Lawmakers discussed, but ultimately did not vote on legislation Tuesday that would reinstate financial asset limits and a more restrictive income ceiling for Kentuckians to qualify for food assistance.
Senate Bill 257 would also require more eligibility checks for Kentuckians receiving food assistance. More than half a million Kentuckians received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits this month, 40% of whom are children, according to state data.
The measure has garnered opposition from groups that say it will kick thousands of Kentuckians off of food assistance at a time when some are already losing eligibility due to changes in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. The number of people on SNAP in Kentucky has declined since the bill became law in July by about 81,000 individuals.
GOP Sponsor Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer from Alexandria said the legislation “simplifies” the requirements and makes sure only the most needy access food assistance.
“We want to put this program in alignment with what it was meant to be,” Funke Frommeyer told Kentucky Public Radio. “We've got to align it. We've now gotten over our skis, if you will, but we've got to tighten back up.”
Funke Frommeyer says the bill would help the state lower its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program error rate — that’s the rate by which the state issues under- or overpayments. The metric took on new significance thanks to the passage of Trump’s major policy package, which said states with high error rates must pay a share of the cost of the benefit, for which the federal government has historically footed the bill.
“We don't want hunger. We truly don't want our children hungry. Let's focus on the main thing,” Funke Frommeyer said after the hearing. “We need to break this down and simplify it a bit. So this is an effort to simplify it so we really are within our error rates.”
The GOP families and children committee chair said the group would not vote on the legislation Tuesday after two Republican senators expressed concerns with the bill, particularly over the lack of a cost analysis.
“I think this bill does require a fiscal note. I think we need to know what the administrative costs are,” said Republican Robin Webb from Grayson, who said she also worried for the people of her district.
It’s not the first time Republicans have pushed back on legislation seeking to tighten SNAP eligibility. When a similar measure appeared before the Senate economic development committee in 2024, it failed — a highly unusual outcome.
It is unclear if this year’s SB 257 will be able to garner enough support to make it out of committee and onto the Senate floor.
Here’s what’s in the SNAP eligibility bill
SB 257 would block Kentucky from using broad-based categorical eligibility, which most states use.
To qualify for benefits, SNAP typically requires families’ gross income to fall at or below 130% of the poverty line. But the categorical eligibility policy lets states grant SNAP benefits to someone if they have a gross income as high as 200% of the poverty line. Their net income, not counting certain household expenses, still has to fall below that 130% line, though.
Categorical eligibility also gets rid of another SNAP requirement: The asset test, which counts up the value of various assets when deciding if someone qualifies for SNAP. If someone’s assets are worth too much, even though their income is low enough to qualify for SNAP, they wouldn’t get benefits. SB 257 would bring that test back.
Jason Dunn, the former Kentucky SNAP director, said reinstating the asset test disincentives families from building up savings, which count as assets. He also said disallowing people with gross incomes between 130% and 200% of the poverty line to qualify for SNAP would affect families who live in areas with high costs of living who are still struggling to get by.
“We're making that [benefits] cliff worse,” Dunn said. “Those are things that help families as they move from poverty into the middle class. That's what we want to encourage. This policy just makes that cliff worse and takes away all the gains we've made.”
Dunn said reinstating the asset test would mean the state must set up a new system of asset verification, including requiring new documentation from people seeking benefits. And people who meet the asset and income requirements could still lose their benefits if they miss a filing requirement.
“Some people may not be eligible because they have too many assets. Some people may not be eligible because they just can't get the documentation in time,” Dunn said.
The bill would also require the Department for Community-Based Services, which implements Kentucky’s SNAP program, to review federal data on applicants every month. Currently, many enrollees either are recertified once or twice a year.
That change, plus the addition of asset testing, could actually lead to an increase in the error rate, said Jessica Klein with the left-leaning Center for Economic Policy.
“What that means is a lot more work for administrative staff, but also a higher cost overall for the SNAP program moving forward,” she said.
Kentucky’s unofficial error rate, which has not yet been verified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, hovers around 4% for 2025 — below the threshold that would require the state to pay for a portion of its SNAP benefits, according to the latest available data. That’s a big drop from the previous year’s rate of about 9%.
Funke Frommeyer said she believes SB 257 will simplify the process for state officials and will also help state employees because the number of people receiving benefits and in need of verification “will shrink a bit.”
Overall, the center for economic policy estimates that dropping categorical eligibility would take SNAP away from 40,000 Kentuckians, including 16,800 kids and 6,600 older adults.
Richard Gianzero, a pastor and executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, said cutting eligibility may save the state money at the end of the day, but he believes it goes against the state’s ethical and moral obligations.
“We want accountability, but the accountability structure is already there,” Gianzero said. “This imposes further bureaucratic restrictions to do exactly what the Senator said, reduce the number of people who are in need, reduce that number, take away from people who are in need.”
When asked about the impact to regions heavily reliant on SNAP, Funke Frommeyer said the bill is meant to act in tandem with other legislative efforts to increase workforce participation and improve the lives of Kentuckians through meaningful employment.
“We're continuing to tackle our employment rate and those opportunities for more employment, and I think we see that in Kentucky, we're becoming more economically healthy, and the more economically healthy, especially in our rural areas, we're going to see fewer people that need these additional supports,” Funke Frommeyer said.
KYCIR Reporter Morgan Watkins contributed to this story.
