This legislative ask is designed to be shared with your members of Congress and their staff.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps more than 40 million people put food on the table. By decreasing food insecurity, SNAP lowers disease rates, improves educational and employment outcomes, and reduces healthcare costs. Yet the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) made the largest cuts to SNAP in the program’s history. For the first time, starting October 2027, states will have to pay a portion of SNAP benefits.
The amount states must pay is based on the state’s SNAP error rate (the percentage of total benefits that states currently underpay or overpay). States have been taking frantic steps to reduce the amount of money they’re on the hook for, and millions of people are losing SNAP benefits. Congress must step in.
States with the highest error rates get a two-year delay before the benefit cost shift goes into effect. All states should get more time. Without a delay, many state legislators will have to make hard decisions around their budgets, and it is likely that many states will be forced to downsize or could even drop out of SNAP altogether. Congress must act before the end of the year
Delay the SNAP benefit cost shift before the end of the year.
- 5.5 million people, including two million children, have already lost SNAP benefits. New restrictions and states’ attempts to lower their error rates have caused millions of people to lose food assistance. With unemployment remaining flat amidst an affordability crisis, the drop in SNAP participation is not because millions of people suddenly are no longer experiencing hardship.
- States need more time. The benefit cost-sharing requirement will kick in on October 1, 2027, and states won’t know their FY 2026 error rates until June 2027. As states begin their legislative sessions, they do not know how much they will owe. This short turnaround time—exacerbated by the 2025 government shutdown and delayed guidance from the Department of Agriculture—has left states scrambling to reduce their error rates in a matter of mere months.
- States cannot afford to share the costs of SNAP. Based on FY2025 data, nearly half of states will be faced with a $100 million bill from the benefit cost shift. Because states must balance their budgets each year, they cannot afford this significant and unexpected cost.
Contact: Amelia Kegan, Associate General Secretary for Policy and Advocacy, amelia@fcnl.org