SNAP Reform and Upward Mobility Act of 2025

This bill updates how the U.S. measures poverty and makes several changes to SNAP. It tells the Census Bureau to collect more complete data on income, taxes, and the value of cash and non‑cash benefits, publish new tables each year, and add an alternative poverty measure starting in 2027. A temporary expert commission would advise how to value non‑cash benefits, and states would send yearly reports to federal agencies listing each household’s head and how much in benefits they received; strict privacy rules apply, and illegal sharing can bring fines up to $300,000 or five years in prison. These data changes do not alter who qualifies for benefits, and the new data cannot be used to redefine the official poverty line; GAO would compare results beginning in 2028 .

It also refocuses SNAP on work and program integrity. It adds to SNAP’s purpose: increasing employment, encouraging healthy marriage, and promoting self‑sufficiency. Work rules tighten (for example, in‑person supervised job search would count), some waiver flexibilities are narrowed, and a state exemption is reduced from 15% to 5%; married parents with children over 6 would not have to meet more total hours than a single parent, and a prior minimum‑wage‑based limit is removed for certain work activities . “Food” is limited to items the federal agency deems essential. Anti‑fraud steps include requiring cooperation with investigations, limiting who may use an EBT card (with suspensions for repeat unauthorized use), yearly re‑checks for stores at higher fraud risk, and annual state activity reports. States must permanently disqualify retailers convicted of trafficking or trading benefits for guns, ammo, explosives, or drugs, with limited use of civil fines instead when cutting off a store would harm access or when the owner had strong safeguards; states must report these cases. States would start sharing SNAP administrative costs (rising from 10% in 2025 to 50% by 2033) and could keep up to 50% of recovered funds, using amounts above 35% for fraud work; USDA must also report on job‑training outcomes like job placement, retention, and wages over time .

• Who is affected

  • People who receive SNAP; state SNAP agencies; food retailers that take EBT; the Census Bureau and USDA .

• What changes

  • Better poverty tracking with new data and an added measure in 2027; strict privacy protections and penalties; GAO comparisons from 2028 .
  • SNAP work rules tighten; “food” limited to essential items; stronger EBT user rules and retailer penalties; annual state activity reports .
  • States share more SNAP admin costs and keep more recovered funds for fraud work; USDA reports on job‑training outcomes .

• When

  • Data collection begins in 2025; the added poverty measure appears in 2027; GAO comparisons start in 2028; state cost‑sharing ramps from 2025 to 2033; the USDA training‑outcomes report is due within one year of enactment .