Attachment A - 2008 Farm Bill P.L. 110-234 Sec. 7(h)

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vice at more than 1 location under the same supplemental
nutrition assistance program authorization, if—
(i) the farmers’ market or direct marketing farmer
provides to the Secretary information on location and
hours of operation at each location; and
(ii)(I) the point of sale device used by the farmers’
market or direct marketing farmer is capable of providing location information of the device through the
electronic benefit transfer system; or
(II) if the Secretary determines that the technology is not available for a point of sale device to
meet the requirement under subclause (I), the farmers’
market or direct marketing farmer provides to the
Secretary any other information, as determined by the
Secretary, necessary to ensure the integrity of transactions processed using the point of sale device.
(g)(1) The State agency may establish a procedure for staggering the issuance of benefits to eligible households throughout
the month. Upon the request of the tribal organization that exercises governmental jurisdiction over the reservation, the State
agency shall stagger the issuance of benefits for eligible households
located on reservations for at least 15 days of a month.
(2) REQUIREMENTS.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—Any procedure established under
paragraph (1) shall—
(i) not reduce the allotment of any household for
any period; and
(ii) ensure that no household experiences an interval between issuances of more than 40 days.
(B) MULTIPLE ISSUANCES.—The procedure may include
issuing benefits to a household in more than 1 issuance
during a month only when a benefit correction is necessary.
(h) ELECTRONIC BENEFIT TRANSFERS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—
(A) IMPLEMENTATION.—Not later than October 1, 2002,
each State agency shall implement an electronic benefit
transfer system under which household benefits determined under section 8(a) or 26 are issued from and stored
in a central databank, unless the Secretary provides a
waiver for a State agency that faces unusual barriers to
implementing an electronic benefit transfer system.
(B) TIMELY IMPLEMENTATION.—Each State agency is
encouraged to implement an electronic benefit transfer
system under subparagraph (A) as soon as practicable.
(C) STATE FLEXIBILITY.—Subject to paragraph (2), a
State agency may procure and implement an electronic
benefit transfer system under the terms, conditions, and
design that the State agency considers appropriate.
(D) OPERATION.—An electronic benefit transfer system
should take into account generally accepted standard operating rules based on—
(i) commercial electronic funds transfer technology;
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(ii) the need to permit interstate operation and
law enforcement monitoring; and
(iii) the need to permit monitoring and investigations by authorized law enforcement agencies.
(2) The Secretary shall issue final regulations that establish
standards for the approval of such a system and shall periodically
review such regulations and modify such regulations to take into
account evolving technology and comparable industry standards.
The standards shall include—
(A) defining the required level of recipient protection regarding privacy, ease of use, and access to and service in retail
food stores;
(B) the terms and conditions of participation by retail food
stores, financial institutions, and other appropriate parties;
(C)(i) measures to maximize the security of a system
using the most recent technology available that the State
agency considers appropriate and cost effective and which
may include personal identification numbers, photographic
identification on electronic benefit transfer cards, and
other measures to protect against fraud and abuse; and
(ii) unless determined by the Secretary to be located in an area with significantly limited access to
food, measures that require an electronic benefit
transfer system—
(I) to set and enforce sales restrictions based
on benefit transfer payment eligibility by using
scanning or product lookup entry; and
(II) to deny benefit tenders for manually entered sales of ineligible items.
(D) system transaction interchange, reliability, and processing speeds;
(E) financial accountability;
(F) the required testing of system operations prior to implementation;
(G) the analysis of the results of system implementation in
a limited project area prior to expansion; and
(H) procurement standards.
(3) In the case of a system described in paragraph (1) in which
participation is not optional for households, the Secretary shall not
approve such a system unless—
(A) a sufficient number of eligible retail food stores, including those stores able to serve minority language populations,
have agreed to participate in the system throughout the area
in which it will operate to ensure that eligible households will
not suffer a significant reduction in their choice of retail food
stores or a significant increase in the cost of food or transportation to participating food stores; and
(B) any special equipment necessary to allow households to
purchase food with the benefits issued under this Act is operational in the case of other participating stores, at a sufficient
number of registers to provide service that is comparable to
service provided individuals who are not members of households receiving supplemental nutrition assistance program
benefits, as determined by the Secretary.
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(4) Administrative costs incurred in connection with activities
under this subsection shall be eligible for reimbursement in accordance with section 16, subject to the limitations in section 16(g).
(5) The Secretary shall periodically inform State agencies of
the advantages of using electronic benefit systems to issue benefits
in accordance with this subsection in lieu of issuing coupons to
households.
(6) This subsection shall not diminish the authority of the Secretary to conduct projects to test automated or electronic benefit
delivery systems under section 17(f).
(7) REPLACEMENT OF BENEFITS.—Regulations issued by the
Secretary regarding the replacement of benefits and liability
for replacement of benefits under an electronic benefit transfer
system shall be similar to the regulations in effect for a paperbased supplemental nutrition assistance issuance system.
(8) REPLACEMENT OF CARDS.—
(A) FEES.—A State agency may collect a charge for replacement of an electronic benefit transfer card by reducing the monthly allotment of the household receiving the
replacement card.
