What Happened?

Your state could soon have to begin sharing the cost of SNAP (food stamp) benefits, and a Senate bill would give it one more year before that starts. Right now, the start date is Oct. 1, 2027, and a Senate Agriculture Committee bill, the Agricultural Act of 2026, would move it to Oct. 1, 2028.

Under current law, states will have to start covering part of the cost of SNAP benefits, and how much each one pays depends on how often it makes payment errors. The Senate Agriculture Committee sent the bill to the full Senate on Sept. 24.

A new report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) compares the House and Senate committee farm bills on whether states should have to share these costs. The report also points out that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) hasn't yet issued rules explaining how this would actually work.

Why Does it Matter to Me?

USDA reported a national SNAP payment error rate of 10.62 percent for fiscal year 2025, which works out to an estimated $10.1 billion in improper payments. CRS says that under current law, most states and other jurisdictions would owe something in fiscal year 2028 unless their payment error rate for fiscal year 2026 falls below 6 percent.

The Senate bill would also raise the most a state could owe from 15 percent to 20 percent of benefit costs, starting in fiscal year 2031, for states with error rates of 10 percent or higher. That money would come out of state budgets, which could put a strain on them.

Both Sides, Now

The Senate bill also gives extra time to the states with the most errors: those with error rates of at least 13.33 percent in both fiscal years 2025 and 2026 would get until fiscal year 2030.

Based on fiscal year 2025 error rates, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that states would owe roughly $9 billion combined under the new requirement. Brookings, meanwhile, has argued that error rates aren't a precise enough way to decide how much each state should pay.

The House-passed Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 doesn't touch SNAP cost-sharing, so the current schedule would stay in place. The House and Senate would have to work out their differences before any change could reach the president's desk.

What Happens Next?

The Agricultural Act of 2026 has cleared the Senate Agriculture Committee and now heads to the full Senate for a vote.

CRS cautioned that what states end up owing could change depending on later error-rate data, and it noted again that USDA hasn't issued rules or guidance on how the cost-sharing will work. No Senate vote is scheduled, and unless Congress acts, the Oct. 1, 2027, start date under current law stays in place.

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