Largest Cuts in SNAP and Medicaid History Will be Devastating for Arizonans and Arizona’s nonprofits

PHOENIX – July 2, 2025 – The Arizona Food Bank Network, Ability360, Children’s Action Alliance, the Arizona Center for Economic Progress, and the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans convened advocates, community members and the press on Wednesday to warn of the damaging impacts of the megabill cuts to SNAP and Medicaid—programs that provide critical food security and health care to millions of Arizonans.

The harmful and detrimental cuts will impact everyone in Arizona, not just those on SNAP or Medicaid. Hospitals, healthcare providers, and even grocery stores are at risk of closing due to the largest cuts in programs history, which are included in this bill. The cuts are so large, Arizona’s nonprofits fear they may be expected to cover the gaps left in basic need programs with no additional support for the influx of clients, at a time when they are already seeing a record-setting demand. 

“Last month, over 700,000 individuals visited Arizona’s food banks for help,” said April Bradham, President and CEO of the Arizona Food Bank Network, at a press conference at Ability360. “Arizona is already in a hunger crisis, and our food banks are rising to the challenge, adapting to the changing conditions of food insecurity every day. The need for support already cannot be understated. If these cuts go through, the need will be more than we have ever experienced in our network.”

“This bill is a train wreck for children and families, and its consequences will be felt far and wide,” said January Contreras, Executive Director of Children’s Action Alliance, on Wednesday. “How do you look a child or a parent in the eye and tell them that they may lose health care insurance or help with buying groceries just as economic uncertainty and the cost of raising a family are rising sky high.”

“The federal budget reconciliation bill is a bad trade for Arizona families that will receive tax cuts worth a couple hundred dollars while potentially losing thousands of dollars in SNAP and Medicaid benefits,”  said Joseph Palomino, Director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress.

The federal budget bill would:

• Shift SNAP costs to states: Since its inception, SNAP has been fully federally funded, with states contributing 50% of the cost to administer the program. The megabill requires states to pay a percentage of SNAP food benefit costs, with Arizona’s annual contribution estimated to be at least  $200 million in addition to requiring the state to take on about $30 million more of the administrative costs. Given Arizona’s dim revenue outlook, this would be a significant cost that the state will not be able to meet without raising taxes, cutting other critical programs, and/or even making the difficult choice of opting out entirely of the program —ultimately leaving many Arizonans unable to afford the food they need.

• Restrict SNAP for parents and seniors: The budget bill subjects more people —including seniors up to age 65 and parents of children as young as 10—to the harsh three-month time limit, requiring that they document 20 hours of work per week to receive grocery benefits. It also eliminates existing exemptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and former foster youth. These changes would strip food security from an estimated 190,000 Arizonans who may be working insufficient hours due to unique situations such as home-schooling children, experiencing significant barriers to employment like undiagnosed mental illnesses, or not being able to secure employment that would cover the cost of child care. The proposal also limits each state’s ability to waive work requirements for communities experiencing high unemployment rates ; commonly, this results in people being unable to access benefits even if there are no job opportunities for them.

• Prevent SNAP from adapting to actual food costs: The “Thrifty Food Plan” is the basis for calculating SNAP benefits, and the budget bill prevents any future updates to it. This locks benefit levels in place, regardless of new data on nutritional needs or the cost of a healthy diet. When most levels of SNAP benefits already max out at about $2 per meal, all of Arizona’s nearly 1 million SNAP participants—including 378,162 children—would see an outsized inflation impact that means fewer groceries. Annual adjustments to other nutrition programs that are backed by regularly tracked data and respond to national socioeconomic conditions could be jeopardized, too.

• Leave more Arizonans uninsured: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculates that the reconciliation bill will cut more than $1 trillion from health care, mostly through Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage on the marketplace. The Senate bill’s Medicaid and CHIP cuts are $156.1 billion or 18% larger than even the House-passed bill’s cuts of $863.4 billion over 10 years. Nationally, the CBO estimates that 7.8 million people would become uninsured due to Medicaid cuts, 4 million people would become uninsured due to marketplace cuts, and an additional 4.2 million would lose marketplace coverage because the legislation fails to extend the premium tax credit enhancements.

“By cutting $290 billion from SNAP with new barriers to receiving food assistance and pushing costs onto states, the bill makes it harder for seniors and other low-income Americans to pay for the food they need,” said Linda Somo, President, Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans.

“Adding additional unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles in order to maintain access to critical support is not only going to cost the state money to administer, but plainly speaking, it’s cruel,” Ability360 Chief Executive Officer and President Chris Rodriguez said. “Cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs will remove a lifeline from our nation’s most vulnerable people. We must not stop advocating against this bill.”

If this bill passes, Arizona will face a devastating ripple effect—more uninsured families, more empty dinner tables, and more closed doors at local hospitals, with nonprofits only able to do so much in the fallout to help keep Arizonans afloat. Our leaders in Congress must reject these reckless cuts and do what’s right to protect Arizona’s economic future so all can thrive.

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About the Arizona Food Bank Network: The Arizona Food Bank Network (AzFBN) is a coalition of five regional food banks and almost 1,000 food pantries and agencies, working to address hunger in Arizona. Together, our network feeds almost 1 million people each year in all 15 counties in Arizona. We amplify the good work of these food banks by raising awareness about hunger, coordinating large food donations between food banks, and providing resources and education.

Media Contact: Ashley St. Thomas, [email protected]

About Ability360: Ability360 is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation, founded in 1977 as the Arizona Congress for Action (ACA). Through its comprehensive programs, Ability360 touches the lives of individuals with disabilities and addresses the disability concerns of their family members, co-workers and employers.

Media Contact: April Reed, [email protected]

About Children’s Action Alliance: Children’s Action Alliance has served for 37 years as an independent voice providing nonpartisan advocacy for the health, education, and well-being of children throughout Arizona.

Media Contact: Luisa Santos, [email protected]

About the Arizona Center for Economic Progress: Arizona Center for Economic Progress (AZCenter) was created in 2017 to provide sound policy analysis and advocacy that ensures Arizona has inclusive economic policies that create investments in the resources people, families, and communities need to thrive, and a fair tax system that raises the revenue to fund those resources. 

Media Contact: Luisa Santos, [email protected]

About the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans: The Alliance for Retired Americans works to ensure social and economic justice and to protect the civil rights of retirees after a lifetime of work. The alliance believes that all older and retired persons have a responsibility to strive to create a society that incorporates these goals and rights and that retirement provides them with opportunities to pursue new and expanded activities with their unions, civic organizations, and their communities.

Media Contact: Linda Somo, [email protected]

Additional media contacts:

• MJ Simpson, William E. Morrison Institute for Justice (MIJ): [email protected]
• Solveig Muus, LAMA: [email protected]
• Adrienne Udarbe, Pinnacle Prevention: [email protected] (480-415-4563) or Kenneth Steel ([email protected])
• Elyse Guidas, Activate Food Arizona, [email protected]