Congress Proposes SNAP Cuts and Shifting Costs to the States

5 月 14, 2025 | ,

Tell your elected officials that you oppose devastating cuts to SNAP.

By Clarissa Clarke, Government Relations Officer

This week, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee met to markup its reconciliation bill, which requires $230 billion in spending cuts. The committee plans to hit that target through devastating cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which would increase food insecurity and take food away from Americans facing hunger by decreasing grocery benefits and kicking people off the program.  

The bill includes changes that would: 

  • Limit future adjustments to the Thrifty Food Plan, depressing benefit levels and making it harder for families to afford groceries for years to come;
  • subject more seniors (up to age 65) and more parents (for children as young as 7) to the harsh three-month time limit by requiring that they document 20 hours of work per week in order to receive benefits; 
  • make refugees ineligible for SNAP, denying them a basic need and hampering their successful integration into society; and 
  • require states to pay anywhere from 5% to 25% of SNAP benefit amounts and increase the state share of administrative costs from 50% to 75%, which would hobble the program’s ability to meet increased need during times of natural disaster and economic crisis. 

The most devastating aspect of the proposal is a state cost-share plan that could require Texas to pay anywhere from 5% to 25% of the food benefits and increase the state’s administrative costs from 50% to 75%, or make cuts to the program to account for that amount. In FY2024, states issued nearly $94 billion for SNAP food benefits, including $7.2 billion in Texas. If this policy goes into effect now, Feeding Texas estimates that Texas would be responsible for covering around $1.08 billion per year in food benefits. Using FY2023 SNAP administrative costs, Feeding Texas estimates that an increase from 50% to 75% would cost the state an additional $87 million per year.出来的 $1.167 billion a year or nearly $2.334 billion per biennium that the Texas Legislature would have to front in order to keep the program whole. 

Texans are struggling right now with the costs of food and health care. Working families need Medicaid and SNAP more than ever. Now is not the time to cut these life-saving programs. The proposed SNAP cuts are of an unprecedented scale for which food banks could never compensate. 

Over the past year, food banks have witnessed a demand for food assistance that we have not seen since the height of the pandemic — and it’s not letting up. The North Texas Food Bank provided 118 million physical nutritious meals to children, older adults, and families experiencing hunger in 2024. If these cuts move forward, the result will be devastating. Many more Texans will face hunger, and the most vulnerable among us—children, seniors, veterans, and working families just trying to get by—will bear the brunt of this hardship. Though food banks are accustomed to managing crises and disasters that push our limits, this is beyond anything we could ever imagine.

Please contact your member of Congress either by submitting this form or by contacting them directly. You can find your member of Congress 这里。

Thank you for taking action on this important issue.

分享：