller General of the 

4 United States shall conduct a study to evaluate the effects 

5 of the post-incarceration ban and waiver provisions re6 garding participation in the supplemental nutrition assist7 ance program by drug felons, as in effect under section 

8 115 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity 

9 Reconciliation Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C. 286a). 

10 (b) ELEMENTS OF THE STUDY.—The study con11 ducted under subsection (a) shall— 

12 (1) identify the full range of options States 

13 have implemented with respect to the supplemental 

14 nutrition assistance program ban, including— 

15 (A) implementing the full ban; 

16 (B) using their discretionary power pro17 vided in the law to opt out of the ban partially, 

18 including the various different modifications 

19 States have made or completely repealing the 

20 ban; and 

21 (C) when each of those States has made 

22 substantive revisions to their laws in this area 

23 over the past 15 years; 

24 (2) for each group of those convicted of felony 

25 use, felony distribution, and felony trafficking of26 fenses, the rates, 5 and 10 years after release from 


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1 the incarceration that triggered the supplemental 

2 nutrition assistance program ban, of— 

3 (A) subsequent arrest for one or more felo4 nies; 

5 (B) subsequent conviction for one or more 

6 felonies; and 

7 (C) return to prison for such offenders; 

8 (3) measurements of the well-being of released 

9 drug felons who would be eligible for supplemental 

10 nutrition assistance program in the absence of the 

11 ban imposed by section 115 of the Personal Respon12 sibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 

13 1996 (42 U.S.C. 286a) and substantive differences, 

14 if any, that might be identified by tracking the full 

15 range of State implementations of such section from 

16 a full ban to— 

17 (A) to various conditions required of drug 

18 felons to receive supplemental nutrition assist19 ance program benefits short of a full ban, to a 

20 full waiver, and how otherwise eligible drug fel21 ons in each jurisdiction had, after 3, 5, and 10 

22 years; 

23 (B) changes with respect to recidivism, as 

24 described in paragraph (1); 


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1 (C) family formation, including marriage 

2 rates; 

3 (D) average hours worked per week for 

4 those who are non-disabled and between the 

5 ages of 18 through 64; 

6 (E) changes in individual and family in7 come; 

8 (F) changes in educational attainment; and 

9 (G) other factors that the Comptroller 

10 General of the United States considers worthy 

11 of study; 

12 (4) how the various impacts of such effects play 

13 out separately for those convicted of felony use, pos14 session, and trafficking offenses; 

15 (5) the additional costs expected to be borne by 

16 the Federal and State governments if such a ban 

17 was made unlawful or such section was repealed; 

18 (6) the amount of unpaid restitution, legal 

19 judgments and costs, and Federal and State taxes 

20 outstanding by the average post-incarceration drug 

21 felon; 

22 (7) the average total economic cost to each sur23 viving child, parent, spouse and sibling of those 

24 killed by misuse or abuse of a controlled substance 

25 at 5, 10, and 15 years after that death; 


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1 (8) the utilization rate of supplemental nutri2 tion assistance program by surviving children, par3 ents, spouses, and siblings of those killed by misuse 

4 or abuse of a controlled substance at baseline, 5, 10, 

5 and 15 years after that death, compared to the rest 

6 of the population, both in raw numbers and after ad7 justing for confounding factors; 

8 (9) the extent to which programs assisting vic9 tims of violent crime could be enhanced if amounts 

10 identified in (5), above, were instead directed to 

11 State violent crime assistance programs; 

12 (10) an assessment of the levels of evidence 

13 used in research for this report and in the most14 cited existing research related to supplemental nutri15 tion assistance program eligibility by released drug 

16 felons and closely related issues; 

17 (11) an assessment of the ability of social 

18 science and economic research to determine if any 

19 apparent material differences in various measures 

20 are persuasive, or are too prone to noise and con21 founding, as those terms are used in the fields of 

22 medical and other research, to be the basis for legis23 lative action; and 

24 (12) any other matters the Comptroller General 

25 considers to be appropriate for evaluating the 


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1 strengths and shortcomings of the existing supple2 mental nutrition assistance program lifetime ban 

3 and waiver contained in such section. 

4 (c) REPORT.— 

5 (1) Not later than 2 years after the date of the 

6 enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of 

7 the United States shall submit a report to the Com8 mittee on the Judiciary of the Senate, the Com9 mittee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry of the 

10 Senate,, the Committee on the Judiciary of the 

11 House of Representatives, and the Committee on 

12 Agriculture of the House of Representatives, that 

13 contains the results of such study, including the 

14 findings and conclusions of the study. 

15 (2) Such report shall also be made available to 

16 the public on the website of the Government Ac17 countability Office. 

Æ 


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