County departments of social services review applications, verify eligibility, calculate benefit levels, and manage recertifications for nearly 3 million New Yorkers every month. New York is one of only 10 states where counties administer SNAP, and one of only three — along with New Jersey and North Carolina — where counties pay the full non-federal share of administrative costs alone.

Beginning October 1, 2026, H.R. 1 lowers the federal share of SNAP administrative funding from 50 percent to 25 percent, shifting an estimated $168 million in new annual costs onto New York counties and New York City. This is not a temporary adjustment. It is a permanent structural change to how the program is funded, beginning on a fixed federal timeline regardless of state or local readiness.

The cost shift scales with caseload, but it reaches every county. Greene County expects nearly $245,000 in new costs for the final quarter of 2026 and more than $980,000 annually. Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon has noted that more than 62,000 residents in his county alone rely on SNAP, representing approximately $150 million flowing into the local economy each year — dollars that support grocery stores, farmers, and small businesses across the county.

H.R. 1 also creates a new state-level penalty tied to SNAP payment error rates, effective October 1, 2027. States with error rates above 6 percent must absorb a share of SNAP benefit costs, rising to 15 percent for states above 10 percent. New York's FFY 2024 payment error rate was 14.09 percent. NYSAC estimates the state-level exposure at $1.1 billion annually, with no determination yet on whether any portion would be passed down to counties.

H.R. 1 expands SNAP work requirements for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs), raising the affected age range through 64 and eliminating prior exemptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and former foster youth. County DSS staff must identify affected recipients, track monthly compliance, and process exemptions and documentation — additional casework with no corresponding increase in federal administrative support.

For every meal provided by food banks and partner pantries, SNAP provides nine. During the federal government shutdown in late 2025, disruptions to SNAP benefits produced immediate spikes in demand at food banks across the state. Emergency food providers are not designed to replace a federal benefit serving millions of New Yorkers, and delayed applications or processing under the new cost structure would shift that burden onto an already strained charitable system.

NYSAC and our member counties are urging the New York congressional delegation to introduce or co-sponsor legislation delaying the SNAP administrative cost-sharing formula in H.R. 1 by two years. The proposed change is a single statutory amendment to Section 16(a) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, giving counties time to staff up, upgrade systems, and implement the new requirements without disrupting benefits for the residents who depend on them.