Glossary

Every acronym and term of art used on this site. Each one links to the organization it names or the document that defines it, so a definition here can be checked rather than taken on trust. Expansions are shared with the pages themselves — they come from one list, not from memory.

One of these is ours. SS-Act is a short form we coined to avoid a misreading, not an established abbreviation. Marked below, so you know not to go looking for it elsewhere.

ABAWDAble-Bodied Adult Without Dependents: The SNAP category subject to the three-month time limit. Being an ABAWD is what makes the work requirement bite; the exceptions at 7 CFR 273.24(c) are how you fall outside it. 7 CFR §273.24 ↗
ACAAffordable Care Act: The 2010 law whose Medicaid expansion created the adult group this requirement applies to. If someone qualifies for Medicaid on another basis, the requirement does not reach them. CMS ↗
CEPCommunity Eligibility Provision: Lets a high-poverty school serve free meals to every student rather than collecting applications. It runs off the share of students identified through SNAP and similar programs, which is how SNAP losses reach children who never lost benefits themselves. USDA Food and Nutrition Administration ↗
CMSCenters for Medicare & Medicaid Services: The federal agency inside HHS that runs Medicaid and wrote the rule filling in the community engagement requirement. cms.gov ↗
DHSHawaiʻi Department of Human Services: Runs SNAP in Hawaiʻi. It sets the standard for verifying unpaid work, which makes it the decision-maker on whether volunteer hours can be proven. humanservices.hawaii.gov ↗
E&TEmployment and Training: SNAP’s own job-training system, at 7 CFR 273.7(e). Participation counts toward the 20-hour requirement as a work program. 7 CFR §273.7 ↗
ex parteex parte renewal: Deciding eligibility from records the agency already holds, without asking the person for anything. Both programs now require the State to try this first before demanding documents. 42 CFR §435.557, as corrected ↗
FRACFood Research & Action Center: National anti-hunger research and advocacy organization. Source of the CEP analysis cited here. frac.org ↗
GEDGeneral Educational Development: A high-school equivalency credential. A State-approved GED program counts as an educational program under the Medicaid rule; independent self-paced study outside such a program does not. 42 CFR §435.552 ↗
HHSUnited States Department of Health and Human Services: The federal department Medicaid sits under. CMS is the agency inside it doing the work. CMS, the agency within HHS ↗
IFCInterim Final Rule with Comment period: A rule that takes legal effect immediately while comments are still open, rather than waiting for a final version. CMS-2454-IFC is one, which is why it governs now and can still change. CMS-2454-IFC ↗
IHSIndian Health Service: The federal health system for members of Indian tribes. It matters here because the Native exemption is written by cross-reference to IHS eligibility, and Native Hawaiians are served through Papa Ola Lōkahi instead. ihs.gov ↗
Med-QUESTHawaiʻi Med-QUEST Division: Runs Medicaid in Hawaiʻi. QUEST is the name of the managed-care program itself. medquest.hawaii.gov ↗
SNAPSupplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Federal food assistance, still widely known as food stamps. Administered in Hawaiʻi by the Department of Human Services. USDA Food and Nutrition Administration ↗
SS-ActSocial Security Actour shorthand: The statute Medicaid lives in. H.R. 1 §71119 adds §1902(xx) to it. We write SS-Act rather than SSA because SSA reads as the Social Security Administration, a different thing entirely — the Act is the law, the Administration is an agency with no role here. 42 U.S.C. §1396a (SS-Act §1902, codified) ↗
TANFTemporary Assistance for Needy Families: Cash assistance with its own work requirements. Complying with those counts as complying with Medicaid’s, so a family already meeting TANF rules does not carry a second obligation. HHS Administration for Children and Families ↗
USDAUnited States Department of Agriculture: Owns SNAP federally, through its Food and Nutrition Administration (renamed from the Food and Nutrition Service). Grants the noncontiguous-state good-faith exemption Hawaiʻi can seek. USDA Food and Nutrition Administration ↗

Statutory and regulatory citations are footnoted where they are used — see the side-by-side comparison and what counts.