Senate Farm Bill Would Delay SNAP Cost-Sharing for States

Why It Matters

A Senate Agriculture Committee draft 2026 farm bill would delay the onset of state cost-sharing for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by one year, according to a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) analysis.

The fiscal year 2025 budget reconciliation law (P.L. 119-21) requires states with a payment error rate of 6 percent or higher to pay a share of SNAP benefit costs, with benefit cost-sharing scheduled to begin October 1, 2027 (fiscal year 2028), and the state share of administrative costs increased to 75 percent, effective October 1, 2026.

The Senate draft would delay benefit cost-sharing by one year and modify how states calculate their obligations, but the House-passed 2026 farm bill contains no such modifications, leaving the reconciliation law's schedule intact absent further legislative action.

The Big Picture

The reconciliation law fundamentally alters how SNAP operates by conditioning state funding contributions on accuracy. States with payment error rates below 6 percent face no benefit cost-sharing. Those with error rates between 6 and 7.99 percent pay 5 percent of benefits, rising to 10 percent for rates between 8 and 9.99 percent, and 15 percent for rates of 10 percent or higher. The payment error rate, derived from the SNAP quality control system, measures the dollar value of both overpayments and underpayments issued by each state.

Most states and territories reported fiscal year 2025 payment error rates above the 6 percent threshold and would face cost-sharing obligations. Alaska recorded a 23.15 percent error rate, the District of Columbia 18.66 percent, and New Mexico 16.81 percent. Only a small number of jurisdictions fell below the threshold, including South Dakota at 2.47 percent, Idaho at 3.85 percent, and Wyoming at 3.96 percent.

The benefit cost-sharing schedule includes built-in delays for high-error states. Those with estimated fiscal year 2025 error rates of 13.33 percent or higher defer their obligations until FY2029. Similarly, states exceeding 13.33 percent in fiscal year 2026 delay until fiscal year 2030. For fiscal year 2028, each state's cost-sharing percentage will be based on the lower of its FY2025 or FY2026 error rate. Beginning in fiscal year 2029, rates will reflect performance from three fiscal years prior.

The Senate Agriculture Committee did not advance its farm bill draft to the full Senate before recessing, but the proposal would have delayed benefit cost-sharing until fiscal year 2029 and allowed states to use the lower of fiscal year 2026 or fiscal year 2027 error rates for that year's calculation. It would also have increased the maximum state share from 15 percent to 20 percent beginning in fiscal year 2031 for high-error jurisdictions. The draft would not have modified the administrative cost-sharing increase already in effect.

The Bottom Line

The divergence between chambers on this issue, combined with the Trump administration's silence on implementation details, creates uncertainty for state budgets and program operations with less than 14 months until benefit cost-sharing begins.

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