EDITORIAL: Food stamp reforms are already driving changes

Legislative Democrats and Nevada bureaucrats are sounding the alarm about federal food stamp reforms passed in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” This is a dying gasp of the status quo. In fact, the changes made in the legislation to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are already working as intended.

On Wednesday, officials with the Nevada Department of Human Services told an interim legislative committee that more than a quarter of the state’s 505,000 food stamp recipients could lose benefits under the new law. That’s a worst-case scenario. Notably, that includes just 10,000 people who are in the country illegally, a figure that’s likely low. Apparently the rest are improperly receiving benefits or would be unwilling to comply with the popular requirement that able-bodied recipients either work or participate in job training in return for taxpayer support.

DHS officials also pleaded poverty regarding changes that require Nevada and other states to make greater financial commitments to the program. In October 2026, the federal government will reduce its contributions to state SNAP administration costs from 50 percent to 25 percent. That will run Nevada about $19 million annually.

In addition, states will now be on the hook for a portion of benefit costs if their improper payment rate exceeds 6 percent. (Imagine any private-sector company tolerating such inefficiency.) Currently, Washington picks up the entire tab. Nevada’s error rate for 2024, the Nevada Current reports, was 5.94 percent in 2024 but has recently risen to 7 percent, which would earn a penalty amounting to 5 percent of state benefit costs, or $55 million annually.

In fact, this provision makes a great deal of sense. The purpose is to ensure that state officials have an incentive to be as judicious with taxpayer money as possible and to provoke states to root out avenues for waste and fraud in their verification and payment systems. Notably, Kelly Cantrelle, deputy administrator of the Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services, told lawmakers that the state is currently implementing reforms to drive its error rate back below 6 percent.

In other words, the requirement has had the desired effect.

The point of the SNAP reforms in the “big, beautiful bill” is to make the program more efficient to ensure that benefits help American citizens who truly need the assistance. Enforcing strict eligibility guidelines and ensuring that states are motivated to run such programs in a manner that respects fiscal integrity represents a step forward and is a positive for both the taxpayers who fund them and those who depend upon them.