US President Donald Trump's administration is planning to tighten eligibility rules for the federal government's major food assistance programme, potentially making millions of Americans lose access to grocery benefits.
The programme, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), serves about one in every 10 Americans.
The administration says the proposed rule would close a loophole that currently allows some recipients of the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programme to automatically qualify for SNAP benefits as well.
According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers SNAP, around 6.3 million people could lose their eligibility by the 2029 fiscal year if the proposed change takes effect. This would come on top of the 5.5 million people who have already lost their SNAP benefits over the past year.
The proposal was outlined in a rule published Tuesday, with the government seeking public comments until next month. If approved, the new rule would take about two years to be fully implemented.
Proposal targets link between two federal programmes
The proposal concerns two separate federal assistance programmes. TANF provides federal grants to states, which establish their own eligibility criteria for distributing cash and other benefits to low-income families with children. Income eligibility requirements vary across states and programmes.
Under federal guidelines, SNAP benefits are generally available to people earning less than 130% of the poverty level, equivalent to slightly more than $1,700 a month for an individual and nearly $3,600 for a family of four.
To avoid duplicating administrative procedures, the federal government allows people receiving TANF benefits to automatically qualify for SNAP, although they must still submit an application.
Some states have used this provision to extend SNAP eligibility to people who might otherwise fail to meet the income requirements.
In 2009, the administration of former President Barack Obama encouraged states to provide even minimal TANF-funded assistance, such as informational pamphlets or telephone hotlines, to help people qualify for food assistance.
According to a USDA report published last year, 41 states and the District of Columbia have adopted some form of broad-based categorical eligibility for SNAP.
Similar proposal introduced during Trump's first term
The first Trump administration proposed restricting such practices in 2019, but President Joe Biden's administration withdrew the proposal in 2021.
"Simply put, we did not want to remove millions of people from the program, particularly working poor or children," said Stacy Dean, a former USDA official under Biden who is now executive director of the Global Food Institute at George Washington University.
The latest proposal is broader and could prevent states from using certain TANF-funded benefits, including employment counselling and one-time vehicle repair vouchers that help people commute to work, as a basis for SNAP eligibility, said David Super, a Georgetown University law professor who has studied the programme.
"The administration here is basically proposing to eliminate the flexibility that Congress gave the states to serve working poor people," Super said.
School meal eligibility also at stake
SNAP participation also helps children in beneficiary households qualify for free school meals.
The Agriculture Department estimates that nearly 1.8 million children could lose this automatic eligibility if their families lose SNAP benefits. However, 97% of them would still qualify for free or reduced-price school meals through a separate application process.
The department acknowledged that some children might nevertheless miss out on school meals if their families do not apply.
The proposal comes amid a sharp decline in the number of people receiving food assistance and follows major electoral gains by Democrats across the country.
"The public indicated they want their elected officials to focus on making life affordable," the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning policy research institute, said in an analysis of the proposal.
"Yet the Trump Administration is doubling down on making it harder for people to feed their families," it added.
SNAP faces wider changes
The food assistance programme has undergone several changes in recent months. As of July, around 36 million people were receiving SNAP benefits, down 13% from a year earlier, according to the Agriculture Department.
During the same period, another federal requirement expanded work requirements to more recipients, including those aged 55 to 64 and parents whose youngest children are at least 14.
Trump's major tax and policy legislation passed in 2025, which expanded the work requirements, also requires states to cover about three-fourths of the programme's administrative costs, up from half.
States will also have to bear part of the benefit costs if their payment error rates exceed certain thresholds. Congressional Democrats are pushing to delay the implementation of these changes.
The newly proposed rule is among several measures that could further restrict access to SNAP, said Carolyn Vega, director of policy analysis at the advocacy group Share Our Strength.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has also expressed concern that the proposed eligibility changes could increase states' error rates, forcing them to shoulder a larger share of benefit costs.
Patricia Anderson, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, said that among the administration's various efforts to reduce SNAP spending, the latest proposal appeared to be the most reasonable, as some people with relatively higher incomes qualify through categorical eligibility.
However, she said there was a separate question over whether the existing SNAP eligibility requirements were already too restrictive.