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Anti-hunger advocates are denouncing a Trump administration proposal that would tighten eligibility requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The proposed rule, introduced on Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to seek public comment, would change a policy that extends eligibility for SNAP to people who receive benefits through a social safety net program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.
If adopted, the SNAP rule would reduce public enrollment in the program by roughly 17%, the Agriculture Department projects.
White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster said the Trump administration wants to ensure that SNAP serves only “eligible Americans who need it most.”
“Rather than throwing money at a broken system, the Trump Administration will continue to stop fraudsters stealing from these important programs, as well as take effective, cost-saving steps to make life more affordable for all Americans,” she told CBS News in an email.
Broad push to narrow SNAP
Cutting off so many Americans from food stamps would greatly increase food insecurity at a time when many people are already struggling financially, critics said.
“Instead of listening to the public sentiment on affordability following the election, the administration is continuing its attacks on vital food assistance and the families who need help to put food on the table,” Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan think tank, said in a statement.
Some lawmakers also decried the proposed rule. In a statement, Rep. Angie Craig, a Democrat from Minnesota and ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, called the proposal “heartless and cruel.”
The proposal comes amid what advocates say is a broader push by the Trump administration to narrow eligibility for food stamps. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” expanded SNAP’s work requirements. As of Oct. 1, states are also required to shoulder a larger share of the cost of administering SNAP, a change advocates say could lead to further benefit cuts.
According to USDA figures, more than 5 million Americans have lost access to food stamps since the “Big Beautiful Bill” was enacted in July 2025.
“Basically, what the administration is doing is continuing on this path of making sure that SNAP is dismantled,” said Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP director for the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit advocacy group. “The states have so much on their plate that they cannot continue running the program.”
Plata-Nino said the Trump administration’s changes to SNAP have created additional barriers as hunger in the U.S. is becoming more pervasive. Food insecurity has surged since the pandemic, according to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York earlier this year.
“We do know that in terms of hunger, it is going to raise our negative health outcomes,” Plata-Nino said of the proposed SNAP rule.
What would the proposed rule do?
The latest SNAP reform proposal would restrict what’s known as “broad-based categorical eligibility,” a policy offered by more than 40 states that allows households outside the normal SNAP eligibility income threshold to qualify for food stamps if they receive benefits through TANF.
Plata-Nino noted that the longstanding policy authorized by Congress makes SNAP more accessible and lowers costs for states administering the program.
Under the new rule, which would take effect in 2029, households above SNAP’s income thresholds would not qualify for food stamps if they receive non-cash TANF benefits, such as childcare assistance or job training.
The Trump administration issued a similar proposal in 2019, but the Biden administration withdrew it two years later.
In the text of the rule, the USDA said the current SNAP eligibility standards mean that even households with $1 million in wealth but no income could technically receive food stamps.
“Broad-based categorical eligibility has bloated the welfare rolls for decades,” a USDA spokesperson said in an email to CBS News. “It has allowed states to take shortcuts, error rates to balloon, and those households with income and assets far above federal limits access to a benefit meant for the neediest among us. Correcting this loophole is long overdue.”
Who would it impact?
In an analysis of the rule, the USDA estimated that 6.3 million people would lose access to SNAP in 2029, the year the proposal would take effect.
The rule would also impact access to other federal assistance programs for people who qualify based on their SNAP eligibility. Nearly 1.8 million children would lose access to free school lunches, while 5,500 low-income women would lose access to supplemental food aid for women and children, according to the agency.
Plata-Nino said FRAC believes those figures could underestimate the number of people who would lose food aid under the proposed rule. “We know that the impact is going to be higher,” she told CBS News.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the rule would cut off SNAP benefits for people with a gross household income just above 130% of the poverty line, or about $35,500 per year for a family of three.
