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Tailor the model comments with information about your group and area hunger and food insecurity. For technical assistance, contact Ellen Vollinger at 202-986-2200 x3016 or Stacy Dean at Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (dean@cbpp.org).

For the proposed rule, go to http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a040416c.html#Food%20and%20Nutr
ition%20Service

Send comments on or before June 15th to: Matthew Crispino, Program Analyst, Certification Policy Branch, Program Development Division, Food and Nutrition Service, USDA, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 800, Alexandria Virginia, 22302, (703) 305-2490; E-Mail: Send comments to FSPHQ-WEB@fns.usda.gov; Fax: Submit comments by facsimile transmission to (703) 305-2486; Disk or CD-ROM: Submit comments on disk or CD-ROM to Mr. Crispino at the above address; Hand Delivery or Courier: Deliver comments to Mr. Crispino at the above address; Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov
Then follow online instructions.
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RE: Comments on the Food Stamp Eligibility and Certification Provisions
Of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, RIN 0584-AD30

We appreciate the opportunity to comment on the proposed regulation that implements many of the food stamp provisions of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.

Simplified Reporting

Among the most important options states have to simplify the program and increase access is the use of semi-annual (also called "simplified") reporting. Under the option, a household's benefits are stabilized for six months. The household must only report a change if it results in income exceeding the food stamp eligibility limit of 130 percent of the federal poverty level. At the six month point, the household would either submit a short report or be recertified (depending on whether a 12 month or six month certification period applied). This streamlined procedure benefits administrators and clients, by cutting down on unnecessary and burdensome contacts and paperwork and by reducing opportunity for payment errors. We applaud USDA for its support of this provision when pending in Congress as well as its post-enactment policy guidance encouraging states to use this option. We support the thrust of the proposed regulations for simplified reporting, but recommend two improvements.

First, the final regulation should better address situations in which a state receives information about the household that the household did not need to report. This might arise because a household reported information to another program such as Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) or Medicaid. We urge that the final regulation clarify that, for food stamp purposes, states may not require households to verify information that was not required to be reported to the Food Stamp Program. No negative Quality Control consequences should stem
from states' not requiring such verification. Second, households subject to simplified reporting should have the procedural protections applicable to monthly reporting cases. Households should not miss benefits because they did not understand reporting requirements or lacked a chance to correct an incomplete or missed report.

Transitional Benefit Alternative (TBA)

The Transitional Benefit Alternative (TBA) allows states to continue food stamps for certain families leaving TANF. Specifically, the states may continue food stamps for up to five months at a frozen benefit level without requiring the family to reapply or to file any additional paperwork with the state. This is an important mechanism to keep low-wage working families leaving TANF from having nutrition assistance benefits interrupted. The final regulations should guard against
inappropriate contacts and action on the household's case during the five-month transitional period. No negative Quality Control impacts should apply to states that follow the rule. The final rule also should allow a food stamp household to shift from the transitional benefit period back to the regular Food Stamp Program based on its TANF application as quickly and seamlessly as possible.

Immigrants

The 2002 Act's restoration of eligibility to many legal immigrants helps address one of the most glaring gaps in the national nutrition safety net. We applaud USDA for its leadership in supporting the restorations and in helping to educate potentially eligible people through its
outreach grants and public education and media campaign, including its radio spots.

We appreciate USDA's sensitivity to special barriers and issues facing immigrants, including fears related to effects of benefit receipt on legal status or sponsors. We support the proposed regulation clarification that handling sponsor's countable income when a sponsored immigrant adult and sponsored immigrant child live in the same household. We urge that the same food stamp deeming rule apply whether the child living with the sponsored immigrant adults is a citizen or sponsored immigrant child. We also urge that USDA clarify that agencies may not sue sponsors for reimbursement of food stamp benefits provided to immigrant children.

Income and Resources

Another important set of streamlining options under the 2002 law allow states to align what counts as income or resources in food stamps with what the state counts in its TANF cash assistance or family Medicaid programs. While the statute requires certain types of income and
resources to be considered for food stamps even if the state excludes them in its other programs, we are disappointed that the proposed regulations would expand the list of items that states cannot exclude. We urge USDA to limit the list of what must states must consider to
those items specified in the statute. In particular, we urge that the final regulations allow exclusion of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). IDAs offer low-income families a wide range of opportunities for savings and purchases that further self-sufficiency. The final
regulations should not restrict exclusion of IDAs to those for "home purchase, higher education or starting a business."

Standard Utility Allowance (SUA)

We urge the final regulation to apply a full SUA to a household, whether or not the household contains ineligible members. This not only furthers simplification but provides more adequate nutrition assistance to households in need, particularly those with ineligible immigrants
residing with eligible people.