House GOP bill requires states to share food benefit costs, strengthens SNAP work requirements

House Republicans’ sweeping tax and spending bill would require states to fund at least 5% of food benefits for low-income individuals and families, while implementing stricter work requirements for beneficiaries. 

The proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, are part of the House Agriculture Committee portion of the “one big, beautiful bill” Republicans are compiling to enact President Trump’s legislative agenda. 

The measure would make undocumented immigrants ineligible for SNAP and roll back Biden-era regulations that inflated benefit costs, among other changes Republicans said are designed to root out waste, fraud and abuse in the program.

The Agriculture Committee said the proposals would collectively save more than $290 billion, which is higher than the $230 billion in spending cuts it was instructed to find. 

The panel released bill text late Tuesday and is set to mark up the legislation Wednesday night. 

“For far too long, the SNAP program has drifted from a bridge to support  American households in need to a permanent destination riddled with bureaucratic inefficiencies, misplaced incentives, and limited accountability,” House Agriculture Chairman Glenn “G.T.” Thompson, Pennsylvania Republican, said in a statement.

The committee’s proposal, he said, “restores the program’s original intent, offering a temporary helping hand while encouraging work, cracking down on loopholes exploited by states, and protecting taxpayer dollars while supporting the hardworking men and women of American agriculture.”

The federal government currently funds 100% of SNAP benefits, the costs of which have grown from $60 billion in 2019, when 36 million people were enrolled, to $110 billion today with 42 million enrolled. 

The committee proposes a new cost-sharing arrangement in which states would have to fund 5% of SNAP benefits, beginning in fiscal 2028. 

States that have high rates of overpayments and underpayments will have to contribute more: a 15% share for states with error rates between 6% and 8%; 20% for states with error rates between 8% and 10%; and 25% for states with error rates of 10% or greater.

Current state error rates vary significantly, ranging from less than 5% to more than 60%. The national average error rate of 11.68% has nearly doubled since 2019. 

Republicans say every state has achieved an error rate below 6% at least once in the last decade and they will have time to make changes to avoid being hit with higher costs. The new cost-sharing arrangements will be based on fiscal 2026 error rates.

While states don’t currently pay for SNAP benefits, they do split the cost of administering the program with the federal government. The GOP bill would drop the federal government’s share of administrative costs from 50% to 25%, which they argue would encourage more efficiency. 

The committee bill also seeks to strengthen SNAP work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents. 

The current law work requirement applies to individuals ages 18 through 54, the latter end of which Republicans are proposing to raise to age 64. They would also narrow the exemption for individuals taking care of a dependent child to apply only to those with children under age 7 instead of 18. 

Other existing exemptions for pregnant women, the homeless, veterans and individuals aging out of foster care, among others, would still apply. 

Republicans say the Agriculture Department routinely approves state-requested waivers to limit enforcement of the work requirement, which is undermining its intent. 

The bill strikes the ability for states to obtain a waiver if they do not have “a sufficient number of jobs to provide employment for individuals.” It keeps the other qualification for a waiver: any “area” that has an unemployment rate of over 10%. But it defines “area” as a county to prevent states from gerrymandering areas with high concentrations of unemployment to maximize waivers. 

Democrats slammed the SNAP cuts as “catastrophic.”

“We should make food assistance work better for those it was designed to protect — like children and moms — not cut it so Republicans can fund more tax breaks for those at the very top,” House Agriculture ranking member Angie Craig, Minnesota Democrat, said in a statement.