[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 262 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 262

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Secretary 
  of Agriculture should investigate and find alternative actions with 
regard to the unilateral temporary termination of the participation of 
  retail food stores in the electronic benefits transfer system (EBT) 
                   under the Food Stamp Act of 1977.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 4, 2005

 Mr. Schwarz of Michigan submitted the following resolution; which was 
                referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Secretary 
  of Agriculture should investigate and find alternative actions with 
regard to the unilateral temporary termination of the participation of 
  retail food stores in the electronic benefits transfer system (EBT) 
                   under the Food Stamp Act of 1977.

    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Food and Nutrition 
Service, should investigate and find alternative actions with regard to 
the unilateral temporary termination of the participation of retail 
food stores in the electronic benefits transfer system (EBT) under the 
Food Stamp Act of 1977, including--
            (1) providing notification to retail food stores that 
        participate in the food stamp program, before unilaterally 
        terminating the operation of EBT in facilities operated by such 
        stores,
            (2) not terminating such operation--
                    (A) on a day immediately preceding a Federal 
                holiday, or
                    (B) during the period beginning on Friday at 4:00 
                P.M. and ending on Monday at 7:00 A.M.,
         without valid proof of a fraudulent act committed by the 
        retail food store involved,
            (3) if a retail food store is suspected of committing a 
        fraudulent act, continuing the operation of the electronic 
        benefit transfer system for the use of households participating 
        in the food stamp program but--
                    (A) temporarily halting repayment to the retail 
                food store involved until valid proof of the fraudulent 
                act is verified,
                    (B) requiring that repayment amounts otherwise 
                payable to such store be temporarily halted and be 
                deposited in a separate account pending a determination 
                of whether there is valid proof of the fraudulent act 
                by such store, and
                    (C) providing to retail food stores that 
                participate in the food stamp program, an EBT emergency 
                hotline that operates 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, 
                to make available to such store (and to customers of 
                such store who use EBT to obtain food) information 
                explaining the reasons for any unilateral termination 
                of the operation of EBT in such store, and
            (4) if a retail food store is suspected of engaging in a 
        fraudulent act in operating EBT and if no such fraudulent act 
        is found, requiring the payment of reasonable compensation to 
        such store for lost profits resulting from the loss of sales to 
        customers of such store who would have used EBT to obtain food 
        if EBT had been operational during the period of termination.
                                 <all>