II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 949
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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH22, 2023
Mrs. G
ILLIBRAND(for herself, Mr. BOOKER, Ms. WARREN, Mr. SANDERS, Mr.
F
ETTERMAN, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, and Mr. SCHUMER)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
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 of 2023’’. 5
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SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE FOOD AND NUTRITION ACT 1
OF 2008. 2
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—Section 3 of the Food and Nutri-3
tion Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2012) is amended— 4
(1) in subsection (r) by inserting ‘‘Puerto 5
Rico,’’ after ‘‘Guam,’’, and 6
(2) in subsection (u)(2) by inserting ‘‘, Puerto 7
Rico,’’ after ‘‘Hawaii’’. 8
(b) E
LIGIBLEHOUSEHOLDS.—Section 5 of the Food 9
and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2014) is amended— 10
(1) in subsection (b) by inserting ‘‘Puerto 11
Rico,’’ after ‘‘Guam,’’, 12
(2) in subsection (c)(1) by striking ‘‘and 13
Guam’’ and inserting ‘‘Guam, and Puerto Rico’’, 14
and 15
(3) in subsection (e)— 16
(A) in paragraph (1)(A) by inserting 17
‘‘Puerto Rico,’’ after ‘‘Hawaii,’’ each place it 18
appears, and 19
(B) in paragraph (6)(B) by inserting 20
‘‘Puerto Rico,’’ after ‘‘Guam,’’. 21
SEC. 3. SUBMISSION OF PLAN OF OPERATION; TECHNICAL 22
ASSISTANCE; DETERMINATION AND CERTIFI-23
CATION BY SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 24
(a) S
UBMISSION OFPLAN OFOPERATION.—On des-25
ignating an agency of the kind described in section 3(s)(1) 26
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of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 1
2012(s)(1)), the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall have 2
60 days to submit to the Secretary of Agriculture (in this 3
Act referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) its plan of operation, 4
including a plan to transition to the supplemental nutri-5
tion assistance program under section 4(a) of such Act 6
(7 U.S.C. 2013(a)) as a request to participate in the sup-7
plemental nutrition assistance program under the Food 8
and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.). 9
(b) T
ECHNICALASSISTANCE.—Within the 60-day pe-10
riod specified in subsection (a) and upon request from the 11
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Secretary shall provide 12
appropriate training and technical assistance to enable the 13
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to formulate a plan of oper-14
ation described in subsection (a). 15
(c) D
ETERMINATION BY THE SECRETARY OFAGRI-16
CULTURE.—Not later than 180 days after receiving a plan 17
of operation described in subsection (a), the Secretary 18
shall approve if such plan satisfies the requirements for 19
a supplemental nutrition assistance program State plan 20
in accordance with subsections (d) and (e) of section 11 21
of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2020). 22
If the Secretary does not approve such plan, the Secretary 23
shall provide, not later than 30 days after disapproval, a 24
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statement that specifies each of the requirements that 1
were not satisfied by such plan. 2
(d) C
ERTIFICATION BY THE SECRETARY OF AGRI-3
CULTURE.—If the Secretary approves the plan submitted 4
by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico under subsection 5
(a), the Secretary shall submit to the Congress, not later 6
than 60 days thereafter, a certification that the Common-7
wealth of Puerto Rico qualifies to participate in the sup-8
plemental nutrition assistance program as a State as de-9
fined in section 3(r) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 10
2008 (7 U.S.C. 2012(r)). 11
SEC. 4. TRANSITION FROM THE CONSOLIDATED BLOCK 12
GRANT FOR PUERTO RICO. 13
(a) C
OVEREDPERIOD.—The Secretary may continue 14
to implement the then most recent approved consolidated 15
block grant specified in section 19(b)(1)(A) of the Food 16
and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2028(b)(1)(A)) for 17
a period ending no later than 5 years after the effective 18
date of the amendments made by this Act, or on the date 19
the Secretary determines that the Commonwealth of Puer-20
to Rico no longer needs to operate the consolidated block 21
