A new report details how millions of people have stopped receiving food assistance due to changes in the way that the federal government administers the program. The sharp drop in food aid recipients comes despite lingering poor economic conditions that leave tens of millions of people in need of such aid, and the situation may grow worse over time as greater regulations and less federal support push states to cut the number of people they assist.
Millions fewer people receive SNAP benefits after Trump bill passed
A new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities indicates that the number of people participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) dropped by more than 4 million between July 2025 and March 2026. CBPP analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, alongside data drawn from states, to catalog this sharp decline, which represents a drop of 10% in the overall number of SNAP participants. The CBPP report attributes much of this decline to the implementation of H.R. 1, the legislation also known as “the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which was passed by Republicans with President Trump’s strong backing and signed into law on July 4, 2025. While the study notes that SNAP recipients started to decline in some of these states prior to July 4, 2025, the study places much of the blame for the SNAP cuts to the decreases in federal funding and more restrictive eligibility requirements. A detailed sample of data from 17 states indicates that “children account for nearly half of the 2.2 million people who are no longer receiving SNAP in those states.”
SNAP politicized under Trump administration
This sharp decline comes after a year of political battles over SNAP and other assistance programs. As Blavity previously reported, the One Big Beautiful Bill’s decreased federal funding and increased work requirements for SNAP recipients were expected to cut the number of people receiving benefits and the amount of overall benefits being distributed by the program. Additionally, SNAP funding has become heavily politicized under the Trump administration. During 2025’s extended federal government shutdown, Trump initially refused to tap into emergency funding to provide SNAP benefits until federal courts forced the administration to fully fund the assistance program. The administration threatened to cut off SNAP funding for more than 20 states that refused to share detailed personal data on SNAP recipients; Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has claimed to need the data as part of a process of cutting waste, fraud and abuse within the program, while the resistant states claim the data request violates federal law. In cooperation with the Trump administration and its Make America Healthy Again agenda, several states have placed restrictions on SNAP recipients purchasing items such as soda and candy using SNAP funds. In June, a federal judge temporarily blocked efforts by the Trump administration to withhold SNAP funding for states that refused to comply with the administration’s policies toward LGBTQ rights, immigration policies and other aspects of Trump’s agenda.
Additional SNAP changes likely to lead to greater cuts in benefits, recipients
With 4 million people already dropped from SNAP rolls over the last year, the cuts in funding and drops in recipients are likely to grow worse over time as additional restrictions go into effect. Specifically, states will soon have to shoulder much more of the cost of SNAP, as federal reimbursement to states for administering SNAP drops on Oct. 1 from 50% to 25% of the program’s operating costs. Beginning October 2027, states will be required to pay a larger share of the actual SNAP benefits, with the amounts for which a state is responsible determined by the payment error rate; the Trump administration is attempting to incentivize states to reduce erroneous payments by forcing states with higher error rates to pay more. The impact of these changes, experts warn, will be for states to provide fewer benefits, tighten eligibility requirements, and make the process of applying for benefits more difficult in order to cut costs. There is also a possibility that some states will consider withdrawing from the SNAP program entirely.
Together, these changes create a situation where millions of people are no longer receiving SNAP benefits, whether due to ineligibility or because they are unable or unwilling to navigate more difficult and time-consuming administrative processes. Even as economic conditions continue to leave tens of millions of people vulnerable, continuing changes to SNAP mean that even more people are likely to lose benefits on which they rely.