SNAP: What Recent Legislation and Policy Changes Mean for Kansans

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SNAP: What Recent Legislation and Policy Changes Mean for Kansans

Hill to the Heartland: Federal Health Policy Briefing

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The Kansas Health Institute (KHI) has been closely monitoring federal health policy developments to assess their potential impact on Kansans, including how changes at the federal and state levels have and will continue to impact the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Recent federal changes to SNAP modify the federal work requirements for eligibility, exemptions to the work requirements, and data access to food security measures.

What Is SNAP

SNAP is a federal program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides monthly benefits to low-income individuals and families to purchase groceries from authorized retailers. The program aims to reduce food insecurity, improve nutrition and support better health outcomes.

A Brief History of SNAP

The federal Food Stamp Program pilot operated from 1964-1971 and grew out of more than 20 years of research, legislation and initiatives during the Great Depression. Its goals were to provide support to hungry families and absorb farm surpluses. Kansas officially adopted the Food Stamp Program in 1971.

A few years later, U.S. Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) and U.S. Senator George McGovern (D-SD) led bipartisan efforts to modernize the Food Stamp Program through the Food and Agricultural Act of 1977. This legislation established statutory guidelines for eligibility and required that any individual deemed eligible for the program receive all benefits to which the law says they are entitled.

In 1996, the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) implemented work requirements to receive Food Stamp Program benefits. Under this law's Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWD) provision, adults without dependents under age 18 were limited to three months of benefits unless they met additional work requirements of at least 20 hours per week. In 2008, the program was renamed SNAP under the Food, Conservation and Energy Act.

Since 2015, when the Kansas Legislature passed the Hope, Opportunity, and Prosperity for Everyone (HOPE) Act, K.S.A. 39-709, Kansas has had some of the nation's strictest work requirements and eligibility rules for SNAP. The HOPE Act also prohibited future Kansas actions to utilize income and resource standards of eligibility beyond the federal standards, unless expressly required by federal law.

Visit the Hunger Free Kansas Data Walk webpage for more information on the history of SNAP in Kansas.

Recent Federal and State Action

On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed H.R. 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which included significant changes to SNAP and other programs that relate to the nation's food system.

Although USDA suspended the flow of federal SNAP dollars to states for two weeks in November near the end of the 43-day government shutdown, some states, including Kansas, issued benefits in November, and in other states, assistance resumed within days after the President signed a bill on Nov. 12, 2025, to fund the government.

On Nov. 7, Governor Laura Kelly announced the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) had distributed over $31.6 million in SNAP benefits to approximately 86,000 Kansas households during the federal shutdown.

SNAP Eligibility in Kansas

For SNAP in Kansas, the average monthly enrollment and cost for July through November of the current state fiscal year was almost 93,000 households enrolled and about $33.6 million in monthly benefits.

Individuals must meet three income requirements to be eligible for SNAP in Kansas:

1. A monthly gross household income at or below 130 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). For a three-person household, this is $2,888 or less per month.
2. A net household income after deductions at or below 100 percent FPL. For a three-person household, this is $2,221 or less per month.
3. Household assets not to exceed $3,000 ($4,500 if a household member is age 60 or older or has a disability).

The term "income" includes cash from all sources, such as payroll, Social Security or unemployment benefits, and child support. "Household assets" include cash, checking and savings accounts, U.S. Savings Bonds, Savings Certificates, buildings or land (except the family home), jointly owned resources, and cars and other vehicles.

H.R. 1 also includes new restrictions on SNAP eligibility for immigrants. While immigrants without documentation of lawful status in the U.S. were already ineligible for SNAP, the new law removes eligibility for several groups of individuals with legal immigration status - such as refugees, asylum grantees, and certain survivors of domestic violence and sex trafficking - who were previously eligible. Individuals with lawful permanent status, sometimes referred to as those with a green card, must still wait five years before they are eligible to access SNAP, unless otherwise exempted by PRWORA.

ABAWD Work Requirement Changes

SNAP recipients also are subject to work requirements under the federal PRWORA Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWD) provision. Families with school-age children, older adults and those with disabilities have historically been exempt from ABAWD. In 2023, additional federal exemptions were created for veterans, former foster youth who have aged out of the system and individuals experiencing homelessness.

For July through November of the current state fiscal year, an average of 94 percent of all Kansans, including children, who received SNAP were exempt from ABAWD work provisions. H.R. 1 reinstated the work requirements for veterans, former foster youth, and those experiencing homelessness.

Additionally, H.R. 1 raised the upper age limit for the ABAWD work requirements to age 64. Under federal law, the age limit for work requirements was previously 54. During the 2023 Kansas Legislative Session, lawmakers passed House Bill 2094 which applied ABAWD work requirements to individuals age 50-59.

H.R. 1 also requires adults in households with children age 14 or older to demonstrate they work at least 80 hours per month. Previously, federal law exempted working-age adults with dependents under age 18 from ABAWD work requirements.

The Nutritional, Social and Economic Benefits of SNAP

SNAP benefits help families afford food. A USDA analysis of SNAP nationally in federal fiscal year (FY) 2024 found that the average benefit per month per person was $187.20. Although these benefits are intended to be "supplemental," for some individuals, SNAP benefits are their entire food budget.

