Senate Republicans failed to include their plan to increase state cost-sharing for the country’s largest nutrition program in their sweeping budget reconciliation bill after the Senate parliamentarian ruled it violated chamber rules.

The Senate parliamentarian late Friday determined that the GOP proposal violated the Byrd Rule, which limits what can be included in the reconciliation process to avoid the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.

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Senate Budget Committee Democrats sent out a press advisory Friday night about the change, according to Politico. 

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has always been entirely federally funded and administered by the states. The Department of Agriculture estimated in fiscal year 2023 that 42.1 million people in the US were SNAP beneficiaries, with the program costing roughly $113 billion in federal spending. 

Shifting some of the costs for SNAP to states was an essential part of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act as it accounted for essential savings to pay for the roughly $67 billion farm subsidy package.

What the measure would have done

The cost-sharing provision, which originated in the House version of the text in May, would have required states to contribute a minimum of 5% of SNAP benefits cost, using a sliding scale based on the percentage of improper payments during the previous year. 

Improper payments refer to over-and-underpayment errors, but in practice, overpayments are exceedingly more common.

Starting in fiscal year 2028, states with improper payment rates between 6% and 8% would have paid for 15% of SNAP benefit costs. Those with up to 10% improper payment rates would be required to pay for 20% of benefits, while those with higher error rates would cover 25% of benefit costs. 

Improper payment rates for SNAP benefits are high across the country, with South Dakota being the only state that has not slipped above the 6% mark since 2003, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 

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In 2023, only seven states — Idaho, Iowa, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming — had improper payment rates below the 6% threshold. More than half of states had improper payment rates over 10%. 

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough also struck down a provision in the “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill that would have removed SNAP eligibility for illegal immigrants.