[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7572 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7572

 To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to provide employment and 
             training data grants, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 6, 2024

 Ms. Salinas introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                        Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to provide employment and 
             training data grants, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``SNAP E&T Data And Technical 
Assistance (DATA) Act of 2024''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENT.

    Section 5 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2014) is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(o) Employment and Training Data Grants.--The Secretary is 
authorized to award grants to State agencies, on a competitive basis, 
for the purpose of creating and strengthening longitudinal 
administrative databases and associated resources for the purpose of 
strengthening program quality, reducing burden, advancing equity, 
protecting privacy, and improving transparency in supplemental 
nutrition and assistance program employment and training programs.
            ``(1) Award basis.--The Secretary shall award grants on a 
        competitive basis and in a manner consistent with the following 
        priorities:
                    ``(A) Encouraging participation among States that 
                have not yet received such grants and among those with 
                the greatest needs in terms of data infrastructure.
                    ``(B) Strengthening effectiveness in meeting the 
                purposes of section 6(d)(4)(A)(i).
                    ``(C) Facilitating co-enrollment and coordination 
                of services between employment and training programs 
                offered under this Act and other federally-supported 
                workforce development programs, such as those 
                authorized under the Workforce Innovation and 
                Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 3101 et seq.) and the 
                Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 
                21st Century Act (Public Law 115-224; 132 Stat. 1563) 
                and the amendments made by that Act.
                    ``(D) Participating in and contributing data to the 
                State's linked longitudinal data system, including 
                submitting data that when linked with K-12, 
                postsecondary, and workforce development data, provides 
                the State with the ability to create more robust tools 
                and analytics.
                    ``(E) Encouraging the use of non-Federal 
                contributions to improve State data infrastructure and 
                related resources.
                    ``(F) Enabling research and program improvement 
                activities.
                    ``(G) Other priorities as determined by the 
                Secretary.
            ``(2) Privacy and security standards.--Data supported by 
        this subsection shall be--
                    ``(A) used only for the purpose described in this 
                subsection;
                    ``(B) exempted from the disclosure requirements of 
                section 552(a) of title 5 of the United States Code 
                pursuant to section 552(b)(3) of such title, to the 
                extent such information is obtained or received by the 
                Secretary;
                    ``(C) used in a manner that protects the identity 
                and location of an individual that is an applicant for, 
                or recipient of, supplemental nutrition assistance 
                program benefits; and
                    ``(D) shall meet security standards as determined 
                by the Secretary.
            ``(3) Supplement not supplant.--Funds made available under 
        this subsection shall be used to supplement, and not supplant, 
        other State or local funds used for developing State data 
        systems.
            ``(4) Authorization of appropriations.--Of the funds 
        available under section 18, the Secretary shall use to carry 
        out this subsection $15,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 
        2024 through 2028.
            ``(5) Administrative costs.--The Secretary shall reserve 
        not more than 20 percent of the funds made available under 
        paragraph (4) for the provision of technical assistance to 
        support the implementation of these Grants.
            ``(6) Reports.--Not later than 3 years after the effective 
        date of this subsection, and annually thereafter, the Secretary 
        shall submit to the Committee on Agriculture of the House of 
        Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, 
        and Forestry of the Senate, a report regarding implementation 
        of this subsection that, includes the following information.
                    ``(A) The number of grants awarded, a list of 
                recipients, and the amount of funds awarded.
                    ``(B) A description of recipients' use of the grant 
                funds.
                    ``(C) An analysis of the impact of receiving such 
                grants on improving the effectiveness of State 
                employment and training programs in meeting the 
                purposes of section 6(d)(4)(A)(i).''.

SEC. 3. GAO REPORT.

    Not later than 1 year after funds are made available to carry out 
section 5(o) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2014(o)), 
the Comptroller General of the United States shall--
            (1) examine and review the implementation of such section, 
        including an examination of--
                    (A) co-enrollment strategies and related best 
                practices that maximize participant eligibility using 
                linked and integrated data;
                    (B) an examination and distillation of best 
                practices related to the coordination and braiding of 
                funds that improve the quality of employment and 
                training programs implemented under the Food and 
                Nutrition Act of 2008; and
                    (C) additional issues and impact that access to 
                linked and integrated databases and the development of 
                data exchange agreements have on the participant and 
                provider outcomes within employment and training 
                programs implemented under the Food and Nutrition Act 
                of 2008;
            (2) develop recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture 
        on any changes that should be made to improve such data grants; 
        and
            (3) prepare and submit a report on the findings and 
        recommendations based on the examination made under paragraph 
        (1), and recommendations received, under paragraph (2), to--
                    (A) the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and 
                Forestry of the Senate; and
                    (B) the Committee on Agriculture of the House of 
                Representatives.
                                 <all>