A USDA analysis of FY 2023 SNAP data found that nationally one in five households receiving SNAP had no income from any source nor benefits from other safety net programs. While some of these households also may obtain food from food pantries and banks, the charitable food system lacks the infrastructure and financing to fully replace SNAP. Feeding America, the largest U.S. food bank, estimates for every one meal a food bank provides, SNAP provides nine meals.

With SNAP, recipients can utilize their benefits to buy food directly from existing grocery stores that already have systems in place for bringing food into their communities. The investment needed to replace SNAP benefits with a fully charitable system is unknown but would require funding to create a significant nationwide infrastructure, including staff, transportation, warehousing and other expenses beyond what SNAP currently costs.

The provision of SNAP has been associated with an 11 percent reduction in overall food insecurity. Additionally, SNAP enrollment has demonstrated a positive impact for those experiencing health challenges and also has been studied for its ability to stabilize households. More generous SNAP benefits have been associated with fewer calls to child protective services and a reduction of children entering foster care. In comparison, the cutting of SNAP benefits has been found to increase food insecurity and worsen health outcomes for children and their caregivers.

SNAP benefits also result in increased revenue at stores and markets where they are redeemed. SNAP benefits can only be redeemed for food at approved retailers. As of Sept. 16, 2025, there were 1,000 approved SNAP retailers in Kansas. The USDA estimates a SNAP multiplier of 1.5, meaning for every $1 of SNAP benefits spent, $1.54 of economic activity is generated in the community, from increased jobs, farm income and overall food spending. Some researchers and grocery store owners are concerned that the cuts in SNAP benefits in H.R. 1 will cause local grocery stores to close, reducing access to food in their communities.

In a June 2025 report to Congress, the federal Government Accountability Office identified SNAP policy options among a set of "automatic stabilizers" for the economy in times of economic downturn. Automatic stabilizers are policy mechanisms in the federal budget that can alter spending levels without direct policymaker intervention. The options include temporarily increasing SNAP benefits, suspending time limits and work requirements under ABAWD, waiving SNAP administrative requirements and increasing federal SNAP administrative funding to the states. Economic models estimate that without SNAP, food sales in the U.S. would decrease by $1.4 billion to $7.3 billion annually, in addition to a 1 percent reduction of workforce in food industries nationally.

Access to Food Security Data

For the past 30 years, food security rates have been the gold standard for measuring the impact of different policies and interventions on addressing hunger. The federal government has collected data across the states through the annual Food Security Supplement to the Census Bureau's ongoing Current Population Survey. These data, released annually, have been the basis for food security estimates for many resources, including the Map the Meal Gap from Feeding America, America's Health Rankings and County Health Rankings and Roadmaps dashboards.

In September 2025, the federal government announced it will terminate the Food Security Supplement survey and no longer produce the report, with the USDA citing redundancy, cost and politicization of food security data. In response to this announcement, food security advocates raised concerns that ending the annual food security data reports could reduce transparency at a time when there are predictions that hunger may increase due to rising food and housing costs.

The final report from USDA was to be released in October 2025, but was delayed due to the government shutdown. The USDA announced the release will be rescheduled. Ending this data collection and reporting will affect national, state and local organizations that rely on the data to inform decision-making, such as for their local community health improvement plans, policymaking and funding decisions.

Other Things We Are Watching

• SNAP Data Dispute: Kansas is at risk of the money needed to administer SNAP being withheld by the federal government due to the state refusing to provide certain SNAP data to the federal government. Kansas is arguing that this goes beyond the typical reporting requirements.
• SNAP Cost Sharing: H.R. 1 increases SNAP administrative cost sharing for the states from 50 percent to 75 percent beginning in October 2026. The Kansas Legislative Research Department (KLRD) estimates this will result in about $19.7 million in additional annual costs for Kansas. Additionally, H.R. 1 established cost-sharing of SNAP benefit allotments based on state SNAP payment error rates beginning in October 2027. KLRD estimates that, assuming a similar error rate to 2024 of 9.98 percent, Kansas would be required to pay 10 percent of the costs of SNAP benefit allotments, an equivalent of about $40.8 million annually.
• Farm Bill Updates: H.R. 1 included a one-year Farm Bill extension that contained much of the legislation that was historically in the Farm Bill. However, the Trump administration has announced an additional one-time $12 billion aid package to farmers experiencing trade disruptions. The administration also has indicated they are exploring further restrictions to SNAP.

As federal and state policymakers continue to modify SNAP, KHI will keep monitoring how these changes affect food security, health and economic stability across Kansas.

Stay tuned for further updates on policy shifts that may affect health programs and services in Kansas. For related work on how federal policies could impact Kansans, please check out Hill to the Heartland.

Funding for Hill to the Heartland is provided in part by the Sunflower Foundation: Health Care for Kansans, a Topeka-based philanthropic organization with the mission to serve as a catalyst for improving the health of Kansans. KHI retains editorial independence in the production of its content and its findings. Any views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sunflower Foundation.