Current as of: February 2010 As used in this chapter, the term:
(a) "Access device" means any card, plate, code, account number,
or other means of access, including point of sale devices, that can
be used, alone or in conjunction with another access device, to
obtain payments, allotments, benefits, money, goods, or other
things of value, or that can be used to initiate a transfer of
funds under this chapter.
(b) "Allotment" means the total value of benefits a household is
authorized to receive during each month.
(c) "Allowable medical expenses" means expenditures for (1)
medical and dental care, (2) hospitalization or nursing care
(including hospitalization or nursing care of an individual who was
a household member immediately prior to entering a hospital or
nursing home), (3) prescription drugs when prescribed by a licensed
practitioner authorized under State law and over-the-counter
medication (including insulin) when approved by a licensed
practitioner or other qualified health professional, (4) health and
hospitalization insurance policies (excluding the costs of health
and accident or income maintenance policies), (5) medicare premiums
related to coverage under title XVIII of the Social Security Act
[42 U.S.C. 1395 et seq.], (6) dentures, hearing aids, and
prosthetics (including the costs of securing and maintaining a
seeing eye dog), (7) eye glasses prescribed by a physician skilled
in eye disease or by an optometrist, (8) reasonable costs of
transportation necessary to secure medical treatment or services,
and (9) maintaining an attendant, homemaker, home health aide,
housekeeper, or child care services due to age, infirmity, or
illness.
(d) Benefit. - The term "benefit" means the value of supplemental
nutrition assistance provided to a household by means of -
(1) an electronic benefit transfer under section 2016(i) of
this title; or
(2) other means of providing assistance, as determined by the
Secretary.
(e) Benefit Issuer. - The term "benefit issuer" means any office
of the State agency or any person, partnership, corporation,
organization, political subdivision, or other entity with which a
State agency has contracted for, or to which it has delegated
functional responsibility in connection with, the issuance of
benefits to households.
(f) "Certification period" means the period for which households
shall be eligible to receive benefits. The certification period
shall not exceed 12 months, except that the certification period
may be up to 24 months if all adult household members are elderly
or disabled. A State agency shall have at least 1 contact with each
certified household every 12 months. The limits specified in this
subsection may be extended until the end of any transitional
benefit period established under section 2020(s) of this title.
(g) "Coupon" means any coupon, stamp, type of certificate,
authorization card,(!1) cash or check issued in lieu of a
coupon,.(!2)
(h) "Drug addiction or alcoholic treatment and rehabilitation
program" means any such program conducted by a private nonprofit
organization or institution, or a publicly operated community
mental health center, under part B of title XIX of the Public
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300x et seq.) to provide treatment
that can lead to the rehabilitation of drug addicts or alcoholics.
(i) EBT Card. - The term "EBT card" means an electronic benefit
transfer card issued under section 2016(i) of this title.
(j) "Elderly or disabled member" means a member of a household
who -
(1) is sixty years of age or older;
(2)(A) receives supplemental security income benefits under
title XVI of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1381 et seq.), or
Federally or State administered supplemental benefits of the type
described in section 212(a) of Public Law 93-66 (42 U.S.C. 1382
note), or
(B) receives Federally or State administered supplemental
assistance of the type described in section 1616(a) of the Social
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1382e(a)), interim assistance pending
receipt of supplemental security income, disability-related
medical assistance under title XIX of the Social Security Act (42
U.S.C. 1396 et seq.), or disability-based State general
assistance benefits, if the Secretary determines that such
benefits are conditioned on meeting disability or blindness
criteria at least as stringent as those used under title XVI of
the Social Security Act;
(3) receives disability or blindness payments under title I,
II, X, XIV, or XVI of the Social Security Act [42 U.S.C. 301 et
seq., 401 et seq., 1201 et seq., 1351 et seq., 1381 et seq.] or
receives disability retirement benefits from a governmental
agency because of a disability considered permanent under section
221(i) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 421(i));
(4) is a veteran who -
(A) has a service-connected or non-service-connected
disability which is rated as total under title 38; or
(B) is considered in need of regular aid and attendance or
permanently housebound under such title;
(5) is a surviving spouse of a veteran and -
(A) is considered in need of regular aid and attendance or
permanently housebound under title 38; or
(B) is entitled to compensation for a service-connected death
or pension benefits for a non-service-connected death under
title 38, and has a disability considered permanent under
section 221(i) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 421(i));
(6) is a child of a veteran and -
(A) is considered permanently incapable of self-support under
section 1314 of title 38; or
(B) is entitled to compensation for a service-connected death
or pension benefits for a non-service-connected death under
title 38, and has a disability considered permanent under
section 221(i) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 421(i));
or
(7) is an individual receiving an annuity under section
2(a)(1)(iv) or 2(a)(1)(v) of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974
(45 U.S.C. 231a(a)(1)(iv) or 231a(a)(1)(v)), if the individual's
service as an employee under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974
[45 U.S.C. 231 et seq.], after December 31, 1936, had been
included in the term "employment" as defined in the Social
Security Act [42 U.S.C. 301 et seq.], and if an application for
disability benefits had been filed.
