June 1 marked the start of new eligibility requirements for Americans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The working families tax cuts strengthened the long-term viability of SNAP by requiring able-bodied adults to meet modest work requirements to retain their benefits — with clear exemptions for vulnerable populations. These commonsense reforms protect taxpayer dollars and restore public trust to a system plagued by waste and abuse.

SNAP has ballooned far beyond its original purpose, as enrollment no longer shrinks as much as it should when the economy recovers from a downturn. The rolls of any targeted safety net should expand and contract in response to fluctuating macroeconomic conditions. Instead, even after the economy recovered from COVID-19, loosened eligibility standards kept caseloads near record levels. By 2025, nearly 42 million people remained enrolled, and spending that fiscal year was a whopping 73% higher than in 2019.