Republican lawmakers are prepared to defend their budget plan that shifts some of the costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to the states and better enforces SNAP work requirements.
Under the Republican budget reconciliation framework, the House Committee on Agriculture must find savings of at least $230 billion over the next decade through reforms to programs under its jurisdiction, such as SNAP.
Since 2019, the number of SNAP recipients has increased by 17%, going from roughly 36 million beneficiaries monthly to more than 42 million people monthly now.
The committee’s bill draft, which is subject to change and will undergo markup beginning Tuesday, complies with the reconciliation instructions mainly by closing SNAP work requirement loopholes and incentivizing states to crack down on improper payments.
The U.S. government spent $112.8 billion taxpayer dollars on SNAP in 2023, covering 100% of the cost of benefits and 50% of states’ administrative costs.
Unlike all other federal entitlement programs, including Medicaid, SNAP does not receive any contributions from states. But the committee’s bill would change that, making states cover 5% of their benefit cost share in the SNAP program by fiscal year 2028, with their contribution increasing the higher the state’s payment error rate.
