Ensuring Fee-Free Benefit Transactions (EBT) Act

What it does

If Congress passes it, this bill would permanently prohibit processing or other related fees from being imposed on retailers that offer Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This protection is especially important for small, independent retailers like food co-ops, family- and minority-owned grocery stores. Specifically, the bill would:

• Make permanent a temporary ban on SNAP processing fees that was established in the 2018 Farm Bill;
• Ensure that retailers are responsible only for their own costs as USDA works to modernize EBT with chip cards and mobile payments.

Who supports this bill?

The Ensuring Fee-Free Benefit Transactions (EBT) Act is a bicameral bill, which means it has some support in both the Senate and the House. Representative Shontel Brown and Senators Ben Ray Luján and Peter Welch introduced the bill. In the House, this bill is referred to as H.R. 4103 and these Representatives are already supporting the bill. In the Senate, this bill is referred to as S. 2449, and these Senators are already supporting the bill.

This bill is endorsed by FMI – The Food Industry Association and National Grocers Association.

Want to support this bill?

You can call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be connected with your elected officials. An operator will ask for your address and then forward your call to friendly staff who work for the people elected to represent you. As a constituent in their district, your voice matters!

If your Senators and House Representative aren’t already on the list of cosponsors who support the bill:

• Ask your two Senators to “cosponsor the Ensuring Fee-Free Benefit Transactions (EBT) Act, S. 2449”
• Ask your House Representative to “cosponsor the Ensuring Fee-Free Benefit Transactions (EBT) Act, H.R. 4103.”

If your elected officials are already supporting the Ensuring Fee-Free Benefit Transactions (EBT) Act, you can always contact them to thank them and help spread the word among your networks.

Resources

If you’d like to learn more about the Ensuring Fee-Free Benefit Transactions (EBT) Act, you can:

• Find detailed instructions for calling or writing your Senators and Representative (tip: enter your address)
• Track the bill’s progress on Congress.gov or GovTrack
• Learn why lawmakers support this bill (Representative Shontel Brown’s press release)
• Read the full bill text

See more bills worthy of your support in the 2023 Farm Bill.