Food Stamp Program: Revisions in Use and Disclosure Rules Involving the Sharing of Information Provided by Retail and Wholesale Food Concerns with Other Federal and State Agencies

This rulemaking implements certain provisions in two different laws which expand the authority of the United States Department of Agriculture's Food and Consumer Service (FCS) to share information provided by applicants and firms participating as authorized retail food stores or wholesale food concerns in the Food Stamp Program (FSP) with other Federal and State government agencies. The intent of this final rule is to enable better administration and enforcement of the Food Stamp Act of 1977, as amended (the Act), or any other Federal or State law and regulations issued under the Act or any other Federal or State law. This rule provides new criteria to govern the sharing of such information and new criminal penalties for unauthorized use. It also implements the Secretary of Agriculture's new authority to share employer identification numbers (EINs) and Social Security numbers (SSNs) of applicants and firms participating in the FSP with other Federal agencies. Finally, this rule makes technical changes to correct an error in regulatory reference and also to reflect changes made by the Department of the Treasury in a parallel rule that does not change the substance of the affected provisions.