Tonight, I’m catching a flight to Washington, D.C. to meet with staffers of Missouri’s congressional delegation and express Missourians’ opposition to the $300 billion in proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Congress’s “one big, beautiful bill.” Empower Missouri’s focus has traditionally been on state-level policy, but the proposed cuts to Medicaid and SNAP would be so damaging to families earning low wages across the state that we feel that we have no choice but to join thousands of other advocates across the country in organizing opposition to these changes.
Two weeks ago, my colleague Lucas Caldwell-McMillan wrote an excellent piece detailing the myriad of federal policy changes being considered by the Trump administration that would have a devastating impact on families living in poverty. It’s a great primer, and I highly recommend giving it a read. Today, I’d like to dig a little bit deeper into all of the proposed changes to the SNAP program and how they would impact the 620,000 Missourians (1 in 10 Missouri residents) who benefit from this program each year.
The proposal has two major provisions that I’d like to unpack. (If you’re interested in a more detailed analysis of all of the provisions and their impact on Missouri, you can review a report issued jointly last week by Empower Missouri and Missouri Budget Project.) The first major change is a substantial shifting of program costs from the federal government to state governments. Currently, the federal government covers 100% of the grocery benefit provided to SNAP-eligible households as well as 50% of the administrative costs of the program. The new proposal would require states to cover 75% of the administrative costs and somewhere between 5% and 25% of the grocery benefits, based on each state’s individual error rate (a calculation of underpayments and overpayments from an audited sample of SNAP case files). Based on Missouri’s most recent error rate, we would fall into the 25% bucket, forcing the state to find an additional $400M to pay for SNAP on an annual basis. The federal government has proposed no plan for if Missouri does not have the funding available in their state budget to pay for SNAP. We’re deeply concerned about the possibility of Missouri being unable to contribute their new share and all of our citizens being pushed out of the program as a result.
The second major change is an expansion of work requirements and time limits for SNAP recipients. Under current SNAP rules, most adults aged 18 through 54 without children in their household can receive food benefits for just three months in a three-year period unless they show compliance with a 20-hour-per-week work requirement or prove they qualify for an exemption, such as having a disability. The new proposal expands these work requirements with the harsh and ineffective 3-month time limit to include both parents or grandparents living with children 7 or older (unless caring for the child while both married to and living with an adult meeting the work rules) and older adults aged 55 through 64.
Decades of research shows that work requirements do not increase employment or earnings. It is particularly cruel to expand work hours tracking requirements for adults between 55 and 64, as older adults often face additional barriers to employment, such as age-related hiring discrimination, which may heighten their risk of being cut off of SNAP. Additionally, more than half of low-income adults in this age range report a health barrier to work.
We also do not believe that the Missouri Department of Social Services has the capability to appropriately manage additional work hours tracking requirements. A federal judge recently issued a court order clearly stating that Missouri is out of compliance with federal law in its administration of the SNAP program. Judge Harpool wrote, “Missourians who are eligible for SNAP benefits have continued to endure wholly unacceptable bureaucratic telephone wait times and benefit denials solely because of the inadequacy of the system. In short, food challenged Missourians who clearly qualify for SNAP benefits have gone hungry due to Defendant’s deficiencies in administering the program.” As of March 2025, the average wait time to complete the mandated intake interview for SNAP is over an hour, and a shocking 48.22% of SNAP applications were rejected solely for failure to complete the interview and not based on any other qualifying factor. If more staff from the obviously overburdened call center have to spend their time checking the work hours tracking of older adults and busy parents, we can expect that even more Missourians in need will be denied the food benefits they so desperately need.
Over the last ten days, we’ve gathered signatures from nearly 500 organizations and individuals in Missouri who oppose cuts to SNAP. In closing, I’d like to share some of their comments that they’ve asked us to pass along to our representatives in DC:
- Food prices are skyrocketing and it is incredibly hard to afford food without financial assistance. The need is not going to disappear because the funding is gone. The funding cuts shift the burden of feeding those experiencing poverty to your local nonprofits and social services agencies who have already had their funding cut / are in danger of going out of business. It is heartless in these economic times to starve our community members that are struggling.
- There are a lot of poor people in my community who depend on SNAP for their families. Stop giving tax breaks to the rich and corporations; cut the military budget; then there will be plenty of money to fund SNAP and other programs for working-class families. The SNAP program is the bare minimum that the government owes the less fortunate, anyway. To not even provide that in the richest country in the world—and one that invariably bails out banks and corporations, in addition to providing other generous corporate welfare schemes at the expense of working-class taxpayers—would be a national disgrace.
- It is cruel. Not fully funding programs that reduce poverty and starvation are choices we make with taxpayer money. These people need taxpayer dollars far more than billionaires do. We need to do the right things and lead with compassion not wealth gain.
- SNAP isn’t just a safety net—it’s a springboard. It moves people out of poverty and into stability by offering breathing room during life’s most difficult transitions—like the death of a loved one, a natural disaster, job loss, or reentry after incarceration. It’s an investment in human dignity and in the long-term economic mobility of Missourians working hard to get back on their feet. These cuts would disproportionately affect justice-involved individuals, people with disabilities, veterans, and families with children—all groups we support through our programming. They would also increase strain on local food pantries and nonprofits like ours, which are already operating at full capacity. SNAP is a foundational support that stabilizes individuals and strengthens entire communities. Cutting it will not only increase hunger, but also undermine public safety, worsen health outcomes, and stall progress toward independence for thousands of Missourians.
- I am a social worker who works solely with low-income clients. Cuts to SNAP would prevent my clients from receiving the nutrition they need. For many of them, SNAP is their sole source of nutrition, often despite their working full-time. Cuts to SNAP would threaten their ability to feed themselves and their families.
- Cutting SNAP doesn’t just take away meals—it takes away stability, health, and hope. If Congress reduces funding or imposes harsher restrictions, we’ll see more hunger in our schools, higher health care costs from poor nutrition, and more pressure on already strained food banks. I’m asking you to stand up for SNAP and the people who depend on it. We need leaders who will fight for programs that reduce poverty and reflect our values of compassion, dignity, and fairness.
- SNAP is an important part of how we care for the most vulnerable of our population- our children! Our future deserves access to healthy food to stimulate mental, physical, and developmental growth. Food is a basic need that is due to all Americans.
- Those with power need to lead by example. Don’t cut services from people who can’t afford to live, and literally won’t eat without this. Don’t contribute to the false narrative that poverty is a moral or personal failing. Those using this service are some of the hardest working people in our communities. They deserve to know they can feed their families even when they are not paid a living wage.
- SNAP is a lifeline for over 130,000 senior Missourians who rely on this support to afford basic nutrition. Many of these individuals live on fixed incomes, face rising healthcare, utility, and housing costs, and often must choose between food and medicine. SNAP helps ensure they do not go hungry.
- I was on SNAP as a teen with my family and we would have starved without it. It gave us a boost when we needed it most.
- As a long-term social worker I have seen the power of SNAP to enhance the lives of the persons who benefit from this program. I have friends and family members who receive these benefits which make it possible for them to eat regularly. As a recent retiree on limited income (work in social services does not enhance wealth accumulation), there may come a time when I may benefit from SNAP. SNAP feeds children, families, persons with disabilities, and the elderly. It’s a program that works well at a relatively low cost to our government. Why wouldn’t the ‘wealthiest country in the world’ want to feed its needy?
Spanish 
English