grant to complete the transition described in section 3(a), 22
whichever occurs first. 23
(b) R
EPORT.—For each year a plan is continued 24
under subsection (a), the Secretary shall submit to the 25
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Congress an annual report on the operation of such plan. 1
The Secretary shall include in such report information re-2
lated to increases in funding that are required to accom-3
modate the transition of the Commonwealth of Puerto 4
Rico from the receipt of block grant payments to the im-5
plementation of supplemental nutrition assistance pro-6
gram. 7
SEC. 5. CONSOLIDATED BLOCK GRANT FOR PUERTO RICO 8
AND AMERICAN SAMOA. 9
Section 19 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 10
(7 U.S.C. 2028) is amended— 11
(1) in subsection (a)— 12
(A) in paragraph (1)(A) by inserting ‘‘until 13
the end of the period described in section 4(a) 14
of the Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fair-15
ness Act of 2023,’’ after ‘‘(A)’’, 16
(B) in paragraph (2)— 17
(i) in subparagraph (A)— 18
(I) in clause (i) by striking 19
‘‘and’’ at the end, and 20
(II) in clause (ii)— 21
(aa) by inserting ‘‘, until the 22
end of the period described in 23
section 4(a) of the Puerto Rico 24
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Nutrition Assistance Fairness 1
Act of 2023’’ after ‘‘thereafter’’, 2
(bb) by striking the period 3
at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’, 4
and 5
(cc) by adding at the end 6
the following: 7
‘‘(iii) subject to the availability of ap-8
propriations under section 18(a), for each 9
fiscal year beginning after the end of the 10
period described in section 4(a) of the 11
Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fairness 12
Act of 2023, 0.4 percent of the aggregate 13
amount specified in clause (i) and adjusted 14
under clause (ii), as further adjusted by 15
the percentage by which the thrifty food 16
plan has been adjusted under section 17
3(u)(4) between June 30 of the penul-18
timate fiscal year preceding such effective 19
date and June 30 of the fiscal year for 20
which the adjustment is made under this 21
clause.’’, 22
(ii) in subparagraph (B)(i) by insert-23
ing ‘‘until the end of the period described 24
in section 4(a) of the Puerto Rico Nutri-25
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tion Assistance Fairness Act of 2023’’ 1
after ‘‘thereafter’’, and 2
(iii) in subparagraph (C)— 3
(I) by striking ‘‘For’’ and insert-4
ing the following: 5
‘‘(i) For’’, 6
(II) by inserting ‘‘until the end of 7
the period described in section 4(a) of 8
the Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance 9
Fairness Act of 2023’’ after ‘‘there-10
after’’, and 11
(III) by adding at the end, the 12
following: 13
‘‘(ii) For each fiscal year beginning 14
after the end of the period described in 15
section 4(a) of the Puerto Rico Nutrition 16
Assistance Fairness Act of 2023, the Sec-17
retary shall use 100 percent of the funds 18
made available under subparagraph (A) for 19
payment to American Samoa to pay 100 20
percent of the expenditures by American 21
Samoa for a nutrition assistance program 22
extended under section 601(c) of Public 23
Law 96–597 (48 U.S.C. 1469d(c)).’’, and 24
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(C) in paragraph (3) by striking ‘‘year,’’ 1
and inserting ‘‘year, until the end of the period 2
described in section 4(a) of the Puerto Rico 3
Nutrition Assistance Fairness Act of 2023, 4
and’’ after ‘‘year’’, and 5
(2) in subsection (b)(1)(A) by inserting ‘‘until 6
the end of the period described in section 4(a) of the 7
Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fairness Act of 8
2023’’ after ‘‘year’’ the first place it appears. 9
SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 10
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 11
this Act such sums as may be necessary until the end of 12
the period described in section 4(a). 13
SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATES. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 15
(b), this Act shall take effect on the date of the enactment 16
of this Act. 17
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE OF AMENDMENTS.—The 18
amendments made by this Act shall take effect on October 19
1 of the 1st fiscal year that begins 1 year after the Sec-20
retary submits to Congress the certification described in 21
section 3(d). 22
Æ
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