BILL NUMBER: S8553
SPONSOR: HINCHEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to reporting on food
security trends
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To direct the Department of Health to include the United States House-
hold Food Security Survey Module: Six-Item Short Form Economic Research
Service as part of its annual participation in the Behavioral Risk
Factor Surveillance System and to publicly report the findings.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one provides legislative findings.
Section two directs the Department of Health to include, as part of its
participation in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the
United States Household Food Security Survey Module: Six-Item Short Form
Economic Research Service developed by the U.S. Department of Agricul-
ture. Section three establishes the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Ever since the passage of the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related
Research Act of 1990, the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the United
States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has produced an annual report on
national and state-level household food insecurity. That reporting has
now stopped. After 35 years, the USDA unexpectedly announced in Septem-
ber that it will no longer produce the report, leaving policymakers in
New York and elsewhere to "fly blind."
The USDA's report measured the extent and severity of household food
insecurity, provided data on household food expenditures, tracked the
use of various food and nutrition assistance programs (including the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as "SNAP" or "food
stamps"), and identified the food security status of households, chil-
dren, and adults across the country and in New York. New York's policy-
makers cannot effectively and efficiently òtrack hunger trends or make
informed decisions for investing taxpayer dollars without such report-
ing.
This bill directs the Department of Health (DOH) to begin producing
comparable annual reporting as part of its participation in the Behav-
ioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). DOH can produce such
reporting by opting to include the United States Household Food Security
Survey Module, known as the "Six-Item Short Form Economic Research
Service," in its annual survey process. Enhanced BRFSS reporting will be
particularly important in the upcoming years, as the latest federal
budget bill, H.R.1, made deep cuts to SNAP. Under the new federal law,
the number of New Yorkers who remain eligible for SNAP is expected to
decrease significantly, and as a result, to notably increase the number
of New Yorkers who experience food insecurity.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S8553: 201 public health law, 201(1) public health law