Summary
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. This collection is a reinstatement with revision of a currently expired information collection. This information collection announces the intent of the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to revise the burden hours and continue the requirements associated with initiating and conducting federal collection actions against debtors with delinquent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipient debts.
Request for Comments
Written comments must be submitted on or before June 8, 2026 to be considered.
Comments may be sent to Maribelle Balbes, Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1320 Braddock Place, 5th Floor, Alexandria, VA 22314 or (703) 605-4272. Comments may also be submitted via email to snapsab@usda.gov. Comments will also be accepted through the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to Regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for submitting comments electronically.
All responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the request for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval. All comments will become a matter of public record.
Abstract
Section 13(b) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (the Act), as amended (7 USC 2022(b)), and SNAP regulations at 7 CFR 273.18 require state agencies to refer delinquent SNAP debts to the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) for collection and notify debtors. The Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (PL 104-134) (DCIA), as amended by the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (PL113-101), requires these debts be referred to Treasury for collection when they are 120 days or more delinquent. While SNAP regulations at 7 CFR 273.18(n) still reflect the older standard of 180 days, states must follow the 120-day timeframe required by DCIA as amended by Public Law 113-101. The Treasury Offset Program (TOP), 31 CFR part 285, intercepts and offsets eligible federal payments, such as federal income tax refunds and federal salaries, to pay these delinquent SNAP debts. The requirement to use TOP to collect delinquent debts places a reporting, recordkeeping, and public disclosure burden on state agencies, debtors, or third-party support solutions. The state agency notifies debtors of their impending referral to TOP, submits the debts into TOP to initiate interception of federal payments, and conducts Automated Data Processing (ADP) or third-party support solutions. The debtor reads the notice, makes formal, informal, and phone inquiries to the State agency, and in some cases, submits an appeal.
For the burden estimates included in this information collection, FNS is using the TOP referral data from calendar years 2018-2020, which was also used in the previous ICR for this form. The 2018-2020 data were prior to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) and were not impacted by the flexibilities offered to states to suspend claims and TOP collections during the PHE. Specifically, during the PHE, state agencies were provided the flexibility to suspend collection of active recoupments of SNAP overpayments, delay collection on newly established overpayments, not consider any payments delayed due to this suspension to be delinquent and suspend TOP collections.
While FNS used the TOP referral data from the prior submission, the updated time estimates for individual activities are based on consultations with state agencies. The burden associated with the information collection involves both debtors and state agencies. The total inquiry and response burden for the TOP notices between state agencies and debtors is 547,650 responses (272,161 debtor responses + 275,489 state agency responses) per year resulting in an annual reporting burden of 46,490 hours. Since the data from the last submission is being used, there is no change in the number of responses for this ICR. The burden hours stayed the same, with the exception of the ADP reporting burden hours, which decreased based on updated estimates received from stakeholder consultations. Please see the section titled Automated Data Processing (ADP) or Third-Party Support Solutions for more information.