The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps one in eight Kentuckians keep food on the table, with children, older adults and people with disabilities particularly benefitting from this vital program. In addition to increasing food security, SNAP improves health, reduces health care costs and supports local economies, resulting in almost $1.3 billion spent on groceries at more than 4,700 Kentucky food retailers in 2024. Despite SNAP’s proven effectiveness, however, the recent budget resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives calls for Congress to cut $230 billion over a decade in the committee that oversees SNAP.
There are four proposals under consideration, all of which would take grocery money away from thousands of Kentuckians and our communities across the state. While Congressional leaders claim they won’t cut food benefits directly, the four policies under consideration end eligibility for certain groups or fundamentally change the structure of the program, ultimately resulting in cuts.
Shift funding obligation for SNAP to states
Since SNAP’s creation, benefits have been fully funded by the federal government and nearly 94% of that funding goes directly to food. Among the most harmful proposals for SNAP cuts is to require states to cover some of the cost, which would result in states having to come up with the funds for this new obligation, cut SNAP spending, or create barriers to participation in order to lower costs.
For example, covering just 10% of the cost of SNAP in fiscal year 2026 would cost Kentucky almost $127 million. That would be more than the state spends on preschool each year and the equivalent to benefits for 60,760 participants in the SNAP program.
Requiring state funding would also eliminate the anti-recession effect of SNAP during a downturn. SNAP is currently structured to quickly meet the increased need for food assistance and bring economic relief when state revenues are decreasing. In a downturn, every dollar of SNAP spending results in $1.54 in economic activity starting with grocery stores and farmers but ultimately stimulating entire local economies.
Expand work reporting requirements, and eliminate exceptions
Currently, SNAP participants between 18 and 54 who do not have children in the home or a documented disability are required to report at least 20 hours of work per week or prove they are exempt (for example, if they are unhoused or a veteran). While this work reporting requirement is ineffective at increasing employment, it is very effective at creating paperwork barriers to participating in SNAP. When a narrower version of work reporting requirements was in place during January 2018 and March 2020, over 33,399 Kentuckians lost their food assistance.
Recent congressional proposals would expand this punitive requirement to older adults up to age 65, families with children who are seven years of age or older and several groups that are currently exempt, including the 17,000 veterans who receive food assistance in Kentucky, people experiencing homelessness, youth aging out of foster care and the nearly 62,000 Kentuckians who live in areas without sufficient jobs to meet the requirement.
Take food from Kentuckians if they increase earnings, build savings or have assets
Another long-targeted SNAP policy that Kentucky, along with 40 other states, uses for determining eligibility and benefits is known as broad-based categorical eligibility (BBCE). BBCE allows Kentucky to modestly raise SNAP’s gross income eligibility from 130% of the federal poverty level (FPL) to 200% FPL, although all households must have net incomes below the poverty line after taking certain necessary expenses into account. This policy helps food assistance reach more working families with low incomes and reduces the “benefits cliff.”
BBCE also allows Kentucky to waive the asset test that requires participants to prove they have assets — including various kinds of savings — less than $2,750 (or $4,250 for seniors and people with disabilities). At least 6,459 Kentuckians would lose SNAP if an asset test were reinstituted because of modest savings or assets like cars or family land. Mandating an asset test would also require substantial new costs for the state as all 280,000 SNAP households’ total assets would need to be verified by state caseworkers, an extremely intensive process requiring a large workforce.
Eliminating BBCE would result in more than 23,100 Kentuckians losing SNAP, taking millions of dollars in federal funding out of the state‘s grocery stores, farmers markets and local communities. The consequences of eliminating BBCE are far-reaching with the majority of SNAP participants utilizing BBCE and many schools relying on BBCE-based SNAP participation to qualify for various child nutrition programs.
Restrict what people can purchase with SNAP
Recently, Congress and over 10 states, including Kentucky, have seen proposals to restrict what people can purchase with SNAP benefits. Despite the evidence that SNAP and non-SNAP households have similar shopping patterns, these restrictions create barriers to people with SNAP without improving the availability of affordable healthy options. Such restrictions are unworkable for retailers who may decide it is easier to no longer accept SNAP, reducing all food options for SNAP participants. Additionally, these restrictions create costly red tape for state agencies who would be responsible for defining which of the thousands of new foods each year qualify and enforce these regulations with retailers.
Cutting SNAP would negatively affect all six Kentucky Congressional Districts
The proposed cuts to SNAP come at a time of rising food insecurity and higher grocery prices. Kentucky is already home to 10 of the top 25 worst counties in the nation for food insecurity — Breathitt, Clay, Harlan, Knox, Lee, Lesley, Letcher, Magoffin, Owsley and Wolfe — and nearly 16% of the state population, including one in five children, does not have consistent access to enough food. All four of these SNAP policies would make it harder for families to afford groceries and will result in widespread harm, worsening food insecurity, including among children, hurting local food retailers, farmers, with lingering consequences across our food system.
The effects on children in Kentucky would be especially profound, especially in combination with the proposed cuts to school meal programs that will impact 360,485 kids. SNAP protects almost 225,000 Kentucky children from the lifelong health, academic, and economic impacts of childhood food insecurity. In addition to the food kids receive through SNAP, it also provides a direct link to school meals and meals in the summer through Summer EBT.
By Congressional District, SNAP reaches the following Kentucky households:
- 1st Congressional District (Congressman James Comer): 40,555 households participate in SNAP, or 13.2% of the district, spending a total of $178.90 million in SNAP in 2023.
- 2nd Congressional District (Congressman Brett Guthrie): 34,899 households participate in SNAP, or 11.3% of the district, spending a total of $156.46 million in SNAP in 2023.
- 3rd Congressional District (Congressman Morgan McGarvey): 38,069 households participate in SNAP, or 12% of the district, spending a total of $197.48 million in SNAP in 2023.
- 4th Congressional District (Congressman Thomas Massie): 28,056 households participate in SNAP, or 9.4% of the district, spending a total of $105.56 million in SNAP in 2023.
- 5th Congressional District (Congressman Hal Rogers): 68,468 households participate in SNAP, or 22.5% of the district, spending a total of $323.97 million in SNAP in 2023.
- 6th Congressional District (Congressman Andy Barr): 32,358 households participate in SNAP, or 10.2% of the district, spending a total of $167 million in SNAP in 2023.
