SNAP Tracker: People Are Losing Food Assistance as the Harmful 2025 Republican Reconciliation Law Is Implemented
SNAP Participation Dropping Following Enactment of Harmful 2025 Republican Reconciliation Law
Percentage change in SNAP participants between
Note: Some states appear to have anomalous data. See “Chart Notes” below.
Source: CBPP calculations from USDA and state program data
The harmful Republican reconciliation law enacted July 4, 2025, poses great harm to families, including higher food costs, poverty, and hunger. It makes deep cuts to federal funding for food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), shifting significant new costs to states. It dramatically expands SNAP’s already harsh and ineffective provision taking away people’s benefits for not meeting a work requirement. And it ended eligibility for many people with a lawful immigration status.
We estimate that SNAP participation nationwide fell by roughly 5 million people (12 percent) between the law’s July 2025 enactment and May 2026, based on the latest month of data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and data from the Georgia Department of Human Services provided in an open records request. This estimate uses state data for Georgia due to anomalies in USDA data.
The declines are especially pronounced in some states. SNAP participation fell in Arizona by 54 percent from July 2025 to May 2026. The decline is 45 percent from July 2025 to July 2026, using more recent state data, which show a slight rebound. Other states also show significant declines from July 2025 through May 2026: 21 percent in Louisiana and Nevada; 20 percent in Florida (22 percent using more recent state data); 19 percent in Oklahoma, and 17 percent in Illinois (nearly 22 percent using more recent state data.) More recent state data also show declines of 22 percent in Nebraska and 19 percent in Texas.
The declines started before the harmful 2025 Republican reconciliation law’s enactment, suggesting factors at play in addition to that law. But in almost all states, declines in SNAP participation accelerated after the 2025 Republican reconciliation law, and we expect that trend to continue. (Some states have had very small increases in participation in recent months, but remain substantially below their level in July 2025.) Use the map and charts below to see details.
In the 25 states with available data, the number of children receiving SNAP food assistance has fallen by about 1.2 million since July 2025. Put another way, children account for close to half of the nearly 2.8 million people who are no longer receiving SNAP in those states. (See table.)
Starting in 2027, most states will have to pay between 5 and 15 percent of SNAP benefit costs, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars a year in many states. And the amount a state will have to pay will be based on current error rates, factoring in errors that states are making today. The magnitude of the cost shift and the urgency surrounding error rates may incentivize states to take drastic measures to reduce their payment error rates quickly and cut program costs, even if it means delaying or improperly denying benefits to eligible people. We’re likely seeing some of those initial effects in SNAP participation data.
| State | Most Recent Month of Data | Change in Total Participation | Change in Child Participation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percent | Count | Percent | Share of State’s Total Participation Change | ||
| Alabama | May 2026 | -81,838 | -11% | -23,324 | -7% | 29% |
| Arizona | June 2026 | -437,118 | -48% | -182,058 | -49% | 42% |
| Arkansas | May 2026 | -20,987 | -9% | -7,864 | -8% | 37% |
| California | May 2026 | -333,062 | -6% | -156,440 | -9% | 47% |
| Colorado | June 2026 | -33,681 | -5% | -12,598 | -5% | 37% |
| Connecticut | June 2026 | -56,044 | -16% | -15,668 | -14% | 28% |
| Georgia | June 2026 | -133,135 | -9% | -52,242 | -8% | 39% |
| Idaho | June 2026 | -9,624 | -7% | -4,756 | -9% | 49% |
| Kansas | July 2026 | -32,158 | -17% | -14,119 | -17% | 44% |
| Louisiana | June 2026 | -170,227 | -21% | -82,064 | -23% | 48% |
| Maine | June 2026 | -18,528 | -11% | -5,463 | -10% | 29% |
| Maryland | May 2026 | -38,601 | -6% | -16,048 | -6% | 42% |
| Massachusetts | May 2026 | -174,973 | -16% | -61,647 | -18% | 35% |
| Michigan | May 2026 | -113,403 | -8% | -41,174 | -8% | 36% |
| Minnesota | April 2026 | -15,858 | -4% | -12,035 | -6% | 76% |
| Missouri | May 2026 | -48,475 | -7% | -17,268 | -6% | 36% |
| Montana | June 2026 | -6,583 | -8% | -2,598 | -8% | 39% |
| New Hampshire | June 2026 | -2,454 | -3% | -945 | -4% | 39% |
| New Jersey | April 2026 | -35,588 | -4% | -21,815 | -7% | 61% |
| New Mexico | April 2026 | -18,061 | -4% | -10,060 | -6% | 56% |
| Ohio* | May 2026 | -107,573 | -8% | -50,477 | -9% | 47% |
| Pennsylvania | June 2026 | -210,268 | -11% | -59,750 | -9% | 28% |
| South Dakota | June 2026 | -4,623 | -6% | -2,656 | -8% | 57% |
| Texas | July 2026 | -651,954 | -19% | -344,147 | -20% | 53% |
| Vermont | March 2026 | -4,547 | -7% | -1,544 | -8% | 34% |
| Total | - | -2,759,363 | -12% | -1,198,760 | -13% | 43% |
* Ohio defines children as individuals under the age of 22 who receive SNAP benefits and live with a parent. Notes: States shown are those that publicly report SNAP participation data for children, or do not currently publish participation data publicly but have shared unpublished data. Kentucky also provides child participation data but is omitted due to data quality concerns. Minnesota’s published state data on total participation are not comparable to its data on children, because the former includes recipients of state-funded benefits. As a result, we calculated shares in this table using USDA program data on total participation in Minnesota. Source: CBPP calculations of SNAP state agency child participation data as of August 24, 2026 | ||||||
In addition, the harmful 2025 Republican reconciliation law expanded SNAP’s already harsh and ineffective work requirement, extending it to older adults up to age 65 and to parents and other caregivers of children age 14 and older. It also substantially narrowed states’ ability to waive the time limit for areas with few job opportunities and eliminated exemptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and former foster youth. Research consistently shows the work requirement cuts many people off SNAP without increasing employment or earnings, indicating that many of these recipients are likely to be cut off from SNAP benefits as states ramp up implementation.
We will be tracking state SNAP participation data to identify trends likely attributable to the 2025 Republican reconciliation law. This tracker shows the most recent federal data on SNAP participation and often more recent data from state agencies administering the SNAP program, as well as unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This tracker is initially focused on SNAP participation and will be regularly updated as new data become available. Additional indicators may be added over time.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the harmful 2025 Republican reconciliation law cuts SNAP by nearly $187 billion through 2034, the largest cut to the program in history, and that more than 2.4 million people in a typical month would be cut from SNAP. When also including people losing a substantial amount, but not all, of their SNAP benefit, we estimate that 4 million people in a typical month will lose out, once the changes are fully implemented.
State SNAP Participation and Unemployment Trends
SNAP Participation in
Source: USDA and state agency program data.
Change in
Source: CBPP calculations from USDA program data.
Monthly Unemployment Rate in
Note: Unemployment data for October 2025 were not published due to federal government shutdown.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Download the data: https://apps.cbpp.org/fa2-24-26/data/downloadable_data.xlsx
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End Notes
[1] Among states that have provided participation data for children, the share of the state’s total SNAP participation decline that is from fewer children participating ranged from about 30 percent to about 60 percent. To calculate this national estimate, we conservatively took the low end of this range and assumed that the decline in the number of children comprised roughly 30 percent of the total participation decline in states where we do not have participation data for children. For about half of the 25 states the number of children participating in SNAP is posted publicly. For 12 states ― Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Vermont ― CBPP is using unpublished data from the state agency.