More than 10,000 New Mexico children have lost federal food assistance benefits in the year since Congress enacted a sweeping spending bill, according to a new analysis from a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
The spending bill President Donald Trump signed last July imposed new work requirements and other burdens on households seeking food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It also included stiff penalties for states that have high rates of errors in implementing the program, causing states, including New Mexico, to quickly impose new paperwork requirements.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ analysis released Tuesday says those new burdens on states and households have coincided with more than 1.5 million children nationwide losing their SNAP benefits, roughly one-third of the estimated 4.5 million people who lost SNAP since Congress passed the law.
The center’s analysis looked at the period between July 2025 and April 2026 and determined that roughly 18,000 New Mexicans lost SNAP in that period, including more than 10,000 children.
In a news conference Wednesday morning detailing their analysis, center leaders said the swift drop-off of SNAP recipients should compel Congress to delay penalties for states that don’t reduce errors by deadlines set in the law or to give states more funding to reduce errors.
“States are working hard to reduce their error rates, but they’re up against the wall,” Vice President for Food Assistance Ty Jones Cox said. “The law didn’t give them any time or resources to do so, so that creates an enormous incentive for states to slash their error rates by any means necessary, and that’s what we’re seeing: more paperwork, shorter certification periods, more red tape, even if it means eligible families lose benefits they’re entitled to.”
New Mexico could face a penalty of at least $150 million if it does not reduce its error rate from 16.8% – which is the third-highest in the nation – to less than 6% by October 2027.
The New Mexico Health Care Authority recently imposed new verification requirements for SNAP applicants’ incomes and household sizes, and the authority is working to improve its data collection and caseworker training to minimize the number of SNAP over- and underpayments made to SNAP recipients.
The center examined data from 19 states with readily available data regarding children enrolled in SNAP. New Mexico’s proportion of children who lost SNAP – 56% – over the last year was among the highest.
Health Care Authority officials did not immediately respond to Source NM’s emailed request for comment Wednesday.
More-recent HCA data reviewed by Source NM shows that the trend in SNAP disenrollment has continued through June, with approximately 7,000 additional people losing SNAP between April and June. That HCA data does not specify how many of them are children.
The center’s analysts say they cannot identify whether lack of funding or new barriers on households is the primary driver in reducing SNAP enrollment. But they ruled out the possibility that SNAP households’ economic well-being have improved enough in the last year that they no longer need the food assistance.
“Grocery prices are still rising,” Jones Cox said. “Unemployment has been largely flat since before the law passed. Real wages have actually declined. People need food assistance today just as much as they did a year ago, and they’re simply being cut off from assistance as states scramble to limit their exposure.”
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