Heflin Speaks With The Wall Street Journal About the Drop in SNAP Recipients

May 2, 2026

The Wall Street Journal

Colleen Heflin

Public Administration & International Affairs Department

Center for Policy Research

Federal

Food Security

United States

The Wall Street Journal

Colleen Heflin

SNAP enrollment has dropped by nearly 3.5 million people—roughly 8%—since stricter work and eligibility requirements took effect last July under new Trump administration rules. Some states are seeing far steeper declines, with Arizona reporting a roughly 50% drop in recipients.

Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs, says larger state drops like Arizona’s were “beyond anything we’ve ever seen.” Heflin says she is concerned it will result in vulnerable Americans not getting enough to eat.

“These large state drops in SNAP caseloads represent a fundamental restructuring of the food-assistance safety net,” she says. “We should expect to see a surge in food insecurity and its related negative consequences at new levels.”

Read more in The Wall Street Journal article, “More Than Three Million People Have Lost Federal Food Aid.”