Letter to USDA: Advocacy Suggests Improvements to the Proposed Rule on Providing Regulatory Flexibility in the SNAP Program
On April 5, 2019, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) published a proposed rule titled: Providing Regulatory Flexibility for Retailers in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This letter constitutes The Office of Advocacy’s (Advocacy) thoughts and comments on the proposed rule. In summary, Advocacy urges the FNS to better consider the impacts of this rule on small food retailers and suppliers. We also suggest that FNS improve the Executive Order 12866 regulatory impact analysis (RIA) and the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) initial regulatory flexibility analysis. This will support FNS’ stated goal of providing flexibility to small food retailers while preserving SNAP participants’ access to healthy food.