A budget resolution released yesterday calls for the House Agriculture Committee to find $230 billion in savings, but it’s not yet clear whether SNAP cuts will be a source.
X
A budget resolution released yesterday calls for the House Agriculture Committee to find $230 billion in savings, but it’s not yet clear whether SNAP cuts will be a source.
February 13, 2025
February 13, 2025 – As members of Congress advance the budget reconciliation process, cuts to the country’s largest source of food aid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), are still on the table.
Expand your understanding of food systems as a Civil Eats member. Enjoy unlimited access to our groundbreaking reporting, engage with experts, and connect with a community of changemakers.
Already a member?
Login
Republican lawmakers are proposing deep cuts across the government to pay for extending tax breaks and increasing spending on the military and immigration enforcement; the House resolution released yesterday calls for the House Agriculture Committee to find $230 billion in savings. The resolution does not specify exactly where the cuts will come from, but Republicans on the committee have previously proposed rolling back a Biden administration update to SNAP that increased benefits for participants by about $1 a day. And Politico reported earlier this week that Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pennsylvania) was eyeing changes to that update in addition to updating SNAP work requirements and reducing error payment rates.
In response to questions from Civil Eats, Representative Thompson’s staff said the $230 billion number is far from final, and that reports so far on where he plans to find the savings are speculation. They noted that Thompson “has long supported federal food assistance programs like SNAP.” But they also confirmed that Thompson opposes the update the Biden administration made to SNAP benefits and sees it as “egregious Executive overreach,” signaling an openness to rolling it back.
Hunger groups like the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) see that as slashing benefits they believe are needed to tackle food insecurity and have been mobilizing Americans to oppose the cuts, while Democrats in the House and Senate are calling attention to potential impacts.
“These proposed cuts come at a time when we should be focused on helping our farmers and ranchers, children, seniors, and rural Americans tackle rising costs, not giving a tax giveaway to billionaires,” Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said in a statement. Thompson’s team also noted that USDA data shows the extension of Trump-era tax cuts will lower tax liabilities for most farms. (Link to this post.)
July 30, 2025
From Oklahoma to D.C., a food activist works to ensure that communities can protect their food systems and their future.
Like the story?
Join the conversation.