Republicans moved a plan to slash over $230 billion in spending over the next decade and overhaul the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) out of the Agriculture Committee late Wednesday.
Lawmakers on the Agriculture panel advanced it out of committee in a 29-25 party-line vote.
Now, the measure, which is a key component of President Trump’s “big, beautiful” agenda mega-bill, heads to the House Budget Committee for a markup starting Friday that will package the various legislative pieces together.
Back in April, Congress passed a framework for the “big, beautiful” bill that gave assignments to various committees and directed the Agriculture panel to come up with at least $230 billion in savings over a 10-year timeframe.
An estimate from the Congressional Budget Office concluded that the committee’s plan exceeds that goal, but didn’t specify by how much. Some Republicans on the Agriculture panel suggested it could slash spending by as much as $300 billion.
The proposal calls for the federal government to penalize states with error rates on payments for SNAP — which is commonly known as food stamps — but using data Uncle Sam collects on that.
In fiscal year 2023, the national average for state error rates was 11.68% and 46 states had error rates over 6%, according to data from the Food and Nutrition Service.
What’s in the Agriculture Committee legislation?
- States with error rates on SNAP payments between 6% and 8% will be required to cough up 15% of the program (historically, the federal government fully funded the program).
- States with error rates of 8% to 10% would be forced to pay 20%.
- States with error rates over 10% would have to cover 25%.
- Able-bodied adults without children would also see work requirements for the program, which currently last until the age of 54, jump to the age of 64.
- Makes room for Republicans to tack $60 billion farm bill with items like crop insurance, export trade promotion and more to the mega-bill.
SNAP, a program that provides food to the poor, had a federal budget of $112.8 billion in fiscal year 2023. Over 42 million Americans are estimated to be receiving over $212 in benefits from the program each month.
Moderate Republicans had been squeamish about the proposed SNAP changes, but two more pressing sticking points with the “big, beautiful” bill appear to be concerns about cuts to Medicaid and complaints that the state and local tax (SALT) deduction isn’t being raised enough.
On Wednesday, the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee advanced its tax plan that could add an estimated $3.7 trillion to the debt over a 10-year stretch.
Later that same day, the Energy and Commerce Committee passed its roughly $900 billion spending cut and Medicaid reform package.
The framework for the “big, beautiful” bill also called on the House Financial Services Committee to find $100 billion in savings and the House Education and Workforce Committee to identify $330 billion over a decade, bringing the total to over $1.5 trillion in spending cuts.
The “big, beautiful” bill is set to include an extension of the 2017 tax cuts, no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime pay, beefed-up border security, bolstered energy supply and more. It is intended to be Trump’s signature legislative achievement of this year, and possibly his second term.
GOP leadership is hoping to get the final bill to Trump’s desk by the Fourth of July but has to overcome significant hurdles with Republican infighting and slim margins in both chambers of Congress.
