Title 7 › Chapter CHAPTER 51— - SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM › § 2031
Minnesota can ask the federal government to let the State run a Family Investment Demonstration Project in parts of Minnesota to see if giving cash help does a better job than SNAP and the programs under part A of title IV. With federal approval, the State may give cash that replaces SNAP and part A help, but only families can get help and families in the Project cannot get SNAP. The Project must give each participating family at least as much total help as they would have gotten from SNAP and part A, with specific rules about how child care payments and child support (minus $50 a month) count. The State must find any kinds of families who might get less and raise their payments so no family is worse off. The State will set a monthly food-assistance amount for each family that is at least equal to what SNAP would have given and must tell families that amount; families can sometimes choose to get that food help in benefit form. If families apply to join, the State must decide and start payments within 30 days and make payments back to the application date; if found ineligible, the same paperwork will be treated as a SNAP application. The Project must give fast help when rules call for it, let people apply in person the same day, help people who cannot get to the office, allow a named representative, and serve people without a fixed address. If families are moved into the Project from SNAP or part A programs, there must be no break in benefits. The Project runs five years from when the first family gets help but can end if the State or the Secretary gives 180 days’ notice or if both agree. No more than 6,000 families can take part at the same time. Parents can be required to do education, work, or training unless they meet listed exceptions (illness, caring for a sick family member, a child under one, a single parent with a child under six limited to 20 hours a week, working 30 or more hours a week or earning the federal minimum wage times 30, or in second/third trimester). Failing required activities without good cause can cut a family’s Project aid by up to 10 percent of the aid they would get with no other income. Federal payments will cover the food-assistance value and certain administrative costs as estimated and adjusted by agreement with the Secretary, and the federal government will not pay more than it would have without the Project except for evaluation costs. The Comptroller General will audit the Project. Minnesota must run an independent evaluation with treatment and control groups and random assignment in an urban setting; the State pays 50 percent of the evaluation cost and the federal government pays the rest. Definitions: family = children plus their parent(s) or caregiver living together (or a pregnant woman in her third trimester with no children); contract = a plan to help a family become self-sufficient; caregiver = a parent or a listed relative who lives with and supports a child when the parent is absent; State = Minnesota.
Full Legal Text
Agriculture — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
7 U.S.C. § 2031
Title 7 — Agriculture
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73