As Republicans push forward with the “big, beautiful” tax bill, federal food assistance may see big cuts.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, may be cut about 30% under the terms of the bill, which would be the “biggest cut in the program’s history,” according to Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, currently provides food assistance to more than 40 million individuals including children, seniors and adults with disabilities.

Yet cuts to the program proposed by the House — which would shrink the program’s funding by about $300 billion through 2034 — would put those benefits at risk.

“The House Republican plan would take away food assistance for millions who struggle to afford the high cost of groceries, including families with children and other vulnerable people with low incomes,” Cox said during a Tuesday webinar hosted by the CBPP, a progressive think tank.

The SNAP reform efforts come amid a broader effort to reduce waste and fraud in government programs. SNAP, like other government benefits, can be susceptible to improper or fraudulent payments.

The “one big, beautiful bill restores integrity to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., said in a May 14 statement, through “long-overdue accountability incentives to control costs and end executive and state overreach.”

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Many Americans cite high food costs as a top economic concern, according to an April Pew Research Center survey. If new tariff policies are put into effect, that could prompt food prices to go higher.

Moreover, the proposed SNAP cuts come as some experts say the U.S. is facing higher recession risks. In previous downturns, every additional dollar spent on SNAP generates about $1.54 in returns to the economy, according to Elaine Waxman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute’s tax and income support division.

“People spend SNAP dollars right away, and they spend them locally,” Waxman said.

The proposed SNAP cuts would largely happen by expanding work requirements to qualify for benefits and by cutting federal funding for food benefits and administration and leaving it up to states to make up the difference.

The largest cut to SNAP would come from federal funding cuts to basic SNAP benefits ranging from 5% to 25% starting in 2028, according to CBPP.

It would then be up to states to find ways to make up for that benefit shortfall, which could include making it more difficult to enroll in the program or finding other localized cuts to the program, according to CBPP.

“The change in the bill that is most dramatic is asking states to share part of the benefit cost,” Waxman said. “That’s new; since SNAP was originated, the federal government has always paid the full cost of the benefits.”

Notably, it would also mark the first time in the history of SNAP that the federal government would no longer ensure children in every state have access to food benefits, according to CBPP.

In addition, the proposal also seeks to make it so states pay a larger portion of the program’s administrative costs.

How states may react to the changes may vary. In worst-case scenarios, some states could even opt out of the program altogether, according to CBPP.

However, Waxman said most states will likely try to protect benefits because they’re “so critical,” even though they are not legally obligated to offer the program.

“The vast majority, if not all, will try to do something,” Waxman said.

In addition to the benefits SNAP provides to individuals and families, it also provides an “integral” part of economies, Waxman said. In lower-income rural areas, for example, rural grocery stores that rely on SNAP customers would see food spending go down.

“It has all these ripples that will hurt a lot of people other than just the people who are on the program,” Waxman said.

Expanded work requirements would affect 2.7 million families and 5.4 million individuals, according to a new report from the Urban Institute.

That includes 1.5 million families who would lose benefits entirely and 1.2 million families who would receive lower benefits. It also includes 1.8 million people, including 48,000 children, who would lose benefits entirely; and 3.6 million people, including 1.5 million children, who would receive lower benefits, according to the Urban Institute.

Families that lose some or all their benefits would lose $254 per month on average, according to the research. Meanwhile, families with children would lose $229 per month on average, the Urban Institute found.

The Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed the No Tax on Tips Act in a surprise vote, which could boost momentum for an idea floated by President Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign. 

If enacted, the legislation would create a federal income tax deduction of up to $25,000 per year, with some limitations. The tax break applies to workers who typically receive cash tips reported to their employer for payroll tax withholdings, according to a summary of the bill. 

To qualify for the deduction, there’s a $160,000 earnings limit for 2025. That limit would be indexed for inflation yearly.

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Currently, workers who receive cash tips of $20 or more monthly must report those earnings to employers, according to the IRS. Cash tips can include funds received directly from customers, tip-sharing from other employees or tips paid via credit card.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris both called for no tax on tips during appearances in Nevada.

The bill advanced by the House Ways and Means Committee last week also includes a no tax on tips provision. If enacted, workers could deduct all “qualified tips” from 2025 through 2028. Tips must be reported to qualify for the deduction. However, this could still change before the full House floor vote.

“Whether it passes free-standing or as part of the bigger bill, one way or another, no tax on tips is going to become law and give real relief to hard-working Americans,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas., said from the Senate floor on Tuesday. 

Cruz introduced the bipartisan bill in January with Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto from Nevada.

