Rep. Grijalva Introduces Amendments to Address Harmful SNAP State Cost-Shift Driving Arizonans Off Food Assistance
473,793 Arizonans, including 205,223 children, have lost SNAP benefits
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Adelita S. Grijalva introduced two amendments to the FY2027 Agriculture Appropriations bill to address harmful impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Arizonans losing access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
The OBBBA imposed new financial penalties on states that administer SNAP if they exceed a 6 percent payment error rate. The State of Arizona estimates those penalties could cost the state between $100 million and $300 million annually.
Importantly, the SNAP payment error rate does not measure fraud, abuse, or misuse of the program. Instead, it measures whether households received the exact benefit amount for which they were eligible under SNAP's complex eligibility rules. The error rate includes both overpayments and underpayments. Compounding the problem, USDA has not publicly released internal methodology it uses to calculate these error rates, making it difficult for states to object to their calculations.
Since the passage of the OBBBA last July, 473,793 Arizonans, including 205,223 children, have lost SNAP benefits—the largest decline in SNAP participation of any state and roughly a 50 percent reduction in enrollment. In April, Rep. Grijalva first raised the alarm of the significant decline in SNAP enrollment in Arizona.
"To help pay for reckless wars overseas and tax breaks for the wealthy, this administration is taking food off the tables of working families trying to feed their children,” said Rep. Grijalva. “We know that eligible Arizonans – including children – have been kicked off SNAP because of this policy. This provision was never about preventing fraud. It is a backdoor attempt to slash food assistance by pushing astronomical costs onto states, which is exactly what’s happening. I will continue to adamantly oppose any unnecessary cost-shifting by USDA to the states."
Rep. Grijalva's first amendment would require USDA to calculate SNAP payment error rates in accordance with existing federal regulations, which specifically excludes administrative deficiencies such as a missing application or overdue recertification, from the payment error rate. Her second amendment would require USDA to publicly disclose the methodology it uses to calculate those error rates, providing states with the transparency needed to address inconsistencies from USDA. Unfortunately, the amendments were not accepted in the final version of the bill passed by House Republicans on Thursday evening.
The following organizations joined Rep. Grijalva in highlighting the need to abandon this harmful provision of the OBBBA:
"The House Agriculture Appropriations bill fails to provide the transparency states will need as they prepare to implement the harmful SNAP cost-share requirements in H.R. 1,” said Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC). “Without amendments that would have mandated USDA to share information about how it calculates SNAP Quality Control and Payment Error Rates, states will be left without critical information that reveals how potential penalties may be assessed. This creates insurmountable uncertainty as they prepare for new financial obligations, while still administering a program that millions of people rely on to put food on the table."
“Arizona is in a hunger and food affordability crisis,” said Drew Schaffer, Executive Director of the William E. Morris Institute for Justice. “Families and kids are going without food because of H.R. 1, including its penalties that hurt state budgets. We need government leaders to step up and make sure food assistance reaches Arizonans. That should be everyone’s highest priority right now. Getting food assistance to people is the core purpose of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. H.R. 1’s poorly designed use of the federal payment error rate to shift SNAP costs and burdens to states is harmful.”
"Arizona has become the clearest warning sign of what happens when federal policymakers shift costs and complexity onto states instead of protecting families’ access to food,” said Joseph Palomino, Director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress. “Nearly half a million Arizonans — including more than 205,000 children — have already lost SNAP, not because they stopped needing help, but because a harmful policy is making it harder for eligible families to stay connected to the assistance they need. Payment error rates are not a measure of fraud, and they should not be used as a pretext to punish states, drive people off food assistance, or take food off the tables of Arizona families.”
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