Editor’s note: The following article was authored by Chad Bolt, Senior Vice President of Economic Security at First Focus on Children, a member organization of the Coalition on Human Needs.

Republicans in the House and Senate are seriously considering a second budget reconciliation bill. Though hundreds of billions more dollars dedicated to ICE and war with Iran will do nothing to help make everyday necessities like child care or groceries more affordable for American families, Congress appears dead set on plowing ahead with that agenda anyway. Another component of this sweeping package, according to the House Budget Committee Chairman, could be legislation they say will address what they willfully misrepresent as “fraud.”

“Budget reconciliation” is Washington parlance for the procedural process that allows the party with control of Congress to bypass the Senate filibuster and ram legislation through on partisan lines. It’s how H.R. 1, or the “One Big Beautiful Bill” – which slashed over $1 trillion from Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in order to provide another round of enormous tax breaks to billionaires – passed last summer. As a result, starting later this year, states will have to start paying a larger share of SNAP benefit costs for the first time in the program’s history. No state is in a position to absorb these cost shifts, which is why the Republican and Democratic governors of all 50 states came together earlier this year to ask Congress to delay this looming fiscal guillotine.

Not only have Congressional Republicans ignored that request – having recently moved a Farm Bill in the House that did nothing to address this imminent crisis – they appear poised to attack SNAP and the 16 million children who rely on it again. In this upcoming budget reconciliation bill, it appears they may include a series of measures they say are intended to address what they claim to be “fraud” in federal benefit programs, including SNAP. The Trump Administration itself reported in May 2025 – before passage of H.R. 1 – that payment accuracy in SNAP was at a “historic high.”

What about “skimming”?

And Congress continues to ignore the very real problem of skimming, which is actual crime being perpetrated against SNAP beneficiaries. Skimming is a type of theft in which criminals target the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards that SNAP participants use to steal their benefits, and since EBT cards generally lack the security protections of typical debit or credit cards, beneficiaries often have no built-in legal recourse to recover stolen benefits. Congress and the Trump Administration have both failed to take permanent steps to prevent skimming or provide recourse for victims.

Nevertheless, this latest move targets SNAP yet again, this time by eliminating what’s known in SNAP policy as the “tolerance threshold.” The tolerance threshold is a federal policy rule used in quality control error measurement, setting a dollar amount (currently just $58) below which a benefit error does not count toward a state’s SNAP error rate. Benefit errors occur when incorrect amounts are paid, not because of fraud, but because of human mistakes or timing and reporting issues. This applies to both overpayments and underpayments, which both occur in SNAP administration. (In fact, about 1.7% of SNAP benefits are underpaid, though this still counts toward the error rate.) The rationale for the tolerance threshold is one of administrative practicality: it avoids penalizing states and counties for very small discrepancies caused by common errors, and it prevents minor rounding issues from erroneously inflating error rates.

Importantly: the tolerance threshold is not “tolerating” “fraud,” and like SNAP error rates generally, it is not a measure of fraud. States still have to report on errors that are below the threshold, even if they’re excluded from the final calculation. But eliminating the threshold will have enormous implications for states, because under H.R. 1, the amount of the SNAP benefits cost states have to start picking up soon is a function of their error rate. Eliminating the tolerance threshold will increase every state’s error rate, increasing the new cost they have to bear, thereby exacerbating the fiscal pressure they are already under to cut SNAP benefits, restrict eligibility, or leave the SNAP program altogether.

Cuts would pay for just one hour of Iran war

Ultimately, this will hurt the 16 million children who rely on SNAP. Not only does SNAP help kids’ families put food on the table, it provides critical support for children’s health, education, and overall well-being. Most infuriating is that this latest attack on SNAP – another move by Congressional Republicans that jeopardizes children’s ability to eat – is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to save just $80 million over 10 years. While that certainly is a large dollar amount, in the context of the legislation in which it’s likely to be included and according to figures provided by President Trump’s own Pentagon officials, it will pay for just one hour of the war in Iran.

Through the agenda they’ve set forth, the leaders who control the House and Senate continue to tell us that they do not prioritize children. Following a year where the share of federal spending on children fell to a mere 8.57% – and during an administration that is  inflicting real harm on millions of children by withholding and threatening to eliminate federal funds kids need – this latest attack on children’s nutrition is a shameless but, sadly, an increasingly predictable development.

What you can do

Help us stick up for SNAP and the 16 million children who rely on it by becoming a First Focus Ambassador for Children. You can also ask your Member of Congress to cosponsor the Farm and Family Relief Act (H.R. 7206), sponsored by House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig (MN-2), which provides additional time for states to prepare for the SNAP benefit cost shift required under H.R. 1.