In 2023, there were roughly 4 million U.S. workers in tipped occupations, representing 2.5% of all employment, according to estimates from The Budget Lab at Yale University.

“This is a very narrow subset of the workforce,” said Alex Muresianu, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation. 

Tipped occupations include jobs in restaurants and hotels, as well as courier services like taxis, rideshares and food delivery services, he said.

What’s more, a good chunk of tipped workers are part-time employees, and they wouldn’t see a significant benefit from a tip exemption, he said. Many such workers already don’t pay federal income tax because their earnings fall under the standard deduction.

“For the lowest income tipped workers, it provides no marginal benefit” Muresianu said. “It would benefit moderate to middle income workers substantially.”

A tax package House Republicans may pass as soon as this week would kill a slew of consumer tax breaks tied to clean energy, as currently drafted. If it becomes law, households interested in the tax breaks may have to rush to claim them this year, experts said.

Tax breaks on the chopping block include ones for consumers who buy or lease electric vehicles, and others for households that make their homes more energy-efficient.

The Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, which made historic investments to combat climate change, created or enhanced those tax breaks.

Most would be terminated after 2025, about seven years earlier than under current law.

“Based on the existing proposed language, if you’ve been considering an EV or planning to get one, now is the time to do it,” Alexia Melendez Martineau, senior policy manager at Plug In America, wrote in an e-mail.

Consumers who buy a new EV can claim a tax break worth up to $7,500. One for used EVs is worth up to $4,000. Car dealers can also pass along a $7,500 credit to consumers who lease an electric vehicle.

The House tax proposal would terminate these tax credits after 2025. The Inflation Reduction Act made them available through 2032.

A “special rule” would keep the $7,500 credit in place for some new EVs for an additional year, through 2026. However, it would only be available for new vehicles from automakers that haven’t yet sold 200,000 EVs. That would disqualify EVs from companies like General Motors (GM), Tesla (TSLA) and Toyota (TM).

About 7.5% of all new-vehicle sales in the first quarter of 2025 were EVs, an increase from 7% a year earlier, according to Cox Automotive. Tax credits for EVs have been available in some form since 2008, when George W. Bush approved them.

The Inflation Reduction Act made it easier for consumers to access the EV credit, by allowing dealers to issue the tax break to consumers upfront at the point of sale instead of waiting until tax season. Consumers who buy an EV in the near term would be wise to pick this option, experts said.

“We recommend taking the upfront rebate at the dealership, as it reduces the price you pay now and shifts liability to the dealer to manage getting the credit from the IRS,” Martineau said.

One — the energy efficient home improvement credit, also known as the 25C credit — is worth up to 30% of the cost of a qualifying project. Taxpayers can claim up to $3,200 per year on their tax returns, with the overall dollar amount tied to specific projects.

Another — the residential clean energy credit, or the 25D credit — is also worth 30% of qualifying project costs. It doesn’t have an annual or lifetime dollar, except for certain limits on fuel cells, according to the IRS.

They are currently available through 2032. (The 25D credit phases down to 26% for installations in 2033 and 22% for those in 2034.)

Both tax credits would be repealed after 2025 under the House bill.

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The 25C and 25D credits have been available in some form since 1978 and 2005, respectively, according to economists at the Haas Energy Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.

More than 3.4 million U.S. households claimed one of the credits in 2023, receiving more than $8 billion, according to the Treasury Department.

Experts recommend that consumers considering a home-efficiency project have it completed by year’s end to be able to claim a tax credit.

“If a homeowner was looking to take advantage of the 25C tax credit, under what is being proposed [by the House] they’d need to ensure their system was put in service this year,” said Kara Saul Rinaldi, president and CEO of AnnDyl Policy Group, an energy and environmental policy strategy firm.

The House tax plan’s repeal or modification of clean energy credits — including those for EVs and home efficiency — would raise $707 billion over a decade, according to an analysis published Monday by the Penn Wharton Budget Model.

As drafted, the overall House bill would raise the U.S. deficit by a net $3.3 trillion over a decade, after accounting for spending cuts, Penn Wharton said.

Of course, the tax bill’s text may change.

There appears to be dissent from within House Republican ranks over various aspects of the bill. Some of the infighting is tied to the repeal of climate related tax breaks, which have been more popular among consumers than anticipated.

The Senate also needs to pass the measure before it heads to the president’s desk.

“Republicans are far from united, with deficit hawks pushing for greater deficit reduction, centrists objecting to steep welfare cuts and blue-state Republicans fighting for bigger State and Local Tax (SALT) exemptions,” Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a research note on Tuesday.