Officials in Trump-voting North Carolina say new requirements under President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful bill will place significant financial and administrative burdens on local SNAP operations, reports WTVD. The new strain arrives as state staff work desperately with growing demand and limited resources.
Read more Companies that told Trump to get lost outperformed competitors that caved: study
A provision of Trump’s law — that state Republicans did not like to talk about during its passage out of the Republican-controlled U.S. House and Senate — will increase costs associated with administering the state’s SNAP program beginning in October 2026.
“County officials said the federal government’s share of those administrative costs will be reduced, leaving states responsible for a larger portion. North Carolina is passing those costs on to counties,” reports WTVD. “Those costs are estimated at $69 million annually for counties statewide.”
“We won’t have the funds to do that,” said Latoya Chambers, assistant director of the Family Economic Independence Division.
Chambers added that state concerns extend beyond expanded administrative costs. Beginning in October 2027, states with SNAP payment error rates of 6 percent or higher will be required to pay a portion of benefit costs.
To fund the extension of Trump’s controversial tax cuts, H.R. 1 punishes states for accounting errors, even if the errors are not intended. County staff must also implement new beneficiary requirements and policies under H.R. 1. The changes include expanded work requirements, changes to noncitizen eligibility, and additional eligibility checks and recertifications.
“We’ve seen an influx of people coming in applying for services,” said Chambers, adding that the department does not have enough workers to meet current or new demands required by the Trump administration.
Read more Rancher wonders what Trump is getting in return for importing foreign beef
“We should have about 14 to 15 application workers, I only have nine workers determining eligibility for all residents in Durham County,” she said.
Worse, if N.C. and other minimally staffed Southern states fail to process cases accurately, they could lose their SNAP program entirely because the payment error rate is going to also be attached to the administrative costs, Chambers said.
WTVD reports upwards of 500,000 children across the state could lose the ability to eat the only meal that they have to survive on each and every day, if that happens.
“It’s going to be severely devastating,” warned 4th Congressional District U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee, one of only three Democrats representing the state. “We know that counties don’t have the funding to provide for the number of people who will need that kind of assistance. And so to push the responsibility down to states who are now pushing that responsibility down to the counties, it is not going to work. And Congress needs to act and it needs to provide that funding that we know the states and the counties can not do.”
Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, called the megabill — supported by every congressional Republican from North Carolina with the exception of U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis — a “disgrace.” And now facing the ruin of a major social safety net, Republican legislators in many Trump-voting states are desperately trying to delay or navigate Trump’s rule change.
Read more GOP had plan to calm frustrated voters — then Trump got in the way
No North Carolina Congressional Republicans commented for this story.
