On July 4, after months of legislative wrangling between the White House, House of Representatives, and the Senate, President Trump signed a sweeping domestic policy bill into law. This legislation will have far-reaching and, in many cases, deeply harmful impacts across a broad range of issues championed by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Among the most damaging provisions are deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a vital support system that helps 42 million people put food on the table.
The bill slashes SNAP by more than $100 billion, which is a devastating blow to families trying to make ends meet. But there’s more to the story than the cuts themselves. The legislation also raises serious concerns about whether Congress will be able to pass a new food and farm bill this year—or even in 2026.
How the Bill Impacts SNAP
The bill made several major changes to SNAP. A few of the lowlights:
- Massive funding cuts. SNAP funding is cut by more than $100 billion.
- Shifting costs to states. For the first time, states will be required to cover a portion of SNAP’s food benefit costs, based on each state’s SNAP error rate percentage—which may be difficult for them to do.
- Thrifty Food Plan restrictions. Updates to the Thrifty Food Plan, which is used to calculate SNAP benefits, are now limited to once every five years and must be cost-neutral, potentially locking in inadequate benefit levels.
- Stricter work requirements. The legislation imposes stricter work requirements on able-bodied adult recipients without young children.
These changes will leave many more people without the support they need.
Ripple Effects on the Food and Farm Bill
SNAP cuts are bad enough on their own, but they also throw a wrench into efforts to pass a new food and farm bill.
The current food and farm bill was initially intended to be written and signed into law back in 2023. Usually, Congress reauthorizes the bill about every five years with broad bipartisan support. But that didn’t happen last time around, when Republicans in the House and Democrats in the Senate couldn’t reach an agreement. Instead, Congress has repeatedly kicked the can down the road by passing two one-year extensions, the latest of which will expire in September 2025.
There was some last-minute momentum on the food and farm bill last year, leading to the hope that we might actually see legislation passed and signed into law to continue support for agriculture and nutrition programming. The House Agriculture Committee advanced a bill in May that UCS did not support, and the Senate released its own version later that year, but neither bill moved forward before Congress adjourned in 2024.
Now, with Republicans controlling the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House, a new food and farm bill should theoretically be easier to pass—though we expect it would have provisions that UCS could not support. However, the gutting of SNAP has caused the landscape to shift: The longstanding coalition of food and farm advocates that helped get previous legislation enacted—farmers, rural groups, and anti-hunger groups—is in tatters, seriously threatening the possibility of Congress passing a long-overdue bipartisan food and farm bill anytime soon.
Currently, it’s unclear whether Democratic lawmakers who vehemently opposed the devastating SNAP cuts and other changes to the program will be willing to come together with Republicans, who supported these cuts in President Trump’s domestic policy bill, to negotiate on a new food and farm bill.
An Unclear Path Forward
House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-PA) is now talking about moving ahead this year with a “farm bill 2.0” or “skinny” farm bill, a scaled-back version of the traditional bill—but this may be a hard sell for many Democrats. The budget bill used funding it took away from SNAP to pay for additional farm subsidies on some commodity crops, which will primarily benefit a small group of relatively wealthy farmers. So a new skinny farm bill would likely not include traditional sections on SNAP and commodities, since those were already dealt with in the budget bill.
As a result of these decisions and the ill will they have created, there may be little incentive for Democrats who opposed SNAP cuts to come to the table—and several have already vowed that they won’t. Still, some House Democrats—particularly those facing tough re-election contests in 2026—have expressed openness to negotiating a scaled-back food and farm bill later this year.
So where does this leave us? Has Trump’s domestic policy bill blown up the traditional alliance between agriculture and nutrition advocates to the point where passing even a skinny farm bill is now out of reach? And if one does move forward, likely based on the 2024 House proposal opposed by UCS, will it be a bill worth passing?
We may not know the answers to these questions just yet, but the next few months will be critical in shaping what happens next. As this process moves ahead, it is vital to make your voices heard! Contact your members of Congress and urge them to fight for a food and farm bill that prioritizes conservation, climate, agriculture research, protections for food and farm workers, equity, and robust nutrition programs like SNAP.
Stay tuned for the next chapter in the seemingly never-ending food and farm bill saga.