More than 400,000 Arizonans have lost their SNAP benefits since July — the largest drop in the country, by far — as an underfunded state agency administered changes called for in President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
That drop represents nearly 47 percent of the state’s participants in the program better known as food stamps and affects about 180,000 children, according to the Arizona Department of Economic Security, which administers the program.
Wednesday, the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities published data through February, showing that the reduction in Arizona has far exceeded other states. After Arizona, the largest loss of participants was in Florida, where fewer than 16% of recipients lost their benefits since July, according to the center’s analysis.
Arizona officials attribute the drop in caseloads to the rapid implementation of policy changes mandated by the bill, including new work requirements.
But interviews suggest that Arizona’s efforts to comply, combined with cuts to the agency that runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, contributed to the decline — making it harder to apply and causing eligible people to be turned away. The state’s decline has exceeded previous screenings.
“Arizona is just a wake-up call,” said Joseph Palomino, executive director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress, a nonpartisan advocacy organization. “This is probably going to happen in every state.”
The bill, which shifts more of the program’s costs to states, expanded work requirements for some beneficiaries and removed work exemptions for others, such as people who are homeless or out of foster care.
Additionally, the bill requires states to reduce their payment error rates — which measure the accuracy of eligibility and payment determinations — or face multimillion-dollar penalties. Although some changes won’t take full effect until the fall, experts say Arizona’s experience suggests people are already going hungry because of the law changes.
Charisma Garcia, a 25-year-old mother of two, has been trying for months to get an interview to fill out a SNAP application. After weeks of calling the agency only to receive a recorded message, she woke up before sunrise recently to wait in line at an Arizona Department of Economic Security office in south Phoenix.
A security guard told her the agency didn’t do in-person interviews, so she went to a food bank. She needed to feed her children aged 3 and 6.
“I have to do what gives me nourishment,” she said.
Brett Bezio, a DES spokesperson, said the agency is focused on reducing the state’s error rate to ensure “the program remains a stable resource for vulnerable Arizonans.” Although Arizona rate of 8.8% is lower than the national average, new federal regulations require it to be reduced to 6%. If authorities do not reduce the rate, Arizona could face penalties of $195.4 million in two years, which is more than double the amount paid to operate the program. The ministry said it expects participation to stabilize in the coming months.
The choices Arizona makes are “a reality that every state faces,” said Katie Bergh, senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Congress created a “terrible incentive” by requiring states to reduce their error rates and take on more of the program’s costs, she said.
Nationally, SNAP enrollment fell 8% between December 2024 and December 2025, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimateswhich runs SNAP. Trump presented it as a success.
“We took 3.3 million Americans off food stamps” ” he said, referring to the numbers since he took office. “It’s a record.”
Arizona has seen the largest decline in SNAP participation of any state since Congress passed the Megabill
The state posted monthly declines after the bill took effect July 4.
Asked about the sharp decline in SNAP participants, Gov. Katie Hobbs’ press secretary Liliana Soto blamed Trump administration policies, which have “increased bureaucracy and red tape for states across the country, and forced DES to take difficult but necessary steps to reduce the state’s payment error rate.” The Hobbs administration is taking these steps “to avoid staggering fines of hundreds of millions of dollars that would further jeopardize food assistance for vulnerable Arizonans,” Soto said in a statement.
But other factors made Arizona’s situation worse. In 2021, the state legislature, then Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, passed a flat 2.5% income tax, largely benefiting the wealthy, forcing more than a billion dollars spending cuts and fund swaps to balance the state budget in subsequent years. (Ducey defends flat tax as necessary to ensure the state continues to be competitive and “a jobs magnet and opportunity generator.”)
Last summer, DES too laid off around 500 employees in response to the elimination of federal subsidies and in anticipation of additional federal cuts. Officials said about 160 eligibility specialists lost their jobs, a 40% drop since July 2024.
In December, Hobbs, a Democrat, allocated $7.5 million at DES, most of which was used to hire more than 100 workers and increase overtime to process SNAP cases. A spokesperson said claims are also slowed by the “1980s technology” used to administer benefits.
Hobbs asked. An additional $48.4 million in its 2027 budget proposal to help the department administer SNAP. The most recent federal data, from 2023shows the state is spending $70 million to operate the $2 billion program.
Meanwhile, some applicants for SNAP aid told ProPublica that their applications remain in limbo, sometimes for months.
Garcia, a mother of two, said she will continue to try to get the benefits. She is looking for work as a cook after being laid off from a car wash in January. Her family lives with her grandparents, where shopping is shared between six people.
Sometimes her 3-year-old son pats her belly when he’s hungry for his favorite fruits like strawberries. Sometimes she hasn’t received fruit in the boxes she receives from the food bank.
“I’m in trouble,” she said. “I’m having trouble.
