More than 1.2 million children have lost SNAP benefits since last July

Former USDA official explains why the 2021 proposal was withdrawn

More than 1.2 million children have lost benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program since last July, the Associated Press reported. SNAP, the federal grocery assistance program, serves about 1 in 10 Americans.

The Trump administration has published a proposed rule that would make it harder to qualify for the program. The administration says the proposed rule would close a loophole by no longer allowing some people who receive benefits under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to automatically qualify for the separate Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program too.

The first Trump administration proposed in 2019 to restrict the state practices that use minimal TANF-funded benefits to qualify people for SNAP, but President Joe Biden’s administration withdrew that proposal in 2021. “Simply put, we did not want to remove millions of people from the program, particularly working poor or children,” said Stacy Dean, a former USDA official under Biden who now is executive director of the Global Food Institute at George Washington University.

The plan is laid out in a proposed rule published Tuesday on how to run SNAP. The government is seeking public comment until next month, and if the rule is accepted, it would not take full effect for about two years. About 6.3 million people could lose eligibility for SNAP by the 2029 fiscal year if the proposed change takes effect, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program. That estimate is on top of the 5.5 million people who already have lost SNAP benefits over the past year.

At issue are two separate federal programs. 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 people 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, the administration of President Barack Obama encouraged states to provide people a minimal TANF-funded benefit, such as an informational pamphlet or 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.

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.

Being in a household that receives SNAP benefits also makes school children eligible for free meals. The Agriculture Department says nearly 1.8 million children would lose eligibility as their families lose 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 as 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 people ages 55 to 64 and parents whose youngest children are at least 14.

Trump’s big 2025 tax and policy law that broadened the work requirement also requires states to start shouldering about three-fourths of the cost of running that requirement, up from half, and 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 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning policy research institute, addressed the proposal in an analysis. “The public indicated they want their elected officials to focus on making life affordable,” the institute said. “Yet the Trump Administration is doubling down on making it harder for people to feed their families.” The center is concerned that the eligibility change may result in higher error rates for states, which would require them to pay for more of the cost of benefits.

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

Patricia Anderson, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, said that 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 SNAP’s eligibility guidelines are too strict.