OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Part of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” recently approved by the U.S. Senate and back in the House, is a change to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

There are adjustments as to who can qualify for SNAP benefits, but one of the largest changes is the State government having to possibly front some of that overall cost. This would only be if they’re not monitoring the program’s expenses appropriately, according to the bill.

There are many parts to the Big Beautiful Bill, some the topics of debate at the nation’s capital. This is only a few pages in that bill. You can see the full bill for yourself here.

S.N.A.P. benefits begin on page 13, this story references pages 22-24.

The bill shifts some of the overall cost from the federal to the State governments. Here’s how it works.

The cost division revolves around what’s known as the SNAP error. This is the measure used for a state’s accuracy in SNAP eligibility and payments. Essentially, it’s a grade on if the money is going to the people who qualify or not. Oklahoma has a 10.87 percent error rate. That is above the national average.

Click here to see the error rate for every state.

According to the Oklahoma Department of Human services, the Oklahoma SNAP benefit total cost was $1,582,998,958. That was paid by Federal taxes. According to the Big Beautiful Bill, part of that cost will be fronted by the state government depending on the error rate. On page 25, it says an error rate “equal to or greater than 10 percent, the Federal share for the State in the fiscal year shall be 85 percent, and the State share will be 15 percent.”

This means, from Oklahoma’s FY25, if the bill applied today, Oklahoma would face a $237,449,844 bill to be paid to the Federal government. However, this does not apply until fiscal year 2028, two fiscal years from now. In the bill, the percent of State costs goes down as a state’s error rate goes down. A state with 6 percent or less error rate pays no part of their SNAP bill.

U.S. Representative James Lankford (R-OK) released a video where he addressed concerns around SNAP changes in the bill.

“We’re not slashing food stamps, we’re just saying, ‘States you’ve gotta be more efficient in how you carry this out,’ we say this is good government, not taking food away from people,” Lankford said. “We’re adding an incentive for the States on if you have a high error rate, which means you’re not watching it, you’re spending somebody else’s money and you’re not paying attention to that, then the State’s gonna have to pay a portion of this now.”

FOX23 heard from Free Hunger Oklahoma who disagrees with Senator Lankford.

“We’ve heard several members of congress say, these are not cuts to the program, it’s making the program operate more efficiently,” said Jessica Dietrcih, Director of Government Affairs at Hunger Free OK. “But that’s really not what these policies are proposing, moving the cost doesn’t make the programs operate anymore efficiently, it just changes who’s responsible for covering that cost. State’s have limited budgets and if they are facing a deficit and they can’t make ends meet for the state budget, they will have no choice but to figure out how to reduce their cost and one way they can do that is by limiting who can access the SNAP program.”

Dietrich encourages people to reach out to their elected officials to voice their questions or concerns on this bill. Sen. Lankford also urged Oklahomans to reach out to his office with questions.

Here’s the office number to Senator Lankford: D.C. - (202) 224-5754 ; Tulsa - (918) 581-7651 ; OKC - (405) 231-4941.

To learn more about Hunger Free Oklahoma, click here.