(k) "Food" means (1) any food or food product for home
consumption except alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and hot foods or
hot food products ready for immediate consumption other than those
authorized pursuant to clauses (3), (4), (5), (7), (8), and (9) of
this subsection, (2) seeds and plants for use in gardens to produce
food for the personal consumption of the eligible household, (3) in
the case of those persons who are sixty years of age or over or who
receive supplemental security income benefits or disability or
blindness payments under title I, II, X, XIV, or XVI of the Social
Security Act [42 U.S.C. 301 et seq., 401 et seq., 1201 et seq.,
1351 et seq., 1381 et seq.], and their spouses, meals prepared by
and served in senior citizens' centers, apartment buildings
occupied primarily by such persons, public or private nonprofit
establishments (eating or otherwise) that feed such persons,
private establishments that contract with the appropriate agency of
the State to offer meals for such persons at concessional prices,
and meals prepared for and served to residents of federally
subsidized housing for the elderly, (4) in the case of persons
sixty years of age or over and persons who are physically or
mentally handicapped or otherwise so disabled that they are unable
adequately to prepare all of their meals, meals prepared for and
delivered to them (and their spouses) at their home by a public or
private nonprofit organization or by a private establishment that
contracts with the appropriate State agency to perform such
services at concessional prices, (5) in the case of narcotics
addicts or alcoholics, and their children, served by drug addiction
or alcoholic treatment and rehabilitation programs, meals prepared
and served under such programs, (6) in the case of certain eligible
households living in Alaska, equipment for procuring food by
hunting and fishing, such as nets, hooks, rods, harpoons, and
knives (but not equipment for purposes of transportation, clothing,
or shelter, and not firearms, ammunition, and explosives) if the
Secretary determines that such households are located in an area of
the State where it is extremely difficult to reach stores selling
food and that such households depend to a substantial extent upon
hunting and fishing for subsistence, (7) in the case of disabled or
blind recipients of benefits under title I, II, X, XIV, or XVI of
the Social Security Act [42 U.S.C. 301 et seq., 401 et seq., 1201
et seq., 1351 et seq., 1381 et seq.], or are (!3) individuals
described in paragraphs (2) through (7) of subsection (j) of this
section, who are residents in a public or private nonprofit group
living arrangement that serves no more than sixteen residents and
is certified by the appropriate State agency or agencies under
regulations issued under section 1616(e) of the Social Security Act
[42 U.S.C. 1382e(e)] or under standards determined by the Secretary
to be comparable to standards implemented by appropriate State
agencies under such section, meals prepared and served under such
arrangement, (8) in the case of women and children temporarily
residing in public or private nonprofit shelters for battered women
and children, meals prepared and served, by such shelters, and (9)
in the case of households that do not reside in permanent dwellings
and households that have no fixed mailing addresses, meals prepared
for and served by a public or private nonprofit establishment
(approved by an appropriate State or local agency) that feeds such
individuals and by private establishments that contract with the
appropriate agency of the State to offer meals for such individuals
at concessional prices.
(l) "Supplemental nutrition assistance program" means the program
operated pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.
(m) "Homeless individual" means -
(1) an individual who lacks a fixed and regular nighttime
residence; or
(2) an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is
-
(A) a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter
(including a welfare hotel or congregate shelter) designed to
provide temporary living accommodations;
(B) an institution that provides a temporary residence for
individuals intended to be institutionalized;
(C) a temporary accommodation for not more than 90 days in
the residence of another individual; or
(D) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily
used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.
(n)(1) "Household" means -
(A) an individual who lives alone or who, while living with
others, customarily purchases food and prepares meals for home
consumption separate and apart from the others; or
(B) a group of individuals who live together and customarily
purchase food and prepare meals together for home consumption.
(2) Spouses who live together, parents and their children 21
years of age or younger who live together, and children (excluding
foster children) under 18 years of age who live with and are under
the parental control of a person other than their parent together
with the person exercising parental control shall be treated as a
group of individuals who customarily purchase and prepare meals
together for home consumption even if they do not do so.
(3) Notwithstanding paragraphs (1) and (2), an individual who
lives with others, who is sixty years of age or older, and who is
unable to purchase food and prepare meals because such individual
suffers, as certified by a licensed physician, from a disability
which would be considered a permanent disability under section
221(i) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 421(i)) or from a
severe, permanent, and disabling physical or mental infirmity which
is not symptomatic of a disease shall be considered, together with
any of the others who is the spouse of such individual, an
individual household, without regard to the purchase of food and
preparation of meals, if the income (as determined under section
2014(d) of this title) of the others, excluding the spouse, does
not exceed the poverty line, as described in section 2014(c)(1) of
this title, by more than 65 per centum.
(4) In no event shall any individual or group of individuals
constitute a household if they reside in an institution or boarding
house, or else live with others and pay compensation to the others
for meals.
