I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 253
To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to transition the Common-
wealth of Puerto Rico to the supplemental nutrition assistance program,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY10, 2023
Miss G
ONZA´LEZ-COLO´N(for herself, Mrs. RADEWAGEN, Ms. HOULAHAN, Mr.
M
CGOVERN, Mr. MOYLAN, and Mr. SOTO) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to transition
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to the supplemental
nutrition assistance program, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Puerto Rico Nutrition 4
Assistance Fairness Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE FOOD AND NUTRITION ACT 6
OF 2008. 7
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—Section 3 of the Food and Nutri-8
tion Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2012) is amended— 9
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(1) in subsection (r) by inserting ‘‘Puerto 1
Rico,’’ after ‘‘Guam,’’, and 2
(2) in subsection (u)(2) by inserting ‘‘, Puerto 3
Rico,’’ after ‘‘Hawaii’’. 4
(b) E
LIGIBLEHOUSEHOLDS.—Section 5 of the Food 5
and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2014) is amended— 6
(1) in subsection (b) by inserting ‘‘Puerto 7
Rico,’’ after ‘‘Guam,’’, 8
(2) in subsection (c)(1) by striking ‘‘and 9
Guam’’ and inserting ‘‘Guam, and Puerto Rico’’, 10
and 11
(3) in subsection (e)— 12
(A) in paragraph (1)(A) by inserting 13
‘‘Puerto Rico,’’ after ‘‘Hawaii,’’ each place it 14
appears, and 15
(B) in paragraph (6)(B) by inserting 16
‘‘Puerto Rico,’’ after ‘‘Guam,’’. 17
SEC. 3. SUBMISSION OF PLAN OF OPERATION; TECHNICAL 18
ASSISTANCE; DETERMINATION AND CERTIFI-19
CATION BY SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 20
(a) S
UBMISSION OFPLAN OFOPERATION.—On des-21
ignating an agency of the kind described in section 3(s)(1) 22
of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 23
2012(s)(1)), the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall have 24
60 days to submit to the Secretary of Agriculture (in this 25
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Act referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) its plan of operation, 1
including a plan to transition to the supplemental nutri-2
tion assistance program under section 4(a) of such Act 3
(7 U.S.C. 5(a)) as a request to participate in the supple-4
mental nutrition assistance program under of the Food 5
and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.). 6
(b) T
ECHNICALASSISTANCE.—Within the 60-day pe-7
riod specified in subsection (a) and upon request from the 8
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Secretary shall provide 9
appropriate training and technical assistance to enable the 10
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to formulate a plan of oper-11
ation described in subsection (a). 12
(c) D
ETERMINATION BY THE SECRETARY OFAGRI-13
CULTURE.—Not later than 180 days after receiving a plan 14
of operation described in subsection (a), the Secretary 15
shall approve if such plan satisfies the requirements for 16
a supplemental nutrition assistance program State plan 17
in accordance with subsections (d) and (e) of section 11 18
of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2020). 19
If the Secretary does not approve such plan, the Secretary 20
shall provide, not later than 30 days after disapproval, a 21
statement that specifies each of the requirements that 22
were not satisfied by such plan. 23
(d) C
ERTIFICATION BY THE SECRETARY OF AGRI-24
CULTURE.—If the Secretary approves the plan submitted 25
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by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico under subsection 1
(a), the Secretary shall submit to the Congress, not later 2
than 60 days thereafter, a certification that the Common-3
wealth of Puerto Rico qualifies to participate in the sup-4
plemental nutrition assistance program as a State as de-5
fined in section 3(r) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 6
2008 (7 U.S.C. 2012(r)). 7
SEC. 4. TRANSITION FROM THE CONSOLIDATED BLOCK 8
GRANT FOR PUERTO RICO. 9
(a) C
OVEREDPERIOD.—The Secretary may continue 10
to implement the then most recent approved consolidated 11
block grant specified in section 19(b)(1)(A) of the Food 12
and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2028(b)(1)(A)) for 13
a period ending no later than 5 years after the effective 14
date of the amendments made by this Act, or on the date 15
