RFI SNAP Income Verification Database 5_17_22.pdf

Request for Information SNAP Income Verification Third Party Database National Contract

Introduction and Purpose

The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is publishing this Request for Information (RFI) in order to obtain comments/inputs from interested parties in accordance with FAR 15.201(e).

USDA-FNS is soliciting comments regarding its interest in providing the 53 States that administer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) with the opportunity to query a third-party income database (TPID) for purposes of verifying SNAP earned income amounts.

USDA-FNS is interested in identifying the range of firms, organizations, and institutions that can support or provide such a service at the national-level, and requests feedback on the advantages, constraints, and costs of such a service.

This announcement is a Request for Information (RFI). Information obtained through this RFI will enable FNS to determine its acquisition strategy and plan to fulfill the requirement. It is not to be construed as a commitment by USDA-FNS to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) on the basis of this RFI or to otherwise pay for any information submitted as a result of this request.

Responding to this RFI will not give any advantage to any firm under any subsequent RFP.

Background

The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 requires the State SNAP agencies (States) to verify the earned income of applicants before certifying those that are eligible for benefits. States have traditionally operationalized this requirement by requesting that applicants provide paystubs or by contacting the employer directly. In addition, relatively new technology in the form of TPIDs now provide States with the opportunity to obtain income and employment information for a significant portion of SNAP applicants with earned income more efficiently than the traditional methods. In addition, TPIDs can improve SNAP payment accuracy when they reveal income sources not declared by the applicant. As of April 2022, 39 of the 53 State agencies that administer SNAP (which include all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands) have independent contracts with a TPID vendor in order to take advantage of this new technological tool. These TPID vendors generally provide income information for a high volume of individuals in real-time within their respective States and neighboring States, and States prioritize this coverage as part of their solicitations to ensure that the service will in fact lead to efficiency gains by verifying more applicants’ income more quickly.

FNS seeks to support and expand all States’ access to TPID data in order to increase the efficiency of States’ earned income verification procedures and identify potential applicant reporting errors in advance of certifying SNAP households. The vendor must have the capacity to do the following:

a) Provide all 53 State SNAP agencies (which include all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands) access to TPID data to potentially verify earned income for all SNAP applicants that meet either of the following criteria:

a. Applicants who declare having earned income; and

b. Applicants who are age 18 through 59 and do not have a disability (regardless of whether the applicant declares earned income).

b) Upon receiving a single query for a single individual, provide a response in real-time

(within seconds).

c) Provide employer-reported payroll data transactions for a total of at least 40% of queries nationwide.

d) Demonstrate a trend of growth with the volume of employer-reported payroll records within its database.

e) Provide at least the two most recent months of earned income data for all matched queries and additional months as requested for a limited number of cases.

f) Acts as the employers’ authorized agent for income verification services.

g) Provides a generally accessible, user friendly interface for States to query based on name and social security number. And, in addition, has the demonstrated capacity to integrate and automate the query process into States’ SNAP eligibility systems, for example via an application programming interface.

h) Provide FNS with monthly data to evaluate performance, such as the number of queries and percentage of completed transactions across the nation and for individual States.

i) Ensure all data, including Personally-Identifiable Information (PII), is secured and protected.

j) Ensure client confidentiality is protected and client privacy and disclosure rules and regulations are followed.

A high quality, well-staffed and well-managed vendor is essential to the meeting these requirements. Hence, SNAP’s acquisition strategy is focused on identifying capable, competent contractors with the technical expertise, staffing capacity, performance history, managerial proficiency, and a history of responsiveness.

Response to RFI

In your response to this RFI, please provide the following information:

1. Company name, address, point of contact, voice telephone number and e-mail address.

2. A general description of the income verification database and its potential to be used at the national level.

3. Specific information as to how the above specified technical requirements may be met.

If there are options for meeting these requirements, please describe each option and the benefits or risks of each.

4. In addition to this RFI, USDA-FNS will be interviewing a limited number of industry experts concerning the use of TPID. If a member of your firm would like to be

McConnell, Casey - FNS added per our comment above considered for an interview, please include in your response: Name and contact information. If available, also provide a resume, not to exceed two pages.

Submittal

Please submit your response to this RFI by 4:00 EST on June 1, 2022, to Ian Lipscomb at Ian.Lipscomb@usda.gov. and Belal Hammad at Belal.Hammad@usda.gov mailto:Ian.Lipscomb@usda.gov mailto:Belal.Hammad@usda.gov