Millions Dropped From SNAP Food Assistance as Funding Faces September Uncertainty

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding could face a major shake-up at the end of September unless Congress passes a resolution to delay major changes included in H.R. 1, commonly known as the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

Starting Oct. 1, states will have to pick up 75% of the administrative costs of running the program, with the funding burden of providing benefits to participants set to shift from the federal to state level over the next few years.

State and national food assistance groups are calling on Congress to pass a resolution delaying the implementation of this cost shift, to give states more time to prepare for the bigger bill.

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Nationwide, roughly 5 million Americans have lost access to SNAP since the Republican-backed budget bill became law, including more than 1.5 million children, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Much of the decline can be attributed to changes in work requirements and administrative hurdles in applying, coupled with a major cost shift that states will have to bear if they want SNAP to remain fully funded, Dottie Rosenbaum, director of federal SNAP policy at the CBPP, told ABC News.

Under the law, the upper age limit for able-bodied adults without dependents who must meet work requirements was raised from 54 to 64.

Additionally, exemptions were changed for parents and other family members responsible for a dependent, lowering the qualifying age from 18 to 14.

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Beyond each state’s responsibility to pay 75% of SNAP’s administrative costs starting in October, states are set to pay a percentage of the benefit costs tied to its error rate in the coming years.

The error rate measures underpayments and overpayments, resulting in mandatory additional payments ranging from 5% to 15% for most states.

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