SNAP (Food Stamps) SNAP

The Food Stamp Act of 1964, signed August 31, 1964, made a Depression-era pilot permanent, and the program was renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in 2008. Households with low incomes and limited assets receive a monthly benefit loaded on an electronic benefit transfer card, usable at grocery stores and farmers markets for food but not alcohol, hot prepared food, or nonfood items. The Agriculture Department's Food and Nutrition Service sets the rules and pays for benefits, while states enroll people and share the administrative costs.

Benefits are based on the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan, a model low-cost diet, minus 30 percent of a household's net income, and averaged roughly 190 dollars per person a month in 2025. Participation rises in recessions and falls in recoveries, peaking near 48 million in 2013. Adults ages 18 to 54 without dependents had long been limited to three months of benefits in three years unless they worked or trained 20 hours a week. When a government shutdown cut off funding in November 2025, benefits were delayed for millions until courts and the end of the shutdown restored them.

The 2025 budget law extended the work rules to adults up to age 64 and to parents of children 14 and older, ended exemptions for veterans, homeless people, and former foster youth, cut eligibility for many refugees and other noncitizens, raised states' share of administrative costs to 75 percent starting October 2026, and will require states with high error rates to pay part of benefit costs starting in fiscal 2028. Participation fell to about 36 million by July 2026, down about 6 million since January 2025. Supporters say the changes promote work and accountability, while critics say they cut food aid to people who cannot find steady work. Several states also won waivers to bar purchases of soda and candy.