(5) For the purposes of this subsection, the following persons
shall not be considered to be residents of institutions and shall
be considered to be individual households:
(A) Residents of federally subsidized housing for the elderly,
disabled or blind recipients of benefits under title I, II, X,
XIV, or XVI of the Social Security Act [42 U.S.C. 301 et seq.,
401 et seq., 1201 et seq., 1351 et seq., 1381 et seq.].
(B) Individuals described in paragraphs (2) through (7) of
subsection (j) of this section, who are residents in a public or
private nonprofit group living arrangement that serves no more
than sixteen residents and is certified by the appropriate State
agency or agencies under regulations issued under section 1616(e)
of the Social Security Act [42 U.S.C. 1382e(e)] or under
standards determined by the Secretary to be comparable to
standards implemented by appropriate State agencies under that
section.
(C) Temporary residents of public or private nonprofit shelters
for battered women and children.
(D) Residents of public or private nonprofit shelters for
individuals who do not reside in permanent dwellings or have no
fixed mailing addresses, who are otherwise eligible for benefits.
(E) Narcotics addicts or alcoholics, together with their
children, who live under the supervision of a private nonprofit
institution, or a publicly operated community mental health
center, for the purpose of regular participation in a drug or
alcoholic treatment program.
(o) "Reservation" means the geographically defined area or areas
over which a tribal organization exercises governmental
jurisdiction.
(p) "Retail food store" means -
(1) an establishment or house-to-house trade route that sells
food for home preparation and consumption and -
(A) offers for sale, on a continuous basis, a variety of
foods in each of the 4 categories of staple foods specified in
subsection (r)(1) of this section, including perishable foods
in at least 2 of the categories; or
(B) has over 50 percent of the total sales of the
establishment or route in staple foods,
as determined by visual inspection, sales records, purchase
records, counting of stockkeeping units, or other inventory or
accounting recordkeeping methods that are customary or reasonable
in the retail food industry;
(2) an establishment, organization, program, or group living
arrangement referred to in paragraphs (3), (4), (5), (7), (8),
and (9) of subsection (k);
(3) a store purveying the hunting and fishing equipment
described in subsection (k)(6); and
(4) any private nonprofit cooperative food purchasing venture,
including those in which the members pay for food purchased prior
to the receipt of such food.
(q) "Secretary" means the Secretary of Agriculture.
(r)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), "staple foods" means
foods in the following categories:
(A) Meat, poultry, or fish.
(B) Bread or cereals.
(C) Vegetables or fruits.
(D) Dairy products.
(2) "Staple foods" do not include accessory food items, such as
coffee, tea, cocoa, carbonated and uncarbonated drinks, candy,
condiments, and spices.
(s) "State" means the fifty States, the District of Columbia,
Guam, the Virgin Islands of the United States, and the reservations
of an Indian tribe whose tribal organization meets the requirements
of this chapter for participation as a State agency.
(t) "State agency" means (1) the agency of State government,
including the local offices thereof, which has the responsibility
for the administration of the federally aided public assistance
programs within such State, and in those States where such
assistance programs are operated on a decentralized basis, the term
shall include the counterpart local agencies administering such
programs, and (2) the tribal organization of an Indian tribe
determined by the Secretary to be capable of effectively
administering a food distribution program under section 2013(b) of
this title or a supplemental nutrition assistance program under
section 2020(d) of this title.
(u) "Thrifty food plan" means the diet required to feed a family
of four persons consisting of a man and a woman twenty through
fifty, a child six through eight, and a child nine through eleven
years of age, determined in accordance with the Secretary's
calculations. The cost of such diet shall be the basis for uniform
allotments for all households regardless of their actual
composition, except that the Secretary shall -
(1) make household-size adjustments (based on the unrounded
cost of such diet) taking into account economies of scale;
(2) make cost adjustments in the thrifty food plan for Hawaii
and the urban and rural parts of Alaska to reflect the cost of
food in Hawaii and urban and rural Alaska;
(3) make cost adjustments in the separate thrifty food plans
for Guam, and the Virgin Islands of the United States to reflect
the cost of food in those States, but not to exceed the cost of
food in the fifty States and the District of Columbia; and
(4) on October 1, 1996, and each October 1 thereafter, adjust
the cost of the diet to reflect the cost of the diet in the
preceding June, and round the result to the nearest lower dollar
increment for each household size, except that on October 1,
1996, the Secretary may not reduce the cost of the diet in effect
on September 30, 1996, and except that on October 1, 2003, in the
case of households residing in Alaska and Hawaii the Secretary
may not reduce the cost of such diet in effect on September 30,
2002.
(v) "Tribal organization" means the recognized governing body of
an Indian tribe (including the tribally recognized intertribal
organization of such tribes), as the term "Indian tribe" is defined
in the Indian Self-Determination Act (25 U.S.C. 450b(b)), as well
as any Indian tribe, band, or community holding a treaty with a
State government.Legislative History Prev ________________________________________________________________________
Next
 |
Email
Print