SNAP Proposal Would Cut Food Stamps for 6.3 Million People

The Trump administration moved on Tuesday 10 November 2026 to cut millions more Americans from the nation's largest food assistance programme. A proposed rule issued by the US Department of Agriculture would end the policy most states use to qualify households for food stamps without applying the programme's federal income and asset limits — and the department's own analysis, published with the rule, estimates that 6.3 million people in 3.2 million households would lose benefits once the change takes full effect.

The proposal is not yet law. It is open for public comment for 30 days, through 10 December 2026, after which the department can move toward a final rule. But the numbers in it are the government's own, and they describe the largest single cut to the programme since the administration's July 2025 tax law reshaped it.

What the rule would change

The proposal targets a policy called broad-based categorical eligibility, known as BBCE. Under the current rules, a household that receives certain benefits under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programme — TANF — can qualify for SNAP automatically, without the state applying SNAP's own federal income and asset limits. In practice, most states use BBCE to let in households whose income is above the federal SNAP limit but below a higher state-set threshold, and to waive the asset test for families with modest savings.

The proposed rule, titled "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Reforming Categorical Eligibility" and published in the Federal Register on 10 November 2026 as document 2026-22936, would narrow that automatic eligibility sharply. Under it, only households receiving TANF cash assistance would continue to qualify automatically for SNAP. Families receiving non-cash TANF help — such as job training, child care vouchers or other services — would no longer qualify automatically, and would have to meet SNAP's federal income and asset limits instead.

Without BBCE, SNAP has a hard cutoff: household income at or below 130% of the federal poverty line, and assets below a set federal limit. A family that took an extra shift, earned a small raise, or saved a little money can cross those lines even while still struggling to afford food. That is the group BBCE was designed to catch — and the group the proposal would remove.

The department says the change would make eligibility more standardised and "preserve benefits for the truly needy", in the rule's own words. The rule is signed by USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen A. Vaden.

How many people would be affected

The department's own analysis puts the scale plainly. About 16.9% of participating households — 3.2 million households containing 6.3 million people — would no longer receive SNAP in fiscal year 2029, the first year the rule is expected to reach its full effect. That is nearly 18% of all SNAP recipients, according to the Reuters report on the proposal.

The analysis also shows who is already outside the federal limits. In fiscal year 2024, 11.5% of participating SNAP households — 2.5 million households with 5.4 million people — had resources above the programme's federal limit and qualified only because of BBCE. Those are the households the rule would push out.

Children would be affected as well as adults. Because BBCE also confers automatic eligibility for free school meals, reporting on the proposal estimates that about 1.8 million children could lose free school meals alongside their families' SNAP benefits.

The cuts that came before

The proposal lands on top of reductions already in effect. More than 5.5 million people have already lost SNAP benefits since President Trump enacted cuts to the programme in his July 2025 tax law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, bringing enrolment to about 36 million people, according to USDA data cited by Reuters. The 2025 law cut about $180 billion from SNAP over time and added work requirements.

Some states adopted BBCE only recently. Tennessee, for example, adopted it earlier in 2026, raising the income limit for food assistance to 200% of the poverty line and dropping the asset test for most households. Under the federal proposal, that state-level choice would no longer matter: the federal limits would apply regardless.

This is not the first time the idea has been tried. The first Trump administration proposed a nearly identical rule in 2019. The department later withdrew it. Now it is back, in the same form, with the same target.

What happens next

The proposal is open for public comment for 30 days after publication. Comments are due by 10 December 2026, and can be submitted through the federal rulemaking portal, regulations.gov, by searching for the SNAP categorical eligibility proposal. After the comment period closes, the department reviews the comments and may issue a final rule, change the proposal, or withdraw it.

If the rule is finalised as proposed, it would take effect in stages, reaching its full effect in fiscal year 2029. The department's estimate of 6.3 million people losing benefits is for that year. Legal challenges are likely: the 2019 version drew lawsuits from states and anti-hunger groups, and similar challenges would be expected now.

For the families affected, the practical question is immediate even though the rule is not final. A household that qualifies today through BBCE — because of a modest income above the federal line, or savings above the federal asset limit — would need to meet the federal limits to keep benefits. The department's own figures say that for 3.2 million households, that test would fail.

The proposal is, in the end, a choice about who food assistance is for. The administration says it is for the truly needy, and that standardising eligibility protects the programme. Critics say the families BBCE covers — working households with slightly higher incomes and small savings — are exactly the people food assistance is meant to help, and that removing them punishes the families who did what the system asked: took the extra shift, earned the raise, saved a little. Food banks and anti-hunger groups are already preparing their comments, and state agencies are working out how many of their residents would be affected if the rule is finalised as written. The comment period is where that argument will now be made, in public, before the rule becomes final.

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