[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3436 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3436

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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 3, 1993

 Mr. Stenholm (for himself, Mr. de la Garza, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Smith of 
    Oregon, Mr. Allard, Mr. Boehner, Mr. Bonilla, Mrs. Clayton, Mr. 
    Combest, Mr. Dooley, Mr. Emerson, Mr. Holden, Mr. Kingston, Ms. 
 Lambert, Ms. Long, Mr. Minge, Mr. Pastor, Mr. Penny, Mr. Pomeroy, Mr. 
Rose, Mr. Hall of Ohio, and Mr. Bishop) introduced the following bill; 
           which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
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.

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

SECTION 1. FOOD STAMP ACT DEFINITIONS.

    Effective on the date of enactment of this Act, section 3 of the 
Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 2012) is amended by--
            (1) amending clause (1) of subsection (k) to read as 
        follows:
            ``(1) an establishment or house-to-house trade route which 
        sells food for home preparation and consumption and (A) offers 
        for sale on a continuous basis a variety of foods in each of 
        the four categories of staple foods as defined in subsection 
        (u), including perishable foods in at least two such 
        categories, or (B) has over 50 percent of its total sales in 
        staple foods as defined in subsection (u) of this section, as 
        determined by visual inspection, sales records, purchase 
        records, counting of stock keeping units, or other inventory or 
        accounting recordkeeping methods that are customary or 
        reasonable in the retail food industry,'';
            (2) adding the following new sentence at the end of 
        subsection (k): ``An establishment or house-to-house trade 
        route that is authorized at the time of implementation of 
        clause (1) may be considered to meet this definition until its 
        periodic reauthorization or until such time as the eligibility 
        of the firm for continued participation in the food stamp 
        program is evaluated for any reason.''; and
            (3) adding a new subsection (u) at the end thereof to read 
        as follows:
    ``(u) `Staple foods' means foods in the following categories: (1) 
meat, poultry, or fish; (2) bread or cereals; (3) vegetables or fruits; 
and (4) dairy products; but does not include accessory food items such 
as coffee, tea, cocoa, carbonated and uncarbonated drinks, candy, 
condiments and spices.''.

SEC. 2. PERIODIC NOTICE.

    Section 9(a)(2) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 2018(a)(2)) 
is amended to read as follows:
    ``(2) The Secretary shall issue regulations providing for a 
periodic reauthorization of retail food stores and wholesale food 
concerns, and providing for periodic notice to participating retail 
food stores and wholesale food concerns of the definitions of `retail 
food store', `staple foods', `eligible foods', and `perishable 
foods'.''.

SEC. 3. USE AND DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION PROVIDED BY RETAIL FOOD 
              STORES AND WHOLESALE FOOD CONCERNS.

    Section 9(c) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 2018(c)) is 
amended--
            (1) in the second sentence by inserting after ``disclosed 
        to and used by'' the following: ``Federal law enforcement and 
        investigative agencies and law enforcement and investigative 
        agencies of a State government for the purposes of 
        administering or enforcing the provisions of this Act or any 
        other Federal or State law and the regulations issued under 
        this Act or such law, and'';
            (2) by inserting after the second sentence the following: 
        ``An officer or employee of an agency described in the 
        preceding sentence who publishes, divulges, discloses, or makes 
        known in any manner or to any extent not authorized by Federal 
        law any information obtained under the authority granted by 
        this subsection shall be subject to section 1905 of title 18 of 
        the United States Code.''; and
            (3) in the last sentence by striking ``Such purposes shall 
        not exclude'' and inserting the following: ``Such regulations 
        shall establish the criteria to be used by the Secretary to 
        determine that such information is needed. Such regulations 
        shall not prohibit''.

SEC. 4. DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS TESTING ACTIVITIES DIRECTED AT STREET 
              TRAFFICKING IN COUPONS.

    Section 17 of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 2026) is amended 
by adding a new subsection (1) at the end thereof as follows--
            ``(1) The Secretary shall use up to $4 million of funds 
        provided in advance in appropriations Acts for projects 
        authorized by this section to conduct projects in which State 
        or local food stamp agencies test innovative ideas for working 
        with State or local law enforcement agencies to investigate and 
        prosecute coupon street trafficking by recipients, buyers, and 
        authorized retail food stores.''.

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