Part of President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill included significant changes to how states run their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP program. For the commonwealth, the price tag is in hundreds of millions.
“It’s a big deal. It’s a whole system overhaul," said Arlington Senator Barbara Favola about changes coming to Virginia’s SNAP program.
Designed to feed the hungry and support folks until they can take care of themselves, President Donald Trump has said it's rampant with fraud.
To that end Trump shifted administrative costs on states, once a 50/50 split between states and the federal government, it’s now 75/25. States also need to get their error rates down to 6%; Virginia’s is around 11 percent.
In the Senate budget, they’re estimating it to cost just over $100 million dollars. Favola said it’s because Virginia runs the program through localities.
“We need to make sure they know the rules, the state can see what they’re doing, and we can hold them accountable,” she told Radio IQ.
In the House, Henrico Delegate Rodney Willett estimated over $200 million.
“Yes, we want to do better on the error rate, there’s money that goes toward that," Willett told Radio IQ. "But just keeping the lights on for the program is a lot more expensive for Virginia.”
Daniel Mintz is with Code for America, a nonprofit that works to improve the delivery of government services. He said the error rate is less about “fraud” and more about administrative errors.
And while some of the new changes have already cut about 80,000 Virginians, about 13% of enrollees, out of the program in the last year, he’s looking for silver linings.
“We hope this is an opportunity for states to build on some strengths they already have and make their systems more efficient and effective,” Mintz said.
Favola, meanwhile, is worried about what that means for Virginians getting booted from the program.
“Are they going to fall behind on their rent? Drop their health insurance?" Favola said. "The last we want is families that are pushed to live on the edge.”
Update snap error rates are expected by July, setting up new benchmarks for next year’s budget.
