Food Stamp Act Amendments of 1980

Food Stamp Act Amendments of 1980 - Title I: Reduction in Food Stamp Error and Fraud and Revision of Deductions - Amends the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to extend coverage under the food stamp program to shelters that prepare and serve meals for battered women and/or children.

Excludes from household income, for the purpose of determining eligibility for the food stamp program, payments or allowances made under any Federal, State, or local laws for the purpose of providing energy assistance.

States that the Consumer Price Index referred to in the computation of household income is the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers.

Permits a dependent care deduction from household income up to a maximum of $160 per month under specified conditions. Expands medical deductions for the elderly. Includes medical deductions for the blind and disabled in specified areas.

Directs participating State agencies to elect and utilize, in calculating income for most households applying for food stamps, either of the following two methods: (1) taking into account the income reasonably anticipated to be received in the certification period and the income received during the 30 days preceding application, so as to ascertain the income actually available to the household for the certification period; or (2) using income received in a previous month as the basis in accordance with standards prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture (retrospective accounting).

Excludes from household assets automobiles necessary for transportation of a disabled household member.

Grants State agencies the opportunity to proceed against alleged fraudulent activity by specified means.

Prescribes general standards for State periodic household income reporting requirements.

Prohibits a household from qualifying for the food stamp program as a result of a member of such household going out on strike.

Provides that the income and financial resources of an alien ineligible to participate in the food stamp program shall be considered in determining the eligibility of the household of which such alien is a member. Requires the person certifying such household to immediately report to the Immigration and Naturalization Service that a member of such household is present in the United States in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Requires each State agency to determine the eligibility of applicant households by verifying includable income by specified means. Permits such agency to verify, prior to certification, the size of any applicant household and factors of eligibility for households falling within error-prone household profiles.

Directs each State agency to require the use of photo identification for the receipt of coupons in specified project areas.

Makes cost-sharing funds of 75 percent available to the State agencies for the establishment and operation of an automatic data processing and information retrieval system to provide efficient and effective administration of the food stamp program.

Sets forth the methods the Secretary of Agriculture may use to determine when a State agency has failed to comply with: (1) the provisions of this Act; or (2) the Secretary's standards for the efficient and effective administration of such program. Permits the Secretary to withhold from such State such funds as he deems appropriate.

Requires a financial audit review of project areas within a State when the ratio of such State's average food stamp participation in a quarter to the State's total population exceeds 60 percent.

Requires the forfeiture of anything of value furnished or intended to be furnished in exchange for coupons or authorization cards in any manner not authorized by this Act.

Authorizes the Secretary to assume specified percentages of the administrative costs of State agencies whose rates of error and/or error reduction are at specified levels.

Directs the Secretary to institute an error liability program under which each State agency shall pay to the Secretary the amount by which the dollar equivalent of the agency's payment error rate exceeds the dollar value equivalent of the national standard payment error rate, or an amount determined by a specified formula, whichever is higher.

Requires the Secretary to change the method of calculating each State agency's payment error rate if, after study, the Secretary determines that it is feasible to include in such calculation invalid decisions denying eligibility to households which are in fact eligible.

Requires the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to disclose to the Secretary and such agencies specified information about employment earnings and benefit payments contained in Social Security Administration records, and also any tax return information previously disclosed to him from the master files of the Internal Revenue Service, which is necessary for determining or auditing a household's eligibility. Requires similar disclosure regarding unemployment compensation and any refused offers of employment from State unemployment compensation agencies.

Requires the continuation of cash-out pilot projects through October 1, 1981, under specified conditions. Requires reports describing the results of workfare projects through fiscal year 1981. Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to pay 50 percent of the administrative costs of such projects.

Directs the Congressional Budget Office, in consultation with the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor, to review the Consumer Price Index and other cost-of-living indices to determine which is the most accurate indexation base for the food stamp program. Requires the Office to make a report to the appropriate committees of Congress by February 1, 1981.

Prohibits the use of any authorized funds to impede or interfere with any provision of this Act.

Title II: Food Stamp Funding - Increases the appropriations ceiling for the food stamp program for fiscal years 1980 and 1981. Permits the further increase of such ceiling by a specified percent when unanticipated increases in the cost-of- living or unemployment occur.