One in eight Americans use the SNAP program to buy food. With the government shutdown, questions arose about its functioning.
The longest government shutdown in U.S. history brought with it a fight between President Donald Trump and Democrats in Congress and the states over food aid and whether the Trump administration had the authority to cut it.
So what is the food assistance program known as SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program?
From food stamps to SNAP
SNAP, the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, is federally funded but largely administered by state agencies. In a handful of states, county governments dispense benefits and control eligibility.
Currently, 42 million low-income people — one in eight Americans — use the program to buy food. People receive benefits electronically each month through an electronic benefit transfer, or EBT, card, which works much like a debit card.
The SNAP program is the modern successor to the food stamp program, which dates back to 1939 and the New Deal. The name was changed in 2008 “to combat stigma,” according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
Who has the right?
Eligibility is based on income limits — typically 130 percent of the federal poverty level — and participants are subject to reporting standards and work obligations. In 2025, that 130 percent figure translates to $529 a week for a family of two, or $27,495 a year, according to federal guidelines. The eligibility limit is $41,795 for a family of four.
In total, federal spending on SNAP amounted to nearly $100 billion in 2024. SNAP recipients receive $187 per month on average.
Who receives SNAP?
Nearly 90 percent of SNAP recipients are natural-born U.S. citizens, according to the latest data from the Department of Agriculture, and 96 percent were citizens.
About 62 percent of SNAP participants are from families with children. About 40 percent of SNAP recipients are under 18 years old, and about 20 percent are over 60 years old.
The states with the highest percentages of SNAP beneficiaries are New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Oregon.
Why did the SNAP lists stop responding to good economic results?
In the past, SNAP enrollment, and its costs, have typically aligned with unemployment and poverty rates. The Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service has described SNAP as a “countercyclical” program that acts as an “automatic stabilizer of the economy,” meaning the program is designed to expand during economic downturns and shrink when the economy improves.
For decades, SNAP participation has typically hovered between 7 percent and 11 percent of the population, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. That percentage increased significantly during the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, and peaked at nearly 19 percent in 2013, or more than 47 million people.
During the pandemic, under the first Trump administration, emergency legislation temporarily and partially suspended a long-standing requirement that “healthy” adult SNAP recipients without dependents work. The suspension ended in 2023, and the Biden administration agreed to add stricter work requirements to SNAP under an agreement with Republican lawmakers in 2023.
Even as the economy has recovered, albeit slowly, from the pandemic, the gap between rich and poor Americans has widened, and SNAP enrollment has not strayed much from its level of 41 million. Analysts have attributed these numbers in part to a weak labor market, inflation, uncertainty about the economy and an uneven recovery that has enriched the top end of the economic spectrum while leaving the bottom end behind.
The obligation to work is about to get much tougher
The 41 million figure will likely shrink soon, but not necessarily because the economy lifts SNAP recipients out of poverty. Instead, the domestic policy law signed by Trump, which went into effect on November 1, will change a number of criteria affecting SNAP, according to federal guidelines.
Starting this month, healthy adults aged 18 to 64 must work at least 80 hours a month, or participate in volunteer activities or an education or training program, to remain eligible for assistance for more than three months in a three-year period. The previous age limit was 54 years.
Child caregivers have long been exempt from work requirements, and children were defined as anyone under the age of 18 in the care of a SNAP recipient. Under the new law, the exemption applies only to people who care for children under 14 years old. Also exempt were homeless people, veterans and those under 24 years of age who had stopped being in a foster home due to their age. Now they are not exempt.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the changes will force states to reduce or eliminate SNAP benefits, either because people do not meet the new requirements or because they do not submit proper documentation. Up to 2.4 million people are expected to be left out of the program because of work requirements alone.
Can the president simply suspend benefits during a shutdown?
The Trump administration pressured Democrats to vote to reopen the government without the health care concessions they were demanding, in large part because it cut SNAP benefits. After lower courts ruled that the government would have to pay those benefits, the Department of Agriculture rushed to file an urgent appeal to the Supreme Court rather than abide by the decision. The high court granted a pardon and most benefits remain suspended.
Groups challenging the Trump administration’s decision asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning to allow a lower court order to take effect to force the government to give people their SNAP allotments. In a brief, the groups said that “individuals and families have now gone ten days without the help they need to buy food,” and stated that any further delay would “prolong that irreparable damage and add to the chaos the government has unleashed, with lasting repercussions” on the food benefits program.
That night, the justices extended their temporary ruling, allowing the Trump administration to withhold full food stamp benefits while negotiations continued to end the government shutdown, adding to uncertainty for the millions of Americans who rely on the hunger program. The court order will expire just before midnight Thursday.
Abbie VanSickle contributed reporting from Washington.
David W. Chen is a Times reporter focused on state legislatures, state-level policymaking and the political forces behind them.
Abbie VanSickle contributed reporting from Washington.
