Title 7 › Chapter 51— SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM › § 2031
Minnesota can run a Family Investment Project in parts of the State if the federal Secretary approves the State’s written application. The Project can replace SNAP and part A of title IV cash help for participating families by giving them cash payments instead. Only families may join. If a family takes part, it cannot get SNAP. The Project must give each participating family at least as much total help as they would have gotten from SNAP plus part A of title IV, with special rules about counting child care, certain child support (minus $50 a month), and sales-tax losses. The State must find families who might get less and raise their payments. The State will set a monthly amount called food assistance, tell each family that amount every month, and periodically let families choose to get benefits instead of cash. People in the same household who are not in the Project get SNAP decided and paid the usual SNAP way, except their income and deductions are handled with one special rule and their monthly allotment is the higher of $10 or 75% of the SNAP-calculated amount (rounded down). The Project must give education, work, and training help like other programs. Families can be chosen by applying or by being assigned if they already get SNAP or part A help. If chosen by application, the State must decide within 30 days and pay back to the application date; if found ineligible, the application becomes a SNAP application. The State must offer expedited help, let people file the same day they ask, help elderly or disabled people who cannot come in, allow authorized representatives with limits, and serve people without a fixed address. If a family leaves the Project, the State must tell them about SNAP, screen them for SNAP eligibility, help them apply, and give any SNAP benefits retroactive to their Project end date if they qualify. Any SNAP benefits received for the same time will reduce Project payments pro rata. The State must keep running SNAP statewide while the Project runs. The Project can run for five years from when the first family gets help, but the State or the Secretary can end it with 180 days’ notice or by agreement. No more than 6,000 families can take part at once. The State may require parents to do work, school, or training unless they meet listed exceptions (for example: age 60 or older, ill or caring for an ill family member, parent of a child under one year, a single parent of a child under six limited to 20 hours of required activity if working or in training, working 30+ hours a week or earning the federal minimum wage times 30 hours, or in months six–nine of pregnancy). If a required participant fails to follow the rules without good reason, the State may cut the family’s aid by up to 10 percent. The federal Secretary will approve the Project application and pay Minnesota quarterly for the food assistance amount and related administrative costs equal to what would have been paid under SNAP, with periodic adjustments, but the Secretary’s total payments cannot exceed what would have been paid without the Project except for evaluation costs. The Secretary may waive other program rules that would stop the Project. The Government Accountability Office will audit the Project and report results. Minnesota must run an independent evaluation with random assignment and an urban test, measure impacts listed by the Secretary, and pay half the evaluation cost. Definitions used: family (children with their parent(s) or caregiver, and certain pregnant women), contract (a family plan for self-sufficiency), caregiver (a parent or other relative who lives with and cares for the child), and 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 3, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60