42 USC 608a – Fraud under means-tested welfare and public assistance programs
(a) In general
If an individual‘s benefits under a Federal, State, or local law relating to a means-tested welfare or a public assistance program are reduced because of an act of fraud by the individual under the law or program, the individual may not, for the duration of the reduction, receive an increased benefit under any other means-tested welfare or public assistance program for which Federal funds are appropriated as a result of a decrease in the income of the individual (determined under the applicable program) attributable to such reduction.
(b) Welfare or public assistance programs for which Federal funds are appropriated
Terms Used In 42 USC 608a
- Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
- individual: shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. See 1 USC 8
- State: means the 50 States of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa. See 42 USC 619
- United States: means (but only for purposes of subparagraphs (A) and (B) of this paragraph) the fifty States and the District of Columbia. See 42 USC 1301
For purposes of subsection (a), the term “means-tested welfare or public assistance program for which Federal funds are appropriated” includes the food stamp program under the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.), any program of public or assisted housing under title I of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437 et seq.), and any State program funded under this part.