Acceptance of program benefits through online transactions

Subject to paragraph (4), the Secretary shall approve retail food stores to accept benefits from recipients of supplemental nutrition assistance through on-line transactions.

A retail food store seeking to accept benefits from recipients of supplemental nutrition assistance through on-line transactions shall—

(A) establish recipient protections regarding privacy, ease of use, access, and support similar to the protections provided for transactions made in retail food stores;

(B) ensure benefits are not used to pay delivery, ordering, convenience, or other fees or charges;

(C) clearly notify participating households at the time a food order is placed— (i) of any delivery, ordering, convenience, or other fee or charge associated with the food purchase; and (ii) that any such fee cannot be paid with benefits provided under this chapter;

(D) ensure the security of on-line transactions by using the most effective technology available that the Secretary considers appropriate and cost-effective and that is comparable to the security of transactions at retail food stores; and

(E) meet other criteria as established by the Secretary.

(A) In general Before the Secretary authorizes implementation of paragraph (1) in all States, the Secretary shall carry out a number of demonstration projects as determined by the Secretary to test the feasibility of allowing retail food stores to accept benefits through on-line transactions.

(B) Demonstration projects To be eligible to participate in a demonstration project under subparagraph (A), a retail food store shall submit to the Secretary for approval a plan that includes— (i) a method of ensuring that benefits may be used to purchase only eligible items under this chapter; (ii) a description of the method of educating participant households about the availability and operation of on-line purchasing; (iii) adequate testing of the on-line purchasing option prior to implementation; (iv) the provision of data as requested by the Secretary for purposes of analyzing the impact of the project on participant access, ease of use, and program integrity; (v) reports on progress, challenges, and results, as determined by the Secretary; and (vi) such other criteria, including security criteria, as established by the Secretary.