Editor’s note: Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman has released a discussion draft of the Senate Farm Bill. Unfortunately, the proposal would lock in last year’s historic SNAP cuts by failing to delay implementation of the SNAP cost shift. This post was originally published on May 7, 2026, and is authored by Chad Bolt of First Focus Campaign for Children, a Coalition on Human Needs member organization.

There is an imminent crisis facing the 16 million children and their families who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to put food on the table. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives just passed a Farm Bill that completely ignores it.

Historically, every major Farm Bill reauthorizing SNAP has passed with support from both parties. President George W. Bush signed a major expansion into law in 2002; President Obama signed a significant boost into law in 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; and the 2018 Farm Bill, which Congress enacted with broad bipartisan support, was signed into law by President Trump. For more than a half-century, SNAP has stood as one of the nation’s most durable bipartisan commitments. Its modern structure was built by an unlikely partnership between Democratic Senator George McGovern and Republican Senator Bob Dole, whose work led to the overwhelmingly bipartisan Food Stamp Act of 1977. Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton all preserved and modernized the program, recognizing that fighting hunger and supporting farmers were shared national priorities.

H.R. 1 Set the Stage for Impending Crisis

But that bipartisan history came fully undone last summer with the passage of H.R. 1, enacted strictly on party lines through the partisan budget reconciliation process. The Republicans that control both the House and Senate passed H.R. 1 to provide another round of tax cuts that flow predominantly to the wealthiest households, and paid for them in part by slashing nearly $200 billion from SNAP. For the first time ever, states will have to pick up more of the cost of SNAP – starting first this fall with more of the administrative cost, and then even more next year when they have to begin picking up more of the benefit cost. No state is in a fiscal position to handle these new costs.

The Republican and Democratic governors of all 50 states have come together to ask Congress to delay implementation of these changes. The governors note: “These impacts cut across states of all sizes and political affiliations and, if applied based on disrupted data, risk undermining ongoing investments in program integrity and ultimately the viability of the program.” To allow this cost shift to take effect is to put at risk a critical program that supports children’s health, educational outcomes, and overall well-being.

Given the urgency in addressing this self-imposed catastrophe – and SNAP’s usual place in the Farm Bill – it would have made sense for the House to use this legislation to respond to the bipartisan calls to delay the cost shift. But instead the House chose to continue ignoring it. The best they could manage to do, sadly, was allow rotisserie chickens as an allowable SNAP purchase (which was actually a cynical and successful move to thwart a broader effort to allow all hot food).

This Crisis is Not Abstract

The crisis the House is ignoring is not an abstract one. Already, almost 3.5 million fewer people are participating in SNAP, according to USDA data, since passage of H.R. 1. Economic data does not suggest this is because children and their families are better off: grocery prices are higher; the unemployment rate has notched upward; and though wages have ticked up, stronger gains have accrued to higher-income households – not the families who rely on SNAP. What has been true is that states are implementing new barriers to SNAP participation required by H.R. 1, and in anticipation of the impending cost shift, they are taking steps to reduce SNAP enrollment. In this context, the USDA participation figures are most likely understood to mean that the need for the SNAP program is the same as it was before (if not greater) – but now 3.5 million fewer people are getting it.

The Senate must not repeat the House’s failure to address this problem. Fortunately, every Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee joined this statement issued by Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar the day the House Farm Bill passed, conveying their commitment to “ensuring all states are treated equally delaying the new SNAP cost shifts.” A handful of states with the highest error rates already get a delay under current law. Providing a delay to all states would ensure that each state is treated uniformly, and that all states have the time they need to effectively prepare.

More importantly for the 16 million children who rely on SNAP, it would avoid putting at risk the assistance their families need to put food on the table. Losing SNAP also deals a double blow to kids: through a process called “direct certification”, children enrolled in SNAP are also automatically eligible for free school meals. Losing this automatic eligibility leads to stigma, bullying, or increased hunger at school – which advocates are already seeing firsthand.

The Senate Has Many Options

The Republicans who decide the Senate’s agenda could choose any number of options as their path forward: the House Farm Bill or some version of it, a differently-constituted farmer relief package, or even the Ag appropriations bill. No matter which option they go with, any farm legislation that moves in the Senate must have a delay of the state cost shift. And if Congressional Republicans do decide to pursue a third budget reconciliation effort (despite not yet having finished the second), they should abandon their relentless quest to cut SNAP even further. Retiring Sen. Joni Ernst has floated a proposal that would put SNAP benefits even more at risk for children and their families for the sake of offsetting the cost of just one hour of President Trump’s war in Iran.

These are not decisions (or lawmakers) that treat our nation’s children like a priority. Help us tell Congress to put children first by becoming a First Focus Ambassador for Children. We’ll tell you what you need to know, what Congress is up to, and how you can be an effective advocate so that your Member of Congress does a better job making kids a priority in federal budget and policy decisions.