WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump signed H.R.1, a Republican spending and tax bill also referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, into law in July 2025. The legislation eliminated all federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program, known as SNAP-Ed.

Federal funding for the program ceased at the end of September 2025. States holding remaining SNAP-Ed funds have until September 2026 to spend the allocated money before the resources are fully extinguished.

The program operated with a budget of $536 million in fiscal year 2025. SNAP-Ed funded initiatives including community cooking classes, farmers markets in low-income neighborhoods, and school nutrition lessons across every U.S. state.

According to the USDA, SNAP-Ed educational programming reached 1.8 million Americans in 2022. The agency described the initiative as the most robust federal nutrition education program in 2018. A report in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior characterized SNAP-Ed as a pillar of the public health infrastructure in the US.

Recent projects supported by the funding included cooking workshops led by indigenous chefs in Southwest Colorado. In Kansas, the program provided meal planning and budgeting classes. A social marketing campaign in Michigan urged parents to model healthy behaviors.

A North Carolina church utilized SNAP-Ed funding to construct a fitness center available for public use at no cost. The Food Trust, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit, used the funds to support its farmers markets and Healthy Corner Store Initiative. The organization trains store owners and provides equipment such as refrigerators, shelving, and signage to promote healthy products.

Elines Olivares is a nutrition educator with The Food Trust. She said the program teaches people about fiber, what they can eat, what they should eat, and lets them have a little taste test of oatmeal.

Sherron Dudley lives across the street from Ray Food Market in Philadelphia. She participated in the educational sessions provided by the nonprofit. She said she had thought honey wheat bread was healthy because it contained wheat, but learned it was not actually a healthy choice.

Dudley adjusted her purchasing habits following the instruction. She said she needed to change her bread.

Tashara Leak is a professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell University. She criticized the elimination of the program in the context of broader administration health goals. She said it did not make sense for an administration promoting Make America Healthy Again efforts focused on decreasing consumption of ultraprocessed foods and encouraging people to eat more fruits and vegetables to eliminate the largest federally-funded nutrition education program that helps achieve those goals.

The White House stated that the law signed by President Trump strengthened SNAP for future generations and provided tax cuts. H.R.1 shifted more SNAP costs to states and tightened eligibility rules for immigrants. The bill expanded work requirements to include older people and parents of teenagers.

The federal government spent $99.8 billion on SNAP in fiscal year 2025. Additional Source 1 states the SNAP program cost $101.7 billion in fiscal 2025. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that SNAP enrollment dropped by more than 4 million people between July 2025 and March 2026.

H.R.1 imposes financial penalties on states with SNAP error rates higher than 6%. States have until the end of September 2026 to lower their error rates before penalties are calculated. Only nine states met the federal standard for SNAP error rates in fiscal 2025.

Nevada recorded a SNAP error rate of 6.22% in fiscal 2025. Additional Source 1 states that more than 10% of SNAP funds were wasted on improper payments in fiscal 2025. The national SNAP error rate increased from 3.2% to nearly 11% over the 12 years prior to 2026, according to Additional Source 1.

During the Flint, Michigan water crisis, the local SNAP-Ed agency helped teach residents with lead-contaminated water how to prepare food safely. Eligibility for the discontinued program extended to low-income people qualifying for means-tested federal assistance programs and residents in communities where at least half the population is low-income.

SNAP-Ed traces its origins to the Food Stamp Act of 1977. Funding for the nutrition education program began in seven states in 1992. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 expanded SNAP-Ed's mission, audience, and focus on obesity prevention. The program was operating in every U.S. state by 2013.

The cessation of federal funding for SNAP-Ed removes a dedicated stream of resources for nutrition education that had operated in all U.S. states. The program had evolved from a pilot initiative in 1992 to a nationwide network addressing obesity prevention and dietary habits among low-income populations. Its elimination coincides with broader changes to the SNAP program, including stricter work requirements and shifted financial responsibilities to state governments.

The law introduces financial penalties for states with high administrative error rates, creating new compliance pressures for state agencies managing benefit distribution. While the White House framed the legislation as a strengthening of SNAP and a provision of tax cuts, critics and state officials have raised concerns about the impact on error rate thresholds and the removal of nutrition education infrastructure. The transition period for states to spend remaining funds and adjust to new error rate standards extends through September 2026.