Food Stamp Program: Personal Responsibility Provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996; Delay of Effective Date

The final rule, "The Personal Responsibility Provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996," was published on January 17, 2001 at FR 66 4438. The rule finalizes the proposed rule of the same name which was published December 17, 1999. It implements 13 provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. The original effective date of the rule (with the exception of one amendment) was April 2, 2001. In accordance with the memorandum of January 20, 2001, from the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, entitled "Regulatory Review Plan," published in the Federal Register on January 24, 2001, the effective date of the rule was delayed for 60 days to June 1, 2001, via an action published in the Federal Register on February 5, 2001 at 66 FR 8886. The Under Secretary of the Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services and has just recently been confirmed and has not yet been sworn-in. In order to give the new Under Secretary time to review the rule, this action delays the effective date of the final rule (with the exception of one amendment) an additional 60 days to July 31, 2001. In addition, the State agencies were required to implement the final rule no later than August 1, 2001. Because the rule will not be effective now until July 31, 2001, this action establishes a new implementation date of October 1, 2001.