Food bank in key Trump state dreads effects of SNAP cuts

26 June

U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio react during a press conference at a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman

A food bank director warns more children could go hungry if Senate and House Republicans slash federal food safety nets to fund tax cuts for the top 10 percent of incomes.

Republicans plan an estimated $300 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Assistance to Needy Families, or SNAP program — the largest in U.S. history. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates this could boot millions of children, elderly, disabled from the program, potentially removing about one in nine Ohioans from the program.

However, Cleveland News 5 and the Ohio Capital Journal report changes the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee made to President Donald Trump’s federal budget bill could also count as an unfunded mandate on states and local governments. And critics say committee proposals amount to an attempt to “hassle some of the most vulnerable” off a program designed to reduce hunger.

“There are underlying, systemic threats to the benefits of every eligible person because of the way the reconciliation package is designed,” said Joree Novotny, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks.

In addition to increasing states’ share of SNAP costs from 50 percent to 75 percent, Republicans want to punish states and beneficiaries based on the size of their applicant error rates. Like all states, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and large counties administer the SNAP program by gathering applicants’ information on gross income, family characteristics and living expenses to determine eligibility.

“If at any point in that process, there is any error made at all — if the benefit amount is calculated a dollar too low or a dollar too high — that will count toward the error rate,” said Novotny.

Under Ohio’s most recent error rate, the red state would have to find an additional $473 million a year, according to the Capital Journal.

“An error rate is not fraud. It’s not the fault of the person applying for benefits. It’s a worker or a computer system making an error.” said Novotny, adding Republicans’ plan to force states to pick up even more administrative work and costs would make maintaining current error rates unlikely — and reducing them impossible.

Read the full Cleveland News 5 report at this link.

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