Federal lawmakers are considering a proposal from Republicans that would for the first time require states to pay for a portion of nutrition benefits for low-income individuals and families. That cost-sharing plan, plus new work requirements, are raising concerns about whether states like 黑料吃瓜网 would need to cut benefits or change eligibility.
The House measure, which is looking for significant cost savings to help pay for the GOP's larger tax package, would significantly restructure how the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, is funded.
Since its inception, the federal government fully covers benefits provided to SNAP recipients and shares the administrative costs of running the program equally with each state. Under the new proposal, Congress would institute a cost-sharing program with states and increase state contributions for administrative expenses to 75%.
The new expectations that states may need to start covering benefits in 2028 could place a new burden on 黑料吃瓜网's finances and state budget. State officials don't yet know how exactly that might affect the administration of the program but anticipate that a "redesign" is inevitable if the state cannot cover the costs.
"I don't think any state is prepared to take on that level of benefit. I don't want to speak for the governor or the legislature, so I don't know what priorities they will set and what decisions they will make based on what happens, what budget allocations would be made," 黑料吃瓜网 Department of Social Services Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves said in an interview with The 黑料吃瓜网 Mirror.
"But there isn't a state in the country that has ever had to engage cost sharing with respect to benefits, and our administrative costs have always been shared equally," she added. "That is something that we always thought was a fair trade around that."
More than 40 million Americans received food stamps last year. And , nearly 400,000 people, or 1 in 9 state residents, got those benefits, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. More than half of the recipients in the state are in families with children.
In 2024, 黑料吃瓜网 received a total of $885 million in SNAP benefits. Barton Reeves said the total number seems high but noted many recipients receive very small amounts 鈥� some seniors only get $60 a month.
If the changes in the federal bill become law, 黑料吃瓜网 would be on the hook for a percentage of that expense each year. That could mean tapping into other funding to cover SNAP or restructuring who qualifies and for how long 鈥� hypotheticals the state is not currently entertaining and may need to figure out down the road.
"There's only certain ways that you can find to cover that gap and that is you try to find another revenue stream somehow. You make a decision with some other program where you would take those resources from. I can't think of any other place that we would decide is less important or should receive fewer resources in order to move money over," Barton Reeves said.
"It does fundamentally mean for this and every other state, you'd have to look at how the program is designed, and it may mean that you'd have to look at eligibility standards and duration of benefits, all of the things you look at, which are really just unthinkable quite frankly," she added.
This week, several House committees have been considering components of the GOP's major tax package that they are hoping to fully pass in the summer. They are going through the budget reconciliation process to avoid needing 60 votes in the Senate and instead pass a bill on a party-line vote without needing Democrats' support.
For the past two days, members of the House Agriculture Committee have focused on their part of the plan, which would cut $230 billion to help pay for the overall bill. Those savings would largely come from reforms to SNAP, like stronger work requirements and cost sharing with states.
Under the House GOP proposal, the states would pay a percentage of at least 5% up to 25% based on the error payment rate of the program. , the committee estimates 黑料吃瓜网's cost-share would be 20%. But that number could change since it would be calculated off of future data from fiscal year 2026.
Barton Reeves said she has larger concerns over the "tolerance threshold" when it comes to SNAP overpayments and underpayments and how that factors into calculating a state's error rate. The $56 a month threshold would go down to $0, meaning states will have to be near perfect.
Under the proposed rules, states could face penalties for single-dollar payment errors. She noted that 黑料吃瓜网 has a compliance rate of about 97% when it comes to processing SNAP benefits.
The GOP plan would also impose stronger work requirements for certain able-bodied adults without dependents. For older adults, it would raise the age limit from 54 to 64. The same would also apply to adults with children age 7 or older. They would be required to work or participate in related training for at least 80 hours a month.
Lawmakers on the Agriculture Committee debated a change that would adjust how a dependent is defined since able-bodied adults from the work requirement if someone under age 18 lives in their household. Republicans argued children over 7 are school-aged and that will free up parents or caregivers to meet the 20 hours of work a week threshold. Democrats pushed back that kids don't go to school seven days a week and noted the challenges for families when they are on summer break.
Republicans were looking to avoid directly cutting SNAP benefits in their legislation when looking at ways they could find savings. They argue their plan goes after waste, fraud and abuse in SNAP and will make it function based on its original intent.
"The reforms in the committee markup ensure that SNAP works the way Congress intended it to, and by reinforcing work and instituting long overdue accountability incentives to control cost and end executive and state overreach. This will preserve the integrity and fiscal sustainability of the program moving forward so it can continue to serve the most vulnerable among us," House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said at Wednesday's hearing.
But officials in that the cost-sharing proposal would lead to cuts in order to take on the new costs of the program.
While changes to eligibility or cuts to benefits would have the most direct impact on recipients and families, critics of the plan also raised concerns over what it could mean for farmers and the small food retailers that rely on revenue coming through SNAP.
Speaking from the Whitneyville Food Center in Hamden on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, and other stakeholders talked about the effect on all those parties that benefit in some way from SNAP. They noted that the program accounts for about a third of all sales for independent grocers.
"So cutting SNAP benefits now would not only worsen food insecurity, it would also undercut the small food retailers who rely on those dollars to stay in business," said Tatiana Andreyeva, director of economic initiatives at the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health.
When talking about eligibility, Meg Hadley Zimmerman, program manager for End Hunger 黑料吃瓜网!, noted that many students in the state qualify for free and reduced lunches in schools because their family participates in SNAP.
Back on Capitol Hill, much of Tuesday and Wednesday's markup of the bill was dominated by discussion over the proposed changes to the nutrition program and the financial burden it could place on states.
"No state has that amount of a budget surplus to backfill all of these programs that are being cut. The thing that we should be able to agree upon is feeding people. Hunger is a policy choice once again," U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, said at Tuesday's hearing. She is the ranking member of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture, and Horticulture, and offered amendments to the bill.
"As someone from a donor state that gives more to the federal government than we get back, I know there are many red states that already receive more from the federal government," Hayes said. "What happens if a state can鈥檛 come up with their portion? It means that people in your respective states will lose benefits."
Hayes offered amendments during the markup, including one to ensure any changes to the program don't result in cuts. But Republicans hold a majority on the committee and have the numbers to block any amendments and ultimately advance the bill. She argued that states will now be responsible for additional funding including for health care and child care.
"So governors have to worry about food programs, they have to worry about health care, they have to worry about Head Start programs being cut," Hayes said. "It鈥檚 not just one program. It鈥檚 not just what we鈥檙e considering on this committee."
The House's proposal is subject to change, especially once the Senate takes up the tax package. Republicans are hoping to wrap up the entire process, known as budget reconciliation, by the July 4 holiday and get it to President Donald J. Trump's desk.
Debate in Congress over reforms to government programs keeps coming back to a central question for all states: can they shoulder new costs to continue provide serves and benefits like Medicaid and SNAP at similar levels?
The various proposals under consideration shift more of that responsibility from the federal government to the states.
"It is a way politically for governors of red and blue states to be compelled to make really difficult, unimaginable decisions about how they will provide health care and food support and many other things to their own states given that they have very, very limited budgets in many ways," Barton Reeves said.
"It moves the onus away from the feds who are actually making these changes, to make the cuts, onto states, knowing that states don't have the capacity to absorb all of those cuts," she continued, "which means that every state now is going to have to make some really difficult decisions about what to do. And we're no different here in 黑料吃瓜网."
The 黑料吃瓜网 Mirror/黑料吃瓜网 Radio federal policy reporter position is made possible, in part, by funding from the Robert and Margaret Patricelli Family Foundation.
