Canned foods on grocery store sA sign explaining delays in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the government shutdown is displayed at a Sprouts grocery store in Bountiful, Utah, on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. A study released Wednesday found that more than 80,000 Alabamians lost access to SNAP after President Donald Trump signed a bill imposing new restrictions on the program. (McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch)
More than 80,000 Alabamians lost access to a federal anti-hunger program after Congress passed new restrictions on it, according to a new analysis.
According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington D.C., participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fell 11% between July 2025, when President Donald Trump signed a bill imposing new restrictions on the program, and this past May.
The study also found that more than 23,000 children lost access to SNAP, accounting for 29% of the total decline.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX.
“It is heartbreaking,” said LaTrell Clifford Wood, hunger policy advocate with Alabama Arise, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of lower income households in the state. “The first thought is that it is heartbreaking to see our families be harmed by greed based on one number that doesn’t measure what it purports to.”
A message seeking comment was sent Wednesday to the Alabama Department of Human Resources, which administers SNAP in Alabama.
Under a budget reconciliation bill passed by Congress in July, the funding formula placed more of a financial burden on states. In the past, the federal government funded all the food benefits and split the cost of administering the program evenly with the states.
The reconciliation bill increased the administration cost share borne by the states from 50% to 75% while potentially making the states pay for part of the benefit. If states reach a SNAP error rate of at least 6%, they will pay a portion of the financial benefit for the program. An error rate does not necessarily indicate fraud, Wood said.
“They are a measure of underpayments and overpayments by state departments,” Wood said. “They are not predicated on the actions of our community members that use this program, and it is incredibly disingenuous to engage with people who use these programs with that sentiment.”
States with error rates higher than 6% will pay between 5% and 15% of the benefit costs. Those with higher rates could pay as much as 25% of the benefit.
Alabama state officials said in April that the state’s error rate was 10%. Under the reconciliation bill, that could cost the state between $174 and $261 million.
Nationwide, about 4.5 million fewer people have participated in the federal food assistance between July 2025 and April of this year, a decline of about 11% in nine months, according to Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance with the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
“SNAP is in the middle of the steepest, fastest decline in participation in decades,” Jones Cox said. “And it’s not because the need is any lower, we are facing a hunger crisis that Congress has the power to mitigate.”
It is the largest decline since 1997 after Congress imposed steep cuts to food assistance programs.
“This decline is outpacing even the government’s own predictions,” Jones Cox said.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that about 3 million fewer people would participate in SNAP in a typical month amid the new restrictions.
A significant portion of the losses can be explained by actions taken by states as they prepare for the rules changes to SNAP, said Jones Cox.
“People need food assistance today just as much as they did a year ago, and they are simply being cut off from assistance as states scramble to limit their exposure to the massive new cuts they face under the reconciliation law’s cost shift,” Jones Cox said. “This is the reality on the ground — as states rush to comply with the costly provisions of the harmful reconciliation law.”
In response, Jones Cox said states have been erecting additional barriers to help reduce the potential error rates. Some states require applicants to file additional paperwork with reduced certification periods, Jones Cox said, which could deny benefits to people who are eligible.
“What is happening with the additional documentation for example, a household of one, usually you could put that on your application and states are accepting that,” Jones Cox said. “You say, ‘This is my income.’ Now, they are saying, ‘Verify that no one else lives with you.’ Which is very complicated.”
Some states now require that a person’s neighbor, or someone else, sign paperwork to verify that an applicant lives alone.
The budget reconciliation bill also increased the work requirement age from 54 years old to 64 years old. The program also excluded some immigrants who are eligible to reside in the country from participating.
Courtesy of Alabama Reflector
