Trump administration plans to make it harder to get grocery assistance

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.

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.

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 But that proposal was withdrawn by President Joe Biden's administration in 2021.

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.

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.”

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.