909,000 to 435,000
Arizona’s SNAP caseload dropped from 909,000 to 435,000 people in six months after the One Big Beautiful Bill took effect. That is a 49% decline. 474,000 people in one state stopped receiving food assistance.
909,000 → 435,000. Arizona lost nearly half its SNAP caseload in six months. Food banks report surging demand.
The bill expanded work requirements, eliminated exemptions for people experiencing homelessness and those aging out of foster care, and placed a larger share of program costs onto states. Arizona’s implementation was compounded by cuts to the state agency that administers SNAP, which created backlogs that caused eligible people to be denied or dropped.
The CBPP called Arizona “the alarm bell” for what is coming nationwide. If the national caseload drops at Arizona’s rate, more than 20 million people would lose food assistance.
The People Who Were Dropped
Not everyone who lost SNAP failed to meet the work requirement. Many were dropped for documentation errors, missed deadlines, or system processing failures. The bill mandates that states reduce their payment error rates or face millions in penalties, creating an incentive to cut people from the rolls quickly rather than help them maintain eligibility.
Food providers reported surging demand from families who lost benefits. The food did not go away. The need did not go away. The people who were eating with SNAP assistance are now eating at food banks, or they are not eating.
One Arizonan told WBUR simply, “I have to eat.”
$187 Billion in Cuts
The One Big Beautiful Bill cut $187 billion from SNAP over ten years. Nationwide, 4.3 million people lost benefits in the first six months. CBPP projects 69,600 avoidable deaths by 2040 as a result of the nutritional impact.
The same bill cut $911 billion from Medicaid. The same families losing food assistance are losing healthcare. The same families facing $2,500 more per year in grocery costs from tariffs are the ones who just lost the program that helped them afford groceries.
Read more on the Economy hub and the Medicaid cuts brief.