the Secretary determines that the Commonwealth of Puer-16
to Rico no longer needs to operate the consolidated block 17
grant to complete the transition described in section 3(a), 18
whichever occurs first. 19
(b) R
EPORT.—For each year a plan is continued 20
under subsection (a), the Secretary shall submit to the 21
Congress an annual report on the operation of such plan. 22
The Secretary shall include in such report information re-23
lated to increases in funding that are required to accom-24
modate the transition of the Commonwealth of Puerto 25
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Rico from the receipt of block grant payments to the im-1
plementation of supplemental nutrition assistance pro-2
gram. 3
SEC. 5. CONSOLIDATED BLOCK GRANT FOR PUERTO RICO 4
AND AMERICAN SAMOA. 5
Section 19 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 6
(7 U.S.C. 2028) is amended— 7
(1) in subsection (a)— 8
(A) in paragraph (1)(A) by inserting ‘‘until 9
the end of the period described in section 4(a) 10
of the Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fair-11
ness Act,’’ after ‘‘(A)’’, 12
(B) in paragraph (2)— 13
(i) in subparagraph (A)— 14
(I) in clause (i) by striking 15
‘‘and’’ at the end, and 16
(II) in clause (ii)— 17
(aa) by inserting ‘‘, and end-18
ing at the end of the period de-19
scribed in section 4(a) of the 20
Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance 21
Fairness Act’’ after ‘‘thereafter’’, 22
(bb) by striking the period 23
at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’, 24
and 25
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(cc) by adding at the end 1
the following: 2
‘‘(iii) subject to the availability of ap-3
propriations under section 18(a), for each 4
fiscal year beginning after the end of the 5
period described in section 4(a) of the 6
Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fairness 7
Act, 0.4 percent of the aggregate amount 8
specified in clause (i) and adjusted under 9
clause (ii), as further adjusted by the per-10
centage by which the thrifty food plan has 11
been adjusted under section 3(u)(4) be-12
tween June 30 of the penultimate fiscal 13
year preceding such effective date and 14
June 30 of the fiscal year for which the 15
adjustment is made under this clause.’’, 16
(ii) in subparagraph (B)(i) by insert-17
ing ‘‘ending at the end of the period de-18
scribed in section 4(a) of the Puerto Rico 19
Nutrition Assistance Fairness Act’’ after 20
‘‘thereafter’’, and 21
(iii) in subparagraph (C)— 22
(I) by striking ‘‘For’’ and insert-23
ing the following: 24
‘‘(i) For’’, 25
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(II) by inserting ‘‘ending at the 1
end of the period described in section 2
4(a) of the Puerto Rico Nutrition As-3
sistance Fairness Act’’ after ‘‘there-4
after’’, and 5
(III) by adding at the end, the 6
following: 7
‘‘(ii) For each fiscal year beginning 8
after the end of the period described in 9
section 4(a) of the Puerto Rico Nutrition 10
Assistance Fairness Act, the Secretary 11
shall use 100 percent of the funds made 12
available under subparagraph (A) for pay-13
ment to American Samoa to pay 100 per-14
cent of the expenditures by American 15
Samoa for a nutrition assistance program 16
extended under section 601(c) of Public 17
Law 96–597 (48 U.S.C. 1469d(c)).’’, and 18
(C) in paragraph (3) by striking ‘‘year,’’ 19
and inserting ‘‘year ending at the end of the pe-20
riod described in section 4(a) of the Puerto 21
Rico Nutrition Assistance Fairness Act, and’’ 22
after ‘‘year’’, and 23
(2) in subsection (b)(1)(A) by inserting ‘‘and 24
ending at the end of the period described in section 25
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4(a) of the Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fair-1
ness Act’’ after ‘‘year’’ the first place it appears. 2
SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 3
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 4
this Act such sums as may be necessary until the end of 5
the period described in section 4(a). 6
SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATES. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 8
(b), this Act shall take effect on the date of the enactment 9
of this Act. 10
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE OF AMENDMENTS.—The 11
amendments made by this Act shall take effect on October 12
1 of the 1st fiscal year that begins 1 year after the Sec-13
retary submits to Congress the certification described in 14
section 3(d) of this Act. 15
Æ
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