Trump administration proposal could end SNAP eligibility for 6.3 million people

Nearly 1.8 million children would lose SNAP-linked free school meal eligibility

President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to make it harder to get food aid through the federal government’s main grocery assistance program, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture says about 6.3 million people could lose eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by the 2029 fiscal year if the proposed change takes effect. The department laid out the plan in a proposed rule published Tuesday, and the government is seeking public comment until next month. If accepted, the rule would not take full effect for about two years.

The plan targets the link between two separate federal programs. The administration says the proposed rule would close a loophole by no longer allowing some people who receive benefits under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to automatically qualify for SNAP. The change would come on top of the 5.5 million people who already have lost SNAP benefits over the past year, according to the department, which administers the program.

TANF provides federal grants to states, which set their own eligibility rules for distributing cash and other benefits to low-income families with children. Recipients’ incomes vary by program and state. Federal guidelines generally limit SNAP food benefits to those earning less than 130% of the poverty level, a little over $1,700 monthly for an individual or nearly $3,600 for a family of four. To reduce duplicative paperwork, the federal government allows people who already receive TANF benefits to automatically qualify for SNAP, though they still have to apply.

Some states have used that automatic eligibility to expand SNAP benefits to people who might not otherwise qualify. In 2009, President Barack Obama’s administration encouraged states to provide people a minimal TANF-funded benefit, such as an informational pamphlet or a telephone hotline, as a way of qualifying them for the food program. Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have some form of broad-based categorical eligibility for SNAP, according to a USDA report from last year.

The first Trump administration proposed in 2019 to restrict those state practices, but President Joe Biden’s administration withdrew that proposal in 2021. David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University who has studied the food aid program, said the latest proposal is more sweeping and could prevent states from basing SNAP eligibility on TANF-funded benefits such as job-related counseling or one-time vouchers for vehicle repairs so that people can get to work.

“The administration here is basically proposing to eliminate the flexibility that Congress gave the states to serve working poor people,” Super said.

SNAP is also connected to other programs for low-income people. Being in a household that receives SNAP benefits makes school children eligible for free meals. The Agriculture Department says nearly 1.8 million children would lose eligibility with their family losing SNAP, but that 97% of them would still qualify for free or reduced-price school meals through another process. The government says some of the children would not get the lunches, even if they are eligible, if their families do not apply.

The proposal comes at a time when the number of people receiving the aid has fallen sharply, and on the heels of sweeping election gains for Democrats across the country. As of July, the Agriculture Department said 36 million people were receiving the aid, down 13% from a year earlier. Over that time, another federal requirement expanded a work requirement to more enrollees, including those ages 55 to 64 and parents whose youngest children are at least 14.

Trump’s big 2025 tax and policy law, which broadened the work requirement, also requires states to start shouldering about three-fourths of the cost of running the work requirement, up from half. States will also have to pay some of the costs of the benefits if their error rates exceed certain thresholds. Congressional Democrats are pushing for a delay in implementation of that change.

The newly proposed rule from the Trump administration “is just one of many things right now that states are grappling with that would reduce access to SNAP,” said Carolyn Vega, director of policy analysis for the advocacy group Share Our Strength.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning policy research institute, is concerned that the eligibility change may result in higher error rates for states, making them pay for more of the cost of benefits. “The public indicated they want their elected officials to focus on making life affordable,” the center said in an analysis of the proposal. “Yet the Trump Administration is doubling down on making it harder for people to feed their families.”

Patricia Anderson, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, said that out of the various administration efforts to reduce SNAP, “this one seems the most reasonable,” because some people with higher incomes qualify through categorical eligibility. But she said there is a different conversation that can be had about whether the SNAP eligibility guidelines are too strict.