In 2025, Congress and the President passed a law that makes big cuts to SNAP and tightens the rules, which will lower benefits and make it harder for some people to qualify. The law expands work and time limits to adults ages 18–64, including many parents of older teens, limits future benefit updates tied to the Thrifty Food Plan, and shifts more costs to states—pressures that can lead to more red tape and denied help. During the fall 2025 government shutdown, the administration chose not to use emergency funds at first, putting November SNAP and many WIC benefits at risk until lawsuits and stopgap moves followed. USDA also let several states ban buying items like soda and candy with SNAP, adding stigma and new hurdles without fixing food affordability. Many Republican-led states refused Summer EBT in 2025, which meant millions of children lost summer grocery help, including in Texas. The administration kept funding for child care programs flat, giving fewer families access to child care, and forced Head Start programs to temporarily close multiple times in 2025. Looking ahead, the administration’s FY2026 budget plan would sharply cut WIC fruit-and-vegetable benefits for moms and young kids and eliminate federal funding for two critical child care programs. Overall, these actions make child care more expensive, reduce food assistance, increase barriers to access, and shift more of the burden onto states and families.
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¶ Congress and the President enacted a 2025 law that cut SNAP and added bureaucracy, reducing benefits and access
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The FY2025 budget reconciliation law (P.L. 119-21) was signed July 4, 2025 and is estimated by CRS (drawing on CBO) to cut federal SNAP spending by nearly $187 billion over FY2025–FY2034, with provisions expected to reduce household benefit amounts and make it harder for some people to qualify. (congress.gov)
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The law expands SNAP’s time-limit/work-requirement population to ages 18–64 and to parents whose youngest child is 14–17, while narrowing waiver criteria. The takeaway? More paperwork for families. (congress.gov)
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The law restricts USDA’s ability to update the Thrifty Food Plan above inflation, limiting future benefit levels tied to the TFP. (congress.gov)
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The law shifts some benefit costs to states with high SNAP error rates and raises states’ share of SNAP administrative costs from 50% to 75%, increasing state pressure to cut the program (congress.gov)
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Major outlets reported the package’s food-aid cuts as it moved and passed: Senate GOP leaders advanced what the Post called the largest safety-net cuts in decades, and the House-passed final bill included about $185 billion in food assistance reductions. (washingtonpost.com)
¶ Trump administration decisions during the 2025 shutdown jeopardized SNAP and WIC benefits for millions
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On Oct. 24, 2025, the administration said it would not tap available emergency funds to cover November SNAP benefits during the shutdown, risking disruptions for roughly 42 million recipients. (politico.com)
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On Oct. 28, 2025, 25 states sued USDA to compel release of emergency funds to prevent a SNAP halt, underscoring the imminent loss of food aid. (politico.com)
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WIC faced acute shutdown peril: early October reporting warned federal support could run out within 1–2 weeks, forcing states to cut or pause benefits and consider waitlists. (washingtonpost.com)
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In June 2025 USDA approved waivers for Arkansas, Idaho, and Utah (following Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska) to prohibit SNAP purchases of items like soda and candy, a sharp departure from longstanding national rules. (reuters.com)
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Policy analysts warn such item bans stigmatize participants and create substantial administrative burdens for households, retailers, and states without solving affordability—the core barrier to healthy diets. (cbpp.org)
- Twelve states declined to operate Summer EBT in 2025, leaving an estimated 9.5 million eligible children without $120 in summer grocery benefits. (frac.org)
- For example, Texas’ governor vetoed participation despite available federal funds, blocking benefits for millions of children in the state. (houstonchronicle.com)
- Independent analyses and stakeholder statements report the President’s FY2026 request would slash WIC’s fruit-and-vegetable “cash value benefit” by roughly two-thirds, taking benefits for many participants down to $10–$13 per month. (cbpp.org)
- The National WIC Association condemned the proposed reductions as removing healthy foods from low-income mothers and young children and reversing science-based improvements adopted in 2021. (nwica.org)
¶ Republicans pursued additional SNAP cuts and restrictions alongside the enacted law
- As the House and Senate advanced the 2025 package, Republican proposals included raising SNAP work requirements up to age 64, tightening waiver rules, limiting TFP-driven benefit updates, and shifting benefit costs to states—policies expected to reduce enrollment and benefits. (reuters.com)
- Nonpartisan and advocacy analyses throughout 2025 detailed how these proposals—and the enacted provisions—would take food assistance away from millions, increase poverty and food insecurity, and burden states and administrators. (cbpp.org)
¶ The Trump administration abruptly cut more than $1 billion in funding for food for food banks and schools
- In May 2025, the Trump administration began cutting $500 million in deliveries from the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which was established in 1983 to purchase farmers' surplus meat, dairy, eggs and produce and deliver them to food banks and other organizations across the country. (propublica.org)
- In March 2025, Trump's U.S. Department of Agriculture cut $660 million from the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, which provides funding to schools and child-care facilities to purchase food from nearby farms. (politico.com)
- The Trump administration ended the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which provided about $500 million to food banks and other feeding organizations. (reuters.com)
¶ The administration attacked the Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program
- The Trump administration fired all federal LIHEAP staff, threatening to delay the release of funds to states. (nlihc.org)
- Trump eliminated all funding for LIHEAP in his FY26 proposed budget. (npr.org)
- Trump’s government shutdown delayed the release of $3.6 billion in LIHEAP funding for nearly a month. (pbs.org)
- Trump signed the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act into law, keeping funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant flat. Experts estimated that 24,000 fewer children would have access to child care due to stagnant funding. (clasp.org)
- A leaked draft of Trump’s FY26 proposed budget would have eliminated funding for Head Start, though the official “skinny budget” kept funding level. (utahnewsdispatch.com)
- Trump’s FY26 proposed budget eliminated funding for the Preschool Development Grants and the Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools program. (nwlc.org)
- The Trump administration fired critical staff in charge of early childhood programs at HHS. (thebulwark.com)
- The Trump administration closed five of the 12 regional Head Start offices, leaving local programs with less support. (fastcompany.com)
- The Trump administration froze funding for Head Start programs, creating chaos and forcing some programs to temporarily close. (apnews.org)
- Trump’s government shutdown forced some Head Start programs to temporarily close. (calmatters.org)
- Trump ended DHS guidance prohibiting ICE from making immigration arrests at schools, hospitals, churches and childcare centers. (reuters.com)
- Trump’s mass deportation scheme threatened to up-end the child care industry, where immigrants make up around 20 percent of the workforce nationally, and up to 50 percent of the workforce in some cities. (vox.com)
- Studies have shown that immigration crackdowns don’t just pull immigrant workers out of the child care industry – native-born workers also leave as prices increase and child care centers close down. (sciencedirect.com)