County Officials Tell NACo That They Seek Farm Bill Relief
County officials are expressing concern about the impacts to food programs under provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) (Pub. L. 119-21), and fear that the current Farm Bill (H.R. 7567) working its way through the House of Representatives may not fully address their concerns.
A key provision in OBBBA reduces the federal share of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) administrative costs to 25% from 50% on Oct. 1, shifting the remaining costs to the states. In a recent blog post issued by the National Association of Counties (NACo), this cut will severely impact counties that administer SNAP. For example, Ohio would face a $70 million budget shortfall from the administrative costs alone, and the state’s 88 counties would have to address some $51 million of that shortfall.
Michelle Niedermier, director of the Montgomery County (Ohio) Department of Job and Family Services, told NACo that her county is discussing increasing staffing position to accommodate the added administrative burden SNAP workforce requirements will create and the increase in individuals receiving SNAP since the COVID-19 pandemic (up 14,000 from 2019 to 2025).
“I’m very fortunate to have county commissioners and county administration who understand that if we just instinctively match the cuts with staffing reductions, the [SNAP payment] error rate would be astronomical,” Niedermier said in the NACo blog. “I will say this is a conversation that has been in motion because our numbers did not go back to pre-pandemic levels after unwinding, so our caseloads have already been incredibly large, and I think we’ve reached that tipping point of trying to do more with less.”
OBBBA also requires states with SNAP payment error rates exceeding 6% by Oct. 1, 2027, to cover between 5% and 15% of the benefit cost errors. County officials told NACo they would hope that the Farm Bill would include funding to update technology the counties use to administer SNAP, as errors often stem from using old technology. These county officials are urging Congress to delay the implementation date.
“That 10% [benefit cost error coverage] would be devastating,” Niedermier told NACo. “I truly don’t know how we would make that up in the state of Ohio. We know that that would just be devastating to the population and the vulnerable individuals and families who rely on those funds to help stretch their food budget.”
We will be watching to see what develops under the Farm Bill this year.
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