S 8553: Directs the department of public health to annually report on food security trends.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8553 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE October 27, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. HINCHEY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to reporting on food security trends The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Legislative findings. The legislature finds that following 2 the enactment of the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research 3 Act of 1990, the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the United States 4 Department of Agriculture (USDA) began issuing an annual food insecurity 5 report. ERS's annual report collects and analyzes data gathered from the 6 Census Bureau of the United States Department of Commerce through its 7 annual Current Population Survey (CPS)-Food Security Supplement (FSS). 8 The annual FSS survey asks about food security, food spending, and the 9 use of federal and community nutrition assistance programs. Using the 10 CPS-FSS data on households in the United States, including in New York, 11 ERS has consistently reported on national and state-level household food 12 insecurity and provided detailed documentation and data files for public 13 use. Nonetheless, as of September 2025, the USDA announced that ERS will 14 no longer issue the annual food insecurity report. 15 The legislature additionally finds that some New York households expe- 16 rience food insecurity at times during the year due to lack of money and 17 other resources. According to the Food Insufficiency Data Brief released 18 by the NY Health Foundation on March 31, 2025, "The food insufficiency 19 rate in New York State is 10.4%, which is higher than it was during the 20 early days of the pandemic in 2020 (10.2%)." New York households often 21 look to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known 22 as "food stamps") when facing food insecurity, however, the latest 23 federal budget bill (H.R.1) makes deep cuts to SNAP which are expected 24 to significantly increase the number of New Yorkers experiencing food 25 insecurity. In light of these circumstances, information on food securi- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD13829-03-5 
 S. 8553 2 1 ty trends is now more important than ever to help the New York legisla- 2 ture and other stakeholders better understand hunger trends and make 3 decisions for investing taxpayer dollars as efficiently and effectively 4 as possible. 5 § 2. Subdivision 1 of section 201 of the public health law is amended 6 by adding a new paragraph (z) to read as follows: 7 (z) include as part of the department's annual participation in the 8 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the U.S. Household Food 9 Security Survey Module: Six-Item Short Form Economic Research Service, 10 developed by the United States department of agriculture, and publicly 11 report annually the results of such survey module broken down to the 12 county level on the public website of the department. 13 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.