Top Democrat questions ‘special treatment’ for Alaska, Hawaii in GOP SNAP proposal

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, questioned why only two states should receive “special treatment” in a GOP-backed plan to reduce federal dollars for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the coming years.

As part of a major package being considered in the Senate to advance President Trump’s tax priorities, Republicans also include a major change that would require some states to cover a share of SNAP benefit costs, which are currently funded by the federal government, for the first time.

Republicans are floating changes to that plan that would create special carveouts for Alaska and Hawaii amid internal GOP pushback. But senators signal the exemption could be at risk as Democrats question “special treatment” for the states.

“On the SNAP side, as you know, they’ve shifted $64 billion to the states, of which 44 have balanced budget amendments,” Klobuchar argued on Monday. “And we tried to stop that, because the states aren’t going to be able to do this.”

“Two states, they threw in Hawaii, two states get this special treatment, and no one else, and so I just figure, if they get that treatment, maybe every other state should, you know, maybe we should be doing that for Wisconsin,” she told The Hill. “Maybe we should be doing that for Iowa."

“This cost shift to the states is the biggest cost shift in the bill,” she also said.

Republicans are still waiting on a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian to see if the reworked proposal passes muster with the chamber's Byrd Rule. That decision, in turn, could be instrumental in whether Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will support the bill.

Her comments come as Alaska's other senator, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R), is pointing fingers at Democrats as he says the exemption – which is aimed at helping shield Alaska from steep cuts to federal dollars for food assistance – hangs in the balance because of pushback from the other side of the aisle. 

Politico was first to report the news.

“[Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the Democrats are trying, once again, to strip a provision that helps Hawaii and Alaska's most vulnerable,” Sullivan told The Hill on Monday. 

“Everything that we're trying to do for Alaska and Hawaii, Schumer and the Democrats strip it,” Sullivan said, while urging his Democratic colleagues to call to tell their leadership, “Don't screw our provision that’s just trying to make it a little less difficult on challenging communities to implement their SNAP requirements.”

As part of the SNAP proposal, some states will cover a share of the cost of SNAP benefits if they have a payment error rate above 6 percent beginning in fiscal 2028.

But in a change from a previous version of the SNAP proposal assembled by the Senate Agriculture Committee, the bill also includes a “waiver authority” section that could allow for noncontiguous states, or Alaska and Hawaii, to see the requirements waived if they’re found to be “actively implementing a corrective action plan” and carrying out other activities to reduce their error rate.

The update came after Alaska Republicans raised concerns over the GOP-crafted proposal. 

Republicans say the proposal is aimed at incentivizing states to get their payment error rates down, while Democrats have argued the measure could lead to states having to cut benefits.

Figures recently unveiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found the state’s payment error rate — which factors in overpayment and underpayment error rates — hit 24.66 percent in fiscal 2024. The rate is the highest in any state.

The national average in the new reporting was 10.93 percent.