On October 1, 2026, the federal government handed states and counties a bill that many of them cannot pay. Our new report sheds light on this crisis.
Read the report — “The SNAP Crisis is Here: A Deep Dive into the SNAP Administrative Cost Shift”
Congressional Republicans and President Trump set this policy change in motion with their partisan so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA). The federal government now covers just 25% of SNAP’s administrative costs, down from 50%. Those are the everyday costs of running the program, from processing applications to answering the phone, and states and counties are now on the hook for the other 75%.
This comes on top of losses that are already staggering, and more devastating changes that are coming. In just over a year since the bill’s passage, over five million people have lost grocery benefits, including about 2 million children. The federal government shifted the cost to the states, and hungry families are paying for it.
The Math Does Not Add Up
To understand what this shift really costs, we compared the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) own estimates with the SNAP administrative funding that state legislatures actually passed. Our report goes through all 50 states, one budget at a time.
The gap is enormous. States enacted about $1.14 billion against USDA’s estimated need of $1.61 billion, leaving a $469 million shortfall. That figure does not even include the 10 states where counties administer SNAP, whose local budgets are still unknown.
USDA has minimized this burden from the start. The agency estimated that federal spending would fall by $16.9 billion over five years and that state spending would rise by the exact same amount. That math only works if every state can simply absorb the loss. Most cannot.
States Are Already Falling Short of These Forced Costs
Arkansas is a stark example. USDA expects the state to spend an average of $27.57 million more each year through 2031. So far, the legislature has not appropriated any additional funding to cover it.
Indiana is in a similar bind. Its costs are expected to rise by $61.8 million a year. But lawmakers passed the state’s 2026-27 budget in May 2025, before the cuts became law, and have not added anything since.
The strain is even greater where counties help run SNAP and share the cost. Minnesota faces an estimated $55.14 million increase each year, yet the state added only $10.7 million for state fiscal year 2027. Counties are left to cover the rest, if they can.
Ohio faces $85.27 million a year and added $12.5 million, so several of its counties are now short by millions of dollars. When a state or county comes up short, families feel it. Applications sit longer, calls go unanswered, and the offices people rely on have fewer workers to help them.
The Most Vulnerable Will Lose the Most
USDA claims this shift will not disproportionately affect anyone based on “age, race, color, national origin, sex, or disability.” That claim ignores decades of research showing that administrative burdens fall hardest on people who already face barriers to getting help. When paperwork piles up and offices thin out, they are the first to fall through the cracks.
Veterans are one clear example. About 1.3 million veterans receive SNAP, yet only a fraction of food-insecure veterans in SNAP-eligible households are enrolled. Fewer caseworkers will only make that gap harder to close.
Tribal communities face a harm of their own. Weaker state and county capacity threatens Tribal citizens’ access to both SNAP and the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR). And USDA has still not met its trust responsibility to consult meaningfully with Tribal Nations on these changes.
This Is Just the Beginning
The administrative cost shift is just the beginning. Starting in October 2027, most states with payment error rates of 6% or higher will have to pay 5% to 15% of benefit costs. For the first time in history, the federal government will not cover the full cost of SNAP benefits. MAZON and its partners are demanding that Congress immediately delay this provision by at least two years.
SNAP is built to grow when a recession hits and shrink as the economy recovers. That “automatic stabilizer” effect is one of its most important features. But states must balance their budgets, so a downturn could force them to cut back right when families need help most.
Some states may soon face an impossible choice: raise taxes, pull money from other services, or drop SNAP altogether.
The Path Forward
As MAZON President & CEO Abby J. Leibman put it, “The path forward is difficult, but it is clear. We must all understand the breadth and depth of these attacks so that we can restore what has been taken, rebuild what has been destroyed, and reshape our nation’s systems to reflect a truly meaningful response to hunger in America.”
Congress must reverse the harmful SNAP changes in OBBBA, including the administrative cost shift. USDA must correct the record on what this shift will cost states, reinstate its Household Food Security reports, and reverse its chaotic reorganization and relocation. It must also consult meaningfully with Tribal leadership before finalizing this or any policy that affects Tribal Nations.
Beyond that, we need to rebuild food assistance around access to food as a human right, not a reward for work, compliance, or navigating bureaucracy. Every person is created b’tzelem Elohim, in the divine image. No one should have to prove they deserve to eat.
The SNAP crisis is here, and we do not have a moment to waste.
Read the full report: The SNAP Crisis is Here: A Deep Dive into the SNAP Administrative Cost Shift.