(B) PURPOSEFUL LOSS OF CARDS.—
(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to terms and conditions
established by the Secretary in accordance with clause
(ii), if a household makes excessive requests for replacement of the electronic benefit transfer card of the
household, the Secretary may require a State agency
to decline to issue a replacement card to the household
unless the household, upon request of the State agency, provides an explanation for the loss of the card.
(ii) REQUIREMENTS.—The terms and conditions established by the Secretary shall provide that—
(I) the household be given the opportunity to
provide the requested explanation and meet the
requirements under this paragraph promptly;
(II) after an excessive number of lost cards,
the head of the household shall be required to review program rights and responsibilities with
State agency personnel authorized to make determinations under section 5(a); and
(III) any action taken, including actions required under section 6(b)(2), other than the withholding of the electronic benefit transfer card until
an explanation described in subclause (I) is provided, shall be consistent with the due process
protections under section 6(b) or 11(e)(10), as appropriate.
(C) PROTECTING VULNERABLE PERSONS.—In implementing this paragraph, a State agency shall act to protect
homeless persons, persons with disabilities, victims of
crimes, and other vulnerable persons who lose electronic
benefit transfer cards but are not intentionally committing
fraud.
(D) EFFECT ON ELIGIBILITY.—While a State may decline to issue an electronic benefits transfer card until a
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household satisfies the requirements under this paragraph, nothing in this paragraph shall be considered a denial of, or limitation on, the eligibility for benefits under
section 5.
(9) OPTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC IDENTIFICATION.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—A State agency may require that an
electronic benefit card contain a photograph of 1 or more
members of a household.
(B) OTHER AUTHORIZED USERS.—If a State agency requires a photograph on an electronic benefit card under
subparagraph (A), the State agency shall establish procedures to ensure that any other appropriate member of the
household or any authorized representative of the household may utilize the card.
(10) FEDERAL LAW NOT APPLICABLE.—Section 920 of the
Electronic Fund Transfer Act shall not apply to electronic benefit transfer or reimbursement systems under this Act.
(11) APPLICATION OF ANTI-TYING RESTRICTIONS TO ELECTRONIC BENEFIT TRANSFER SYSTEMS.—
(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph:
(i) AFFILIATE.—The term ‘‘affiliate’’ has the meaning provided the term in section 2(k) of the Bank
Holding Company Act of 1956 (12 U.S.C. 1841(k)).
(ii) COMPANY.—The term ‘‘company’’ has the
meaning provided the term in section 106(a) of the
Bank Holding Company Act Amendments of 1970 (12
U.S.C. 1971), but shall not include a bank, a bank
holding company, or any subsidiary of a bank holding
company.
(iii) ELECTRONIC BENEFIT TRANSFER SERVICE.—The
term ‘‘electronic benefit transfer service’’ means the
processing of electronic transfers of household benefits,
determined under section 8(a) or 26, if the benefits
are—
(I) issued from and stored in a central
databank;
(II) electronically accessed by household members at the point of sale; and
(III) provided by a Federal or State government.
(iv) POINT-OF-SALE SERVICE.—The term ‘‘point-ofsale service’’ means any product or service related to
the electronic authorization and processing of payments for merchandise at a retail food store, including
credit or debit card services, automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals, or access to on-line systems.
(B) RESTRICTIONS.—A company may not sell or provide
electronic benefit transfer services, or fix or vary the consideration for electronic benefit transfer services, on the
condition or requirement that the customer—
(i) obtain some additional point-of-sale service
from the company or an affiliate of the company; or
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(ii) not obtain some additional point-of-sale service
from a competitor of the company or competitor of any
affiliate of the company.
(C) CONSULTATION WITH THE FEDERAL RESERVE
BOARD.—Before promulgating regulations or interpretations of regulations to carry out this paragraph, the Secretary shall consult with the Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System.
(12) RECOVERING ELECTRONIC BENEFITS.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—A State agency shall establish a procedure for recovering electronic benefits from the account
of a household due to inactivity, or due to the death of all
members of the household.
(B) BENEFIT STORAGE.—
(i) IN GENERAL.—A State agency may store recovered electronic benefits off-line in accordance with
clause (ii), if the household has not accessed the account after 3 months.
(ii) NOTICE OF BENEFIT STORAGE.—A State agency
shall—
(I) send notice to a household the benefits of
which are stored under clause (i); and
(II) not later than 48 hours after request by
the household, make the stored benefits available
to the household.
(C) BENEFIT EXPUNGING.—
(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to clause (ii), a State
agency shall expunge benefits that have not been
accessed by a household after a period of 9 months, or
upon verification that all members of the household
are deceased.
(ii) NOTICE OF BENEFIT EXPUNGING.—Not later
than 30 days before benefits are to be expunged under
clause (i), a State agency shall—
(I) provide sufficient notice to the household
that benefits will be expunged due to inactivity,
and the date upon which benefits will be expunged;
(II) for benefits stored off-line in accordance
with subparagraph (B), provide the household an
opportunity to request that such benefits be restored to the household; and
(III) not later than 48 hours after request by
the household, make the benefits available to the
household.
(D) NOTICE.—A State agency shall—
(i) send notice to a household the benefits of which
are stored under subparagraph (B); and
(ii) not later than 48 hours after request by the
household, make the stored benefits available to the
household.
(13) FEES.—
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