Dive Brief:
- The USDA on Tuesday published a proposed rule that would stop states from automatically qualifying low-income households for SNAP if they receive a non-cash or in-kind service funded by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or state maintenance-of-effort funds.
- The USDA said the change would close a loophole that has allowed people to participate in SNAP even if they do not meet the program’s eligibility criteria. If the rule takes effect, the USDA estimates it would cut 17.6% of SNAP participants — 6.3 million people — in fiscal year 2029, the year the proposed rule is expected to reach its full effect.
- Several labor and consumer advocacy groups, including the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, decried the proposed rule, saying that it would worsen hunger.
Dive Insight:
The USDA claims that the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program — TANF’s predecessor — and SNAP served similar populations when Congress created categorical eligibility, but that the programs shifted when TANF replaced AFDC. Now, states’ income criteria for TANF assistance “vary greatly and can sometimes far exceed SNAP limits,” the USDA noted in the proposed rulemaking.
“The proliferation of programs with eligibility criteria significantly different from SNAP standards has created a challenge for the [USDA] in preserving categorical eligibility as originally intended,” the agency noted.
This policy, called broad-based categorical eligibility, has created a patchwork of eligibility criteria across states, enabling households that aren’t eligible under SNAP thresholds to receive benefits through the program, according to the federal government. The USDA said it is looking to end the policy because it may hurt the integrity of the SNAP program “by eroding public trust that SNAP benefits are available only to those who meet the eligibility limits set in law.”
If it takes effect, the rule would reduce federal spending on SNAP benefits by approximately $45 billion from fiscal 2027 to fiscal 2031, the USDA forecast.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute, said that broad-based categorical eligibility lets states modestly raise SNAP’s restrictive federal income eligibility limits.
“BBCE, which about 45 states have adopted, allows working families who spend most of their income on necessary expenses, like rent or child care, to receive help affording groceries and allows families, seniors, and people with disabilities to build modest savings without losing SNAP,” Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance at the think tank, said in a statement.
The Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit that advocates for policies to end hunger, said that broad-based categorical eligibility is an essential component of making food assistance accessible. Eliminating or restricting BBCE “would increase administrative costs and processing delays, raise the risk of payment errors, shift greater fiscal burdens to states, intensify food insecurity, and undermine work incentives,” the nonprofit said in a blog post.
The Trump administration tried to eliminate BBCE in 2019, but the Biden administration withdrew the proposed rule in 2021.
The UFCW said that the rule would further worsen food insecurity, noting that 5.5 million people have already lost access to SNAP over the past year due to cuts stemming from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“SNAP acts as an economic driver, supporting the entire food supply chain,” UFCW International President Milton Jones said in a statement. “UFCW members in our country’s grocery stores, meatpacking plants, and food processing facilities feel the ripple effects as fewer families can buy the food they produce, package, ship and sell.”
Public comments on the proposed rule are being accepted through Dec. 10.
