A dramatic decline in SNAP enrollment

Summary

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Marketplace Morning Report: “A Dramatic Decline in SNAP Enrollment”

Podcast: Marketplace Morning Report
Date: July 2, 2026
Host: Kimberly Adams
Correspondent: Nancy Marshall Genzer

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the dramatic decline in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) enrollment following the passage of President Trump’s significant tax and spending law (HR1) nearly a year ago. It analyzes how new eligibility requirements and administrative policies have pushed millions off food assistance and examines the human and bureaucratic challenges driving these trends.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Legislative Context and the SNAP Cliff

• [01:03] Kimberly Adams highlights the anniversary of HR1 and its tougher provisions:

  “Changes in the law make it harder to qualify for programs like food assistance, and some states are already seeing dramatic declines in SNAP enrollment.”

• The law, enacted in July 2025, required new groups of recipients to prove employment, impacting adults without disabilities up to age 64, some foster youth, veterans, and those experiencing homelessness.

2. The Numbers: 4 Million Lose Benefits

• [01:30] Nancy Marshall Genzer reports:

  “Between the law's July 2025 enactment and March of this year, over 4 million people have dropped off SNAP. That's close to 10% of the overall caseload.”
  — Ed Bolen, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
  [01:45]

3. Who’s Affected by the New Work Requirements?

• New eligibility rules mean many must prove employment hours, a process that historically leads to coverage loss due to verification challenges.

  • [02:12] Ed Bolen warns:

    “Historically, we know people lose benefits when they're subjected to that work requirement because they're unable to prove that they're working enough hours to stay eligible.”

• The rules notably extend work verification even to groups like young adults aging out of foster care, veterans, and homeless people.

4. State-Level Administration and Error Rate Penalties

• [02:21] Genzer: New federal rules hold states financially liable if their SNAP eligibility error rate hits 6%.
• [02:33] States, facing new pressure, are “imposing more requirements for benefits, but staffers are overwhelmed by the additional paperwork.”
  — Gina Platanino, Food Research and Action Center

5. Administrative Barriers and Human Stories

• [03:03] Kimberly Adams: Even basic communication is a challenge due to historic agency underfunding:

  “Phones are now being picked up because historically state agencies have been underfunded.”

• [03:08–04:19] Case Study: Dejan Limore

  • After relocating, Limore’s attempts to activate his new Georgia SNAP card faltered when he couldn’t reach local offices by phone and got no resolution in person.

    “Whenever I did go up there, they would hit you with the ‘Oh, we were supposed to call or try to make an appointment’ and it's like no one's answering the phone.”
    — Dejan Limore (SNAP beneficiary) [03:32]

  • Limore lost over $900 in benefits, had to relocate again, and is eating less (mostly soup and crackers) to manage.

    “I do a lot of soup bases as well, so tomato soup, chicken noodle soup, fruit. The crackers with my soup too kind of helps fill up as well.”
    — Dejan Limore [04:11]

6. Federal Response

• [04:19] The Agriculture Department (USDA), which oversees SNAP, declined an interview.
• A spokesperson simply commented:

  “The households receiving SNAP are subject to recertification and therefore the number of individuals receiving benefits is constantly changing.”

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Ed Bolen (CBPP), on work requirements’ impact:

  “Historically, we know people lose benefits when they're subjected to that work requirement because they're unable to prove that they're working enough hours to stay eligible.”
  [02:12]

• Gina Platanino (FRAC), on state struggles:

  “They're imposing more requirements for benefits, but staffers are overwhelmed by the additional paperwork.”
  [02:33]

• Dejan Limore, struggling SNAP recipient:

  “Whenever I did go up there, they would hit you with the ‘Oh, we were supposed to call or try to make an appointment’ and it's like no one's answering the phone.”
  [03:32]

• Limore, on going without:

  “I do a lot of soup bases as well... Crackers with my soup too kind of helps fill up as well.”
  [04:11]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Speaker/Focus | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------|-------------------|-------------| | Episode introduction & theme | Kimberly Adams | 01:03 | | Scope & statistics of SNAP decline | Nancy Genzer | 01:30–01:52 | | New work requirements breakdown | Ed Bolen | 01:52–02:21 | | State-level administrative strain | Platanino/Genzer | 02:21–03:03 | | Human impact case study: Dejan Limore | Limore/Genzer | 03:08–04:19 | | USDA’s limited comment | Genzer/USDA | 04:19 |

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Tone and Style

The reporting is measured and data-driven, offering empathy for people pushed out of SNAP and skepticism toward bureaucratic efficiency. First-person narratives humanize the dry policy context. The hosts and guests speak in clear, accessible language.

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Summary Takeaway

This episode provides a concise but thorough look at how tough new SNAP rules instituted by federal law have triggered a major drop in food assistance nationwide. Paperwork barriers, stricter eligibility checks, and overwhelmed state agencies have all contributed, leaving many vulnerable people without the help they need to put food on the table.

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Transcript

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[Marketplace Morning Report Host]

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[Kimberly Adams]

big, beautiful bill act and more than 250 years of the American economy From Marketplace in Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams. We're just a couple of days shy of the one year anniversary of President Trump signing his big tax and spending bill into law. Changes in the law make it harder to qualify for programs like food assistance, and some states are already seeing dramatic declines in SNAP enrollment. Marketplace's Nancy Marshall Genzer reports the impact

[Nancy Marshall Genzer]

of the huge tax and spending law, also known as HR1, hit SNAP beneficiaries before the law was even a year old. Ed Bolen at the center on Budget and Policy Priorities says between the law's July 2025 enactment and March of this

[SNAP Beneficiary / Interviewee]

year, over 4 million people have dropped off SNAP. That's close to 10% of the overall caseload.

