The increased risk of poverty and economic insecurity resulting from federal cuts to SNAP As previously mentioned, the H.R.1 budget reconciliation law, also referred to as OBBBA, cuts nearly $187 billion 15 from SNAP — or, approximately 20% of SNAP’s federal funding—through a series of funding, eligibility, and administrative policy changes that will cut off access to the program altogether for some families and could reduce benefit amounts for remaining recipients (see text box below). Federal cuts and changes to SNAP under OBBBA 16 1. Shifting SNAP costs to state governments: Beginning in October 2027, states will have to cover a larger share of SNAP’s administrative costs, increasing from 50% to 75%. States will also have to start paying for a portion of recipients benefits, which the federal government has traditionally fully funded. Starting in October 2028, states will have to pay anywhere between 0% to 15% of their benefit costs, with the exact rate depending on their SNAP payment error rate. 2. Enacting stricter work requirements: SNAP recipients between the ages of 55 and 64, as well as adults with dependents over the age of 14, are now subject to the program’s additional set of work rules for “able-bodied adults without dependents,” or ABAWDs. Under this set of rules, recipients must work a minimum of 20 hours per week to receive SNAP benefits for more than three months over a three-year period. OBBBA also eliminates exemptions to these work rules previously in place for unhoused individuals, veterans, and certain individuals previously in foster care. While states can request waivers to exempt residents in certain areas from the ABAWD work requirements, such as those in areas with high unemployment rates, OBBBA makes it more difficult for states to request them. States may now only request waivers when an area’s unemployment rate exceeds 10%. 3. Limiting how much benefit values can increase by adjusting the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP): OBBBA limits updates to the TFP to be cost-neutral, meaning future increases to SNAP benefits will be tied to inflation alone. This will reduce benefit values over time because benefit amounts will no longer account for possible changes in dietary guidelines. Such guideline changes can lead the cost of a minimally adequate diet (which informs SNAP benefit amounts) to increase more substantially than is reflected in the inflation rate. 4. Changing how energy and internet costs are considered in determining families’ monthly benefit amounts: SNAP benefit values are determined depending on a family’s net income, which can be reduced by certain deductions, including excess shelter costs (i.e., household expenses that sum to more than half of a family’s income after other deductions, including, but not limited to, electricity, water, rent or mortgage payments, and property taxes). OBBBA reduces SNAP benefits for certain families by barring families without an elderly or disabled member from deducting the value of their state energy assistance payments (e.g., LIHEAP) from their net income, and prohibiting the inclusion of internet costs in excess shelter costs. 5. Limiting SNAP eligibility for noncitizens: Refugees, asylees, and noncitizen trafficking survivors previously eligible for SNAP are no longer eligible under OBBBA.
15 Congressional Budget Office, “Estimated Budgetary Effects of Public Law 119-21, to Provide for Reconciliation Pursuant to Title II of H. Con. Res. 14, Relative to CBO’s January 2025 Baseline.” 16 For additional details on SNAP cuts under OBBBA, see: United States Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 — Information Memorandum”; No Kid Hungry Center for Best Practices, “Summary Changes to SNAP in H.R.1.”
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SNAP RECIPIENTS IN NEW YORK CITY AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF FEDERAL CUTS TO SNAP
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