USDA proposes narrowing SNAP eligibility and estimates 6.3 million people would lose food benefits

The Agriculture Department has proposed ending a policy that lets most states extend SNAP food benefits to households with incomes or savings above the program's federal limits. The proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on November 10, would limit "categorical eligibility" through the TANF welfare program to households that actually receive TANF assistance, which is mostly cash.

By USDA's own estimate, 3.2 million households containing 6.3 million people, or 17.6% of participants, would no longer receive SNAP in fiscal 2029, the first year the rule would reach its full effect. Federal SNAP benefit spending would fall by about $44.6 billion over fiscal 2027 to 2031, it projects.

What would change

Under federal law, households without an elderly or disabled member generally need a gross income no higher than 130% of the federal poverty guidelines and a net income no higher than 100%, and must meet an asset limit. Most states instead use broad-based categorical eligibility, which counts a household as eligible if it receives a TANF-funded service, often something of token value, such as a pamphlet or a toll-free number, USDA says. The policy spread from 18 states in fiscal 2008 to 43 in fiscal 2011. It lets states raise the gross income limit as high as 200% of the poverty guidelines and raise or eliminate the asset limit, according to the proposal.

As of December 2025, 46 of the 53 state agencies that run SNAP used the policy, according to the proposal. Of those, 37 set gross income limits above the federal one and 41 had no asset limit at all. USDA counts 73.9% of SNAP households as categorically eligible this way. Another 21.8%, who qualify through Supplemental Security Income, cash TANF or general assistance, would keep their status. Everyone else would face the regular federal income and asset tests, and states that do not check assets now would have to start.

USDA's case

USDA argues that Congress created categorical eligibility to cut paperwork, not to widen eligibility. In states with no asset limit, it says, a household holding $1 million or more in available assets but no regular income could qualify. It cites a 2012 Government Accountability Office report that found payment errors for 17.2% of households eligible through the broad policy with incomes over federal limits in fiscal 2010, against 6.7% of other households.

The department also says more than 840,000 households of one or two people got the minimum benefit in 2024 solely because of the broad policy, at a cost of nearly $214 million. The minimum benefit was $23 in fiscal 2025.

The objections

The last attempt met strong resistance. USDA's 2019 proposal drew nearly 158,000 comments, which generally opposed it, according to the department's 2021 withdrawal notice. Commenters warned of more food insecurity among children, veterans, people with disabilities and older adults, said the rule would discourage saving, and questioned its legality. In withdrawing it, USDA said the changes did not sufficiently justify their impact on the 1.7 million households that would have lost eligibility, or adequately mitigate the effect on households with an elderly member.

Opposition to the new version came quickly. Representative Angie Craig of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, said in a statement on November 9, after the proposal was posted for public inspection, that it "would make it harder to meet basic needs and roll back efforts to streamline federal programs." She called it "heartless and cruel."

The new proposal acknowledges added work for states and effects beyond SNAP. USDA estimates that 1.78 million children would lose automatic eligibility for free school meals. About 97% of them would still qualify for free or reduced-price meals by household income, through a separate process, but 93,000 would move to reduced-price meals and 28,000 would pay full price. About 42,000 children could lose Summer EBT benefits from 2029, and 5,500 women, infants and children would lose WIC eligibility. Its civil rights review says households with children or elderly members, and those headed by Asian, Hispanic or multiracial adults, could be affected.

What happens next

Comments are due within 30 days of publication, through regulations.gov, by mail or by email to USDA. The department also published a separate proposal the same day to write into regulation the 2025 law's changes to SNAP's time limit for adults subject to work requirements. Until any final rule takes effect, eligibility is set by each state's current SNAP rules, and the state SNAP agency is the place to check an individual case.