[Nancy Marshall Genzer]

The law now requires new groups of recipients to prove they have a job like adults without a disability up to age 64, who don't live with dependent children, or who live with kids over age 14. Boland says the new requirements also apply to young adults aging out of foster care, veterans and people experiencing homelessness.

[SNAP Beneficiary / Interviewee]

Historically, we know people lose benefits when they're subjected to that work requirement because they're unable to prove that they're working enough hours to stay eligible.

[Nancy Marshall Genzer]

About 85% of SNAP households do include a working adult, according to Census Bureau data. Boland says the drop in SNAP recipients is also due to new rules for states. They decide who qualifies and who doesn't, and sometimes they make mistakes awarding a SNAP applicant too much or too little. Right now the federal government pays for 100% of SNAP benefits, but if a state's error rate reaches 6%, they have to pay part of that cost. Gina Platanino at the Food Research and Action center says that's something the states are taking great pains to avoid. She says they're imposing more requirements for benefits, but staffers are overwhelmed by the additional paperwork.

[Kimberly Adams]

Phones are now being picked up because historically state agencies have been underfunded.

[Nancy Marshall Genzer]

So people who can't get through to state agencies to do that verification lose their SNAP benefits. That happened to 32 year old Dejan Limore. He moved to Georgia from Missouri in late 2024. He'd received SNAP benefits in Missouri but had to reapply in Georg. He did get a benefit card there but couldn't log in to activate it. He couldn't get through to his local SNAP office on the phone, so went

[SNAP Beneficiary / Interviewee]

in person and then whenever I did go up there, they would hit you with the oh, we were supposed to like call or try to make an appointment and it's like no one's answering the phone.

[Nancy Marshall Genzer]

Limor says he never could activate that card, even though he tried for a year. The card is expired now. He thinks it had about $900 on it, money he could have used to feed his seven year old son. Tobias Limor had to leave Georgia and move in with his parents in Kansas. He had a toe amputated due to his diabetes and lost his job helping manage a trailer park. Now he has to apply all over again for SNAP in Kansas while continuing to look for work. In the meantime, he's eating less to save money.

[SNAP Beneficiary / Interviewee]

I do a lot of soup bases as well, so tomato soup, chicken noodle soup, fruit. The crackers with my soup too kind of helps fill up as well.

[Nancy Marshall Genzer]

I wanted to ask someone at the Agriculture Department, which runs snap, why so many people have dropped off of it. They wouldn't do an interview, but I did get a statement from a US FDA spokesperson which says the households receiving SNAP are subject to recertification and quote Therefore the number of individuals receiving benefits is constantly changing. I'm Nancy Marshall Genser for Marketplace.

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[Kimberly Adams]

week we're marking the nation's 250th anniversary by looking back at some of the defining moments and trends that shaped the American economy. So far this week we've covered the nation's first century from its founding through the Civil War. After the devastation of that conflict, the United States entered a turbulent period of reconstruction as the country attempted to stitch itself back together politically and integrate 4 million formerly enslaved black Americans. The post war economy. Key to that economic recovery was the rapid expansion of and investment in railroads. According to the Library of Congress, there were only about 45,000 miles of railroad in the US prior to 1871. Between that point and 1900, another 170,000 miles were laid. William J. Collins is a professor of economics at Vanderbilt University.

[William J. Collins]

I think the very peak years of railroad line production happens in the 1880s. And so you're kind of in the midpoint of that transportation revolution in the United States that really knitted regions closer together with obvious economic implications for interregional trade.

[Kimberly Adams]

Inter regional mobility around this time, a generation of settlers keen to expand west leaned into the concept of Manifest Destiny but ran into a Native population already settled and cultivating the land. What followed was a campaign, a forced relocation that brought about the Indian removal Act of 1830. It confiscated native land in existing US states and moved Native Americans to unsettled land. That removal, including the Trail of Tears, displaced or killed tens of thousands of Native Americans.

[William J. Collins]

The rules of the game, in a sense, are being changed unilaterally by the federal government of the United States, putting indigenous nations at a disadvantage. And so they're ceding more and more land with this sort of threat in the background that if the land isn't ceded it may just be taken. And so as a consequence, indigenous nations are being kind of rolled back further and further west over time.

[Kimberly Adams]

Then in the early 20th century came World War I, which reshaped the labor force as workers moved to industrial jobs in the Northeast and upper Midwest.

[William J. Collins]

That tends to pull a lot of Southern migrants, including a lot of Southern black migrants, into these labor markets. And so the great migration of black Americans begins in this. In this period with World War I.

[Kimberly Adams]

That's William J. Collins, a professor of economics at Vanderbilt University. Tomorrow, we'll look at how the prosperity and rapid growth of the early 20th century gave way to the Great Depression. In Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams with the Marketplace Morning Report. From APM American Public Media.

[Amy Scott]

I'm Amy Scott, host of How We Survive, a podcast about the messy business of climate solutions. To a lot of people, geoengineering might seem like a dangerous, outlandish way to play God, but some are embracing this sci fi inspired approach as a solution to the climate crisis.

[SNAP Beneficiary / Interviewee]

We're gonna launch some balloons and send them into the stratosphere.

[Nancy Marshall Genzer]

A constellation of sunshades would cast an

[SNAP Beneficiary / Interviewee]

even dimming of shade across the entire Earth.

[Nancy Marshall Genzer]

Investing that much in building anything in

[SNAP Beneficiary / Interviewee]

space creates a whole space economy.

[Amy Scott]

Listen to How We Survive on your favorite podcast.

[Marketplace Morning Report Host]

Applause.