SNAP Enrollment Drops by 4.3M, Experts Blame Policy Shifts

0:00On May 1st, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a drop of 4.3 million people from the food stands program, known as SNAP, between January 2025 and January 2026. She credits this to cracking down on fraud, kicking off folks who didn't qualify, and a stronger economy with wages beating inflation. Experts push back hard, pointing instead to major changes in a huge Republican bill from last summer called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That law slashes $186 billion from SNAP, over 10 years, and adds tougher rules to join or stay in the program. Fraud isn't the big culprit here last year. Only about 41,000 people got booted for it, less than 1% of all participants. Sure, the economy grew at 2% early this year after a rough patch, but food prices jumped 3.1% in 2025, and poverty sticks around for millions, no matter what. The bill ramps up work requirements, making able-bodied adults without kids work 80 hours

1:02a month, even up to age 64 now. It cuts exemptions for groups like the homeless, veterans, and young ex-foster kids, and boots refugees and Asalis too. The Congressional Budget Office saw this coming, predicting a 2.4 million average monthly drop. Bottom line, researchers say these policy shifts explain the plunge, not some fraud bust or boom times, folks are just finding the program tougher too, tap into amid real hardships. Global news today, powered by AI bringing you what matters worldwide.