Ensuring Fee-Free Benefit Transactions Act of 2025
Summary
HB4158, titled the Ensuring Fee-Free Benefit Transactions Act of 2025, would amend the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to make permanent the existing moratorium on SNAP benefit transaction fees. The bill bars states and their agents, contractors, or subcontractors that administer SNAP from charging SNAP-authorized retailers fees for EBT transactions, including switching or routing costs tied to implementing federal SNAP requirements. It also preserves a narrow exception for costs associated with equipment rentals.
The bill would supersede contrary provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, and any agency action taken under that authority, and it would take effect on October 1, 2025. In practical terms, it would lock in a long-term federal prohibition on states passing certain transaction-processing costs on to retailers participating in SNAP, while leaving equipment rental charges outside the ban.
Impact
The bill would amend 7 U.S.C. 2016(h)(13)(B) in the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, permanently extending the prohibition on SNAP EBT transaction fees charged to authorized retailers by states or state contractors. It would preempt any inconsistent fee authority created under title IV of division HH of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, and would affect state SNAP administrators, EBT processors, and SNAP retailers by limiting who may bear transaction-processing costs. The only express carveout is for equipment rental expenses.
Sentiment
Based on the bill text and available context, the measure appears to be framed as a consumer- and retailer-protection bill with a straightforward policy goal: keeping SNAP benefit transactions fee-free. There are no recorded committee transcripts or votes in the provided material, so there is no documented opposition or support beyond the bill’s introduction and referral to the House Committee on Agriculture. The available context suggests a neutral-to-positive posture, with the bill presented as a technical but substantive extension of an existing fee moratorium.
Contention
The main policy issue is whether states or their contractors should be allowed to recover EBT transaction-related costs from SNAP-authorized retailers. Supporters would likely favor permanent fee relief for retailers and stable access to SNAP transactions, while potential critics may focus on the fiscal impact on state EBT systems or contractors who would need to absorb switching and routing costs. The bill’s exception for equipment rentals may also be a point of clarification, since it preserves some charges while prohibiting others.
Requires State to adopt practices to reduce SNAP benefits theft and to replace stolen SNAP benefits under certain circumstances; upgrades criminal penalties for SNAP benefits theft; makes appropriation.