Florida needs to pony up another $50.6 million to help administer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, members of a House health care spending panel were told this week.
The additional money is needed as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill and Congress’ decision to reduce spending on the SNAP program by $156 billion over a decade. To help accomplish that goal, Congress reduced the federal government’s share of the program’s administrative costs from 50% to 25% effective Oct. 1, 2026.
Congress increased the states’ share of administrative costs from 50% to 75% resulting in the need for an additional $50.6 million.
Department of Children and Families (DCF) Assistant Secretary for Administration Chad Barrett tried to soften the financial blow in his appearance before the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee Tuesday.
“Please keep in mind Florida has the lowest administrative rate in the country, which is $13 per case per month, which puts Florida in the top percentile compared to all other states,” Barrett said.
SNAP is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s program that offers nutrition assistance to eligible, low-income individuals and families in the form of funds to purchase eligible food. As of October, more than 2.7 million Floridians in more than 1.5 million households participated in SNAP, Barrett said.
DCF, which administers the SNAP program, included the $50.6 million funding request in its proposed legislative budget request for state fiscal year 2026-27. Although it’s just a wish list, an agency legislative budget request can foreshadow spending priorities in the governor’s proposed budget.
Gov. Ron DeSantis will release his budget for state fiscal year 2026-27 sometime this month. The Legislature is not bound by the governor’s budget but can use the blueprint to guide its spending decisions.
Barrett explained that most of the amount ($34.7 million, or 69%) will cover the salaries and benefits of employees who help the program run — working at the call center, reviewing applications, overseeing investigations and benefits recovery. Another $9 million will be spent on contracted services, such as fraud detection and identity verification.
“I know we use the term administration a lot in this presentation, with the largest impact around staff and the tools required for them to complete their job requirements. But these are frontline staff providing support to Floridians in need and the department does not consider this workforce a true administrative component,” he said.
The $50.6 million is an estimate for annual recurring costs. But because the funding shift doesn’t take effect until Oct. 1 (three months after the start of the state fiscal year) it will only increase the state’s costs by $38 million next year.
Nevertheless, Barrett stressed the need for the full infusion.
“Any change to the legislative budget request to the $50.6 million could directly impact the state’s overall performance and the eligible Floridians we support,” he said.
Barrett’s presentation was limited to the shift in administrative costs under the One Big Beautiful Bill and its hit to Florida.
But that didn’t stop some committee members from pressing him about another change in the One Big Beautiful Bill that will affect Florida. The bill requires states with high SNAP error rates to contribute to the costs of the food benefits. States with error rates below 6% won’t be required to contribute to the costs.
Error rates include under- and overpayments. Florida’s error rate in 2024 was more than 15%, the majority of which were categorized as overpayments.
Unless lowered, Florida would be required to contribute to 15% of the costs of the food benefit, or an estimated $1 billion, in 2027.
Committee Vice Chair Karen Gonzalez Pittman, a Tampa Republican, asked Barrett whether there could be a connection between the state’s low SNAP administrative costs and a high error rate.
“So, you are saying we have lean administrative costs; we’re lean. But yet we are going to have to pay billions because of the error rate. So, would it be better to have better administration than to pay out penalties?” she asked.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
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