Trump administration plans to make it harder to get grocery assistance
[November 12, 2026]
By GEOFF MULVIHILL and DAVID A. LIEB
President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to make it harder to
get food aid through the federal government’s big grocery assistance
program that serves about 1 in 10 Americans.
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.
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 is on top
of 5.5 million people who already have lost SNAP benefits over the past
year.
The plan is laid out in a proposed rule published Tuesday on how to run
SNAP, and the government is seeking public comment until next month. If
it is accepted, the rule would not take full effect for about two years.
The proposal addresses the link between 2 federal programs
At issue are two separate federal programs. The TANF program provides
federal grants to states, which set their own eligibility rules for
distributing cash and other benefits to low-income families with
children. The incomes of recipients 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 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.
Trump's team put forth a similar plan 7 years ago
The first Trump administration proposed to clamp down on such tactics in
2019. But that proposal was withdrawn by President Joe Biden's
administration 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 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, said David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University
who has studied the food aid program.
“The administration here is basically proposing to eliminate the
flexibility that Congress gave the states to serve working poor people,"
Super said.
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A California's SNAP benefits shopper pushes a cart through a
supermarket in Bellflower, Calif., Feb. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Allison
Dinner, File)
SNAP is also connected to other programs for low-income people
Being in a household that receives SNAP benefits also makes school
children eligible for free meals. The Agriculture Department says
that 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.
But the government says some of the children would not get the
lunches, even if they are eligible, if their families don't 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.
“The public indicated they want their elected officials to focus on
making life affordable,” the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,
a left-leaning policy research institute, said in an analysis of the
proposal. “Yet the Trump Administration is doubling down on making
it harder for people to feed their families.”
It has been a period of flux for the food aid program
As of July, the Department of Agriculture, which runs SNAP, said 36
million people were receiving the aid. That was down by 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 to 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 it, up from half. And they 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 is concerned that the
eligibility change may result in higher error rates for states —
making them have to pay for more of the cost of benefits.
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.
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