Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fairness Act of 2023

II 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION 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 MARCH 22, 2023 Mrs. GILLIBRAND (for herself, Mr. BOOKER, Ms. WARREN, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. FETTERMAN, 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Apr 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S949.IS S949 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •S 949 IS SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE FOOD AND NUTRITION ACT 1 OF 2008. 2 (a) DEFINITIONS.—Section 3 of the Food and Nutri- 3 tion Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2012) is amended— 4 (1) in subsection (r) by inserting ‘‘Puerto 5 Rico,’’ after ‘‘Guam,’’, and 6 (2) in subsection (u)(2) by inserting ‘‘, Puerto 7 Rico,’’ after ‘‘Hawaii’’. 8 (b) ELIGIBLE HOUSEHOLDS.—Section 5 of the Food 9 and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2014) is amended— 10 (1) in subsection (b) by inserting ‘‘Puerto 11 Rico,’’ after ‘‘Guam,’’, 12 (2) in subsection (c)(1) by striking ‘‘and 13 Guam’’ and inserting ‘‘Guam, and Puerto Rico’’, 14 and 15 (3) in subsection (e)— 16 (A) in paragraph (1)(A) by inserting 17 ‘‘Puerto Rico,’’ after ‘‘Hawaii,’’ each place it 18 appears, and 19 (B) in paragraph (6)(B) by inserting 20 ‘‘Puerto Rico,’’ after ‘‘Guam,’’. 21 SEC. 3. SUBMISSION OF PLAN OF OPERATION; TECHNICAL 22 ASSISTANCE; DETERMINATION AND CERTIFI- 23 CATION BY SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 24 (a) SUBMISSION OF PLAN OF OPERATION.—On des- 25 ignating an agency of the kind described in section 3(s)(1) 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Apr 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S949.IS S949 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •S 949 IS 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) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—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) DETERMINATION BY THE SECRETARY OF AGRI- 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Apr 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S949.IS S949 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •S 949 IS statement that specifies each of the requirements that 1 were not satisfied by such plan. 2 (d) CERTIFICATION BY THE SECRETARY OF AGRI- 3 CULTURE.—If the Secretary approves the plan submitted 4 by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico under subsection 5 (a), the Secretary shall submit to the Congress, not later 6 than 60 days thereafter, a certification that the Common- 7 wealth of Puerto Rico qualifies to participate in the sup- 8 plemental nutrition assistance program as a State as de- 9 fined in section 3(r) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 10 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2012(r)). 11 SEC. 4. TRANSITION FROM THE CONSOLIDATED BLOCK 12 GRANT FOR PUERTO RICO. 13 (a) COVERED PERIOD.—The Secretary may continue 14 to implement the then most recent approved consolidated 15 block grant specified in section 19(b)(1)(A) of the Food 16 and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2028(b)(1)(A)) for 17 a period ending no later than 5 years after the effective 18 date of the amendments made by this Act, or on the date 19 the Secretary determines that the Commonwealth of Puer- 20 to Rico no longer needs to operate the consolidated block 21 grant to complete the transition described in section 3(a), 22 whichever occurs first. 23 (b) REPORT.—For each year a plan is continued 24 under subsection (a), the Secretary shall submit to the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Apr 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S949.IS S949 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5 •S 949 IS 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Apr 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S949.IS S949 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 6 •S 949 IS Nutrition Assistance Fairness 1 Act of 2023’’ after ‘‘thereafter’’, 2 (bb) by striking the period 3 at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’, 4 and 5 (cc) by adding at the end 6 the following: 7 ‘‘(iii) subject to the availability of ap- 8 propriations under section 18(a), for each 9 fiscal year beginning after the end of the 10 period described in section 4(a) of the 11 Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fairness 12 Act of 2023, 0.4 percent of the aggregate 13 amount specified in clause (i) and adjusted 14 under clause (ii), as further adjusted by 15 the percentage by which the thrifty food 16 plan has been adjusted under section 17 3(u)(4) between June 30 of the penul- 18 timate fiscal year preceding such effective 19 date and June 30 of the fiscal year for 20 which the adjustment is made under this 21 clause.’’, 22 (ii) in subparagraph (B)(i) by insert- 23 ing ‘‘until the end of the period described 24 in section 4(a) of the Puerto Rico Nutri- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Apr 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S949.IS S949 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7 •S 949 IS 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Apr 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S949.IS S949 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 8 •S 949 IS (C) in paragraph (3) by striking ‘‘year,’’ 1 and inserting ‘‘year, until the end of the period 2 described in section 4(a) of the Puerto Rico 3 Nutrition Assistance Fairness Act of 2023, 4 and’’ after ‘‘year’’, and 5 (2) in subsection (b)(1)(A) by inserting ‘‘until 6 the end of the period described in section 4(a) of the 7 Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fairness Act of 8 2023’’ after ‘‘year’’ the first place it appears. 9 SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 10 There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 11 this Act such sums as may be necessary until the end of 12 the period described in section 4(a). 13 SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATES. 14 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 15 (b), this Act shall take effect on the date of the enactment 16 of this Act. 17 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE OF AMENDMENTS.—The 18 amendments made by this Act shall take effect on October 19 1 of the 1st fiscal year that begins 1 year after the Sec- 20 retary submits to Congress the certification described in 21 section 3(d). 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:15 Apr 06, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S949.IS S949 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB