SNAP State Decline: Operational Analysis
A cross-state examination of SNAP caseload declines following H.R. 1 (Public Law 119-21). 51 jurisdictions, July 2025 through the most recent reporting month.
Headline finding
Across the 51 jurisdictions analyzed, one operational lever is associated with a measurable difference in post-H.R. 1 SNAP caseload decline: removal of self-attestation for one or more expense categories, meaning the state stopped accepting the household's own statement of shelter, utility, medical or dependent-care costs and began requiring documentary proof.
Ten states did this within the May 2026 analysis window; an eleventh, Nebraska, completed formal rulemaking in July 2026 (see the update note below). Excluding Arizona, whose decline is dominated by a staffing collapse, the remaining nine declined by −12.2% on average against −8.5% for the other 40 states, a gap of 3.6 percentage points (permutation test, 20,000 iterations, p = 0.023).
Update, August 25, 2026: Nebraska completed formal rulemaking (475 NAC Chapters 2–3, effective July 28, 2026) moving household composition, citizenship or alien status, work-requirement exemptions, shelter costs, and utility expenses from "verified if questionable" to documentary proof, in adopted regulatory text. The change took effect after the measured window (July 2025 through April 2026), so the cohort statistics above do not include Nebraska; they will be recomputed at the next analysis refresh.
Certification period length does not show a detectable amplifying effect. The matrix below keeps the certification split visible so the null result can be inspected: the row gaps are under a point in both columns, on groups as small as four states, which is too little to make any inference about cadence.
| Self-attestation removed (H.R. 1 era) | No documented removal | |
|---|---|---|
| Standard certification period 6 months | −12.7% AR, IL, NV, UT (n=4) | −8.3% CO, FL, HI, IA, ID, NC, ND, NE*, NH, NY, SC, TX, WV, WY (n=14) |
| Standard certification period 12 months | −11.8% AL, KS, MA, PA, VA (n=5) | −8.6% AK, CA, CT, DC, DE, GA, IN, LA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NJ, NM, OH, OK, OR, RI, SD, TN, VT, WA, WI (n=26) |
| Either period | −12.2% all nine cohort states | −8.5% all 40 comparison states |
Read the columns, not the rows. The column gap (removed vs not) is 3.6 percentage points and statistically solid (p = 0.023). The row gaps are 0.9 points on nine states and 0.3 points on forty, and they point in opposite directions. Both are far too small to support any inference about certification cadence. The rows are kept visible so the null result can be seen rather than taken on trust.
Common window: July 2025 through April 2026, the latest month every state's series reaches. Persons-decline from July 2025, state-direct data where available (39 states) and USDA FNS participation counts otherwise (12 states). Kentucky is excluded from both figures: its state-direct series ended January 2026 when these statistics were computed (the series has since been extended on the FNS side; including it does not change the conclusion). Arizona is excluded as a distinct staffing-collapse case (−52.12% over the same window; Department of Economic Security headcount fell 36% between July 2024 and July 2025). *Nebraska’s removal took effect July 28, 2026, after this window closed, so it is classified here by its in-window status — changes effective after April 2026 fall outside the measured window, while Alabama’s change window opens December 16, 2025, inside it. Alaska carries a positive figure over this window, caseload growth rather than decline, and is included in the comparison group as measured. Certification-period figures come from each state's own manual via the policy corpus.
The cohort
Scope differs by state and matters: a guide that tells a Kansas reader to bring a utility bill is wrong, and one that tells an Alabama reader their rent proof is newly required is also wrong. Arizona is listed for completeness and excluded from the means above.
| State | Effective | What lost self-attestation | Decline (common window) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | by 2026-05-29 window opens 2025-12-16 |
utility only (dating rests on manual-version comparison; the chapter text carries no in-document stamp for this change) | −8.66% | source |
| Arizona | 2025-09-02 | participant-statement method itself, all factors and deductions | −52.12% (excluded) | source |
| Arkansas | 2026-03-01 | shelter (SNAP 6627); SUA entitlement per federal H.R. 1 §10103 | −8.81% | source |
| Illinois | 2025-10-22 | housing; medical for elderly/disabled at redetermination (Feb 19 2026) | −12.4% | source · medical |
| Kansas | 2025-10-01 | shelter only | −11.65% | source |
| Massachusetts | 2026-02-13 | shelter, utility, medical, dependent care | −15.07% | source |
| Nebraska | 2026-07-28 public hearing Jun 11, 2026 |
shelter, utility, household composition, citizenship/alien status, work-requirement exemptions | −11.5% (window closes Apr 2026, before the rule; not in the means above) | source |
| Nevada | 2025-09-04 announced Jun 9, 2025 |
shelter + standard utility allowance | −16.19% | source |
| Pennsylvania | 2026-02-09 | shelter + utility | −10.4% | source |
| Utah | 2025-12-01 | shelter + utility | −13.4% | source |
| Virginia | 2025-10-01 | shelter + dependent care | −13.0% | source |
Two cohort states carry live internal contradictions in their own manuals. Nevada's budgeting chapter (A-600 §660.5.3, MTL 10/25) still reads "Verify shelter costs only when the claimed shelter cost amount is questionable" while its verification chapter says Verify. Arkansas's glossary "Verification" entry (stamped 10/01/08) was never updated, and SNAP 10700 routes recertification readers to it. Any consumer guide for these states has to carry that conflict rather than assert one side.
What this analysis does and does not support
- Supported: states that removed self-attestation declined more than states that did not, by roughly 3.6 percentage points (p = 0.023). This is the finding that replicates.
- Not supported: certification period length as an independent driver. Among the 40 states with no documented removal, those with a 6-month standard certification period declined −8.3% against −8.6% for those on 12 months, a difference of a third of a point in the direction opposite the old claim.
- Withdrawn 2026-08-18: this page previously reported that shorter certification periods act as a "force multiplier" on self-attestation removal, roughly doubling the decline, and that the two levers together produced about nine percentage points of additional decline. That finding was withdrawn on 2026-08-18: it was computed from a superseded data vintage; on refreshed data the interaction is absent and its sign depends on which certification-period field is used. Its largest contributor was Georgia at −24.3%, a figure this project's own files classify as a reporting artifact rather than real closures, and which is −9.1% on Georgia's state-reported series. The two-lever framing has been removed rather than caveated.
- Also corrected: the cohort itself. Louisiana, Alabama and Oregon were previously counted as removals. Louisiana's shelter-verification rule dates to 1981 and did not change; Oregon's 2026 change reinstates interviews rather than expense verification. Alabama does belong, but for utility costs only, and its shelter requirement is longstanding. Nevada and Arkansas were missing entirely. Every state in the cohort now carries a linkable state document; seven of the previous ten did not.
- Scale of the claim: the removal variable explains about 9% of the variance in state-level decline over the common window. Most of the variation between states is not explained by either lever here, and these means are computed on small groups.
The documented self-attestation removals
The cohort table above carries the current, corrected record: every cohort state has a primary state document confirming the removal, linked in its source column. The section below holds the detailed per-state write-ups and the watch-list tiers. Sources for the six states written up below were re-verified against the primary text, including each state's manual version chain, on July 29, 2026; the four newer cohort entries were verified on August 18, 2026, and Nebraska against the adopted regulatory text on August 25, 2026.
Federal SNAP rules set a floor, not a ceiling. Under 7 CFR 273.2(f), many items — shelter cost, utility cost, household composition — may be accepted on the household's own statement unless the information is questionable. Income is the exception — under SNAP rules it has almost always required documentary verification, so it is not a self-attestation category and is not what changed here; the shifts below are about household composition and the expense deductions. States may require documentary verification above that floor, and federal law does not require them to publicly announce when they do; the change usually lives in an internal bulletin, a manual release, or a quietly revised application form, and households typically find out at the caseworker's desk. We never publicly cite the member-only CBPP advocate listserv that first surfaces many of these changes — it's an internal early-warning signal only.
How to read the source column
Confirmed — states with a citable primary source
Detailed write-ups for seven of the eleven cohort states, ordered by effective date. Nevada, Kansas, Arkansas, and Alabama appear in the cohort table above with their dates, scope, and sources; their per-state detail is not yet written into this section. Louisiana and Oregon are not cohort members (Oregon’s exclusion is explained below).
| State | Effective | What you can no longer self-attest | What still self-attests | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Confirmed ArizonaAZ · statewide |
Sep 2, 2025bulletin Aug 28, 2025; second tranche Sep 22, 2025 | Arizona removed the participant-statement method itself rather than specific categories. A DES Urgent Bulletin emailed Aug 28, 2025 directed that for all actions on or after Sep 2, "the participant statement will no longer be considered verification for any eligibility factors or deductions" for SNAP and cash assistance. Codified Oct 27, 2025 across 161 manual sections stamped effective 09/02/2025: shelter, utilities, medical, dependent care, and household composition all lost the participant-statement route ("verification of living arrangements is required for all budgetary units"). Collateral contacts (calling a landlord/employer) were cut back to clarifying documents the client already supplied or helping a client who asks. A second tranche effective Sep 22, 2025 requires verification of any reported change that decreases benefits — unverified, the case closes or the expense is dropped. It is the only state in this tracker to have removed the verification method itself. | Almost nothing. A "best available information" fallback — which the manual itself labels "also known as participant statement" — needs Region Program Manager or Program Administrator approval plus documented failed attempts by both client and worker. One named carve-out survives: ESAP households (all members 60+, no earned income) still report changes on their word, and at ESAP renewal identity, income, shelter, telephone, and utility expenses need no verification at all. | CNAP Manual — What's Changed 09/02/2025 "An Urgent Bulletin was emailed on 08/28/2025… the participant statement will no longer be considered verification for any eligibility factors or deductions" CNAP Manual — What's Changed 10/27/2025 both effective dates + 161 revised sections AZ DES — How to Apply for SNAP public banner CBPP — Arizona's SNAP participation is plummeting context Lag note: the manual followed the bulletin by 8 weeks with backdated effective stamps — date this change from the What's Changed pages, not manual footers. Manual links open in a browser but fail curl/link-preview (Cloudflare + JS loader). |
| Confirmed VirginiaVA · statewide |
Oct 1, 2025directive Aug 13, 2025; transmittal signed Sep 18, 2025 | Households must now verify shelter expenses and dependent care expenses — Transmittal #36 rewrote the manual from "verify shelter expenses only if the information presented by the household is questionable" to "The BPS must verify shelter expenses" (and the same for dependent care). Medical was already mandatory before this change. Household composition never made it into the manual: Gov. Youngkin's Executive Directive Thirteen told staff to "verify applicant expenses and household composition instead of accepting self-attestation," but Part VI still instructs workers to "accept the household's word on which household members… constitute the household for SNAP purposes." #36 touched 16 manual parts, but only three entries concern verification — the rest are annual COLA updates and federal work-requirement changes. ESAP households (all members 60+, no earned income) are carved out: they still verify shelter and the $35 medical threshold "only if the information is questionable." | Household composition — directed by ED-13, never implemented. Liquid resources unless questionable (a BBCE consequence). Citizenship of household members unless questionable. Homeless households' shelter costs. ESAP households' shelter and medical claims. (Income was never self-attestable — that is baseline, not a survival.) | VDSS SNAP Manual Transmittal #36 VDSS SNAP Manual, consolidated, eff. 10/01/2025 operative text VDSS Commissioner to Joint Subcommittee, Sep 10, 2025 official ED-13 confirmation Executive Directive Thirteen (2025) third-party mirror — governor's-office original purged Lag note: VDSS's individually-posted chapter PDFs (Part_iii.pdf, Part_x.pdf) are still stamped Transmittal #35 and carry the superseded "only if questionable" language — spot-check against the consolidated manual, not the per-chapter links. |
| Confirmed IllinoisIL · statewide |
Oct 22, 2025medical: released Feb 19, 2026 | Households must verify housing/shelter costs at every application — but at redetermination or mid-period only when a change of address or housing cost is reported; prior verification on file carries forward. Homeless households taking the Homeless Shelter Standard still self-attest ("Accept the customer's statement for the amount of the expenses"). The Feb 2026 medical change is narrower than it sounds: elderly/disabled-member households only, at redetermination only — a specific expense whose proof is 60+ days old must be re-verified even if the household says nothing changed. The consequence is a lower benefit rather than a denial: the expense is dropped from the benefit calculation until verified. Companion lever: every non-elderly/disabled household moved to 6-month certification periods, also effective 10/22/2025 (released 10/23/2025; the current instrument, MR #26.15 dated 06/12/2026, supersedes that release and also discontinued the Mid-Point Report), doubling how often the housing gate fires. | Utilities (explicitly still accepted unless questionable) and household composition. | IDHS Manual Release #25.38 — housing-cost verification IDHS Manual Release #26.06 — medical-expense verification IDHS Manual Release #26.15 — 6-month certification periods (dated 06/12/2026; policy effective 10/22/2025) WAG 06-04-03 — homeless shelter standard grounds the homeless carve-out WAG 13-01-08-b — "Verification of utilities is not required for SNAP" grounds the still-self-attests cell Lag note: the paper application (IL444-2378B) still says "We will ask for proof if additional information is needed" for housing — the manual, not the form, is current. |
| Confirmed UtahUT · statewide |
Dec 1, 2025form caught up Rev. 01/2026 | DWS ended self-attestation for shelter and utility costs. The prior manual rule — "Accept customer statement for shelter expenses. No further verification is required." (§442-6, eff. through 11/30/2025) — was replaced the next day with "Verification is required for shelter expenses." Two manual sections changed the same date: §720-2's mandatory pre-approval list swapped a narrow unoccupied-home item for "Shelter and utility costs." Applicants get 30 days, renewals 10 days; unverified expenses are dropped from the calculation — same "verify or lose the deduction" mechanic as Illinois. Superseded again July 1, 2026 with further tightening (any change to a verified amount needs new proof). | Nothing new moved. Utah's baseline was already stricter than most: medical expenses and household composition have required documentary proof since June 1, 2020 (§720-2) — this change moved only shelter and utilities. | §442-6, obsolete version (10/1/24–11/30/25) the before §442-6, current §720-2 Required Verifications (eff. 12/1/2025) Utah DWS application form (61APP, Rev. 01/2026) form artifact Lag note: the application form lagged the manual by a month — a form-only source dates this change late. Utah publishes obsolete manual versions with explicit date ranges; the version chain is the proof. |
| Confirmed PennsylvaniaPA · statewide |
Feb 9, 2026 | DHS ended client-statement verification for shelter and utility costs — verified at application, at a household-reported change of residential address, and at Semi-Annual Reporting when a change is reported; at reapplication only where no verified expense is on file for the current address or the report is questionable. Households reporting no shelter or utility expenses — for example, homeless households — are still accepted on statement unless questionable. Households that don't provide proof keep their case open ("The CAO will not reject or close benefits") but lose the shelter/utility deduction (lower benefit). Scope is shelter and utility only; medical already required proof when it produces a deduction. | Household composition and dependent care — verified only if questionable (Handbook 578.32). Changes in who lives in the household are checked at the semiannual review. | PA DHS Operations Memorandum #26-02-01 PA SNAP Handbook 578.3 — verification requirements grounds the still-self-attests cell Lag note: the handbook (578.32, "Updated November 3, 2023") and application form (PA 600, stamped 9/19) both still carry the old only-if-questionable rule. The memo states it "will be obsolete when the Handbook is updated" — it hasn't been. Read the memo, not the handbook or the form. |
| Confirmed MassachusettsMA · statewide |
Feb 13, 2026system changes June 2, 2026 | DTA limited self-declaration as primary verification for shelter, utility, medical (including the Standard Medical Deduction range), and dependent-care expenses. At intake, self-declaration is accepted only "if the client affirmatively states that they are unable to obtain documentary proof, and the explanation is reasonable"; at recertification the test tightens to a worker determination that the client is "not reasonably able to provide documentary evidence" with no collateral contact available — and staff must narrate the barrier either way. June 2, 2026 system changes removed the self-declaration pathways from DTA Connect and BEACON (including the "SMD Verified" type). Carve-outs remain: mileage and frequency of medical and dependent-care expenses still self-declare, and a written self-declaration sent in response to a VC-1 or voluntarily — staff "must continue to accept these." DTA may not require proof that proof is unobtainable. | Date of birth and SSN (verbal, later checked against SSA); the purchase-and-prepare arrangement of household members; student eligibility/meal plan; work-rule exemptions. Broader household composition — who has joined, left, or lives with the client — self-declares for TAFDC/EAEDC, not SNAP. | DTA OLG Transmittal 2026-13B (June 1, 2026) operative — replaces 13 and 13A DTA OLG Transmittal 2026-13 (original) carries the Feb 13, 2026 effective date DTA OLG Transmittal 2026-31 — phase-one system changes DTA Online Guide — Self-Declaration (updated Apr 6, 2026) MLRI — plain-language explainer Lag note: the originally-cited Transmittal 2026-13 is watermarked OBSOLETE — superseded twice (13A May 19, 13B June 1). DTA anticipates a phase-two transmittal; none exists through OLGT 2026-43 (checked 2026-08-25). OLGT 2026-27 (May 13, 2026) and 2026-33 (June 18, 2026) revise verification-due handling and are not yet reflected here; several Online Guide pages still carry pre-change text. |
| Confirmed NebraskaNE · statewide |
Jul 28, 2026public hearing Jun 11, 2026 | Formal rulemaking rewrote the mandatory-verification list in 475 NAC Chapter 2: "REQUIRED VERIFICATION. The following information must be verified: … Household composition; United States Citizenship or alien status; … Work requirement exemptions; … Shelter costs; Utility expenses" — factors the prior text verified only when questionable. The requirement lands at initial certification; at recertification it is change-triggered (expenses re-verify when "the source or amount of the claimed expenses have changed"). Nebraska Appleseed reports the agency requiring verification broadly in practice ahead of the effective date; DHHS’s on-record statement is that it "has implemented verification options permitted under federal Food and Nutrition Administration guidelines." The rule’s July 28, 2026 effective date postdates the newest caseload month in this analysis, so none of Nebraska’s measured decline is attributed to it here. | Medical and dependent-care expenses are not named in the amended mandatory list, so the verify-if-questionable baseline still governs them. Listed expenses re-verify at recertification only on a reported change in source or amount. | Title 475 NAC — chapter index (rules.nebraska.gov) DHHS hearing draft — Title 475 NAC 2 & 3 before/after text Nebraska Examiner, Jul 23, 2026 advocate + agency statements Verified against the adopted chapter text (Chapters 2 and 3 both stamped effective 07-28-2026). The rulemaking-record dates (notice 5/6/2026, adoption 7/7/2026) are carried from the record and not independently re-verified. |
The pattern
The expenses being targeted — shelter, utilities, medical, dependent care — are exactly the items the federal rule lets households self-attest "unless questionable." States are moving above that floor and requiring proof anyway, almost always citing Payment Error Rate reduction. Arizona alone goes furthest — it removed the participant-statement method itself, household composition included. The other six written up here — Virginia, Illinois, Utah, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Nebraska — target specific factors (shelter in all six; utilities in UT/PA/MA/NE; dependent care in VA/MA; medical in IL/MA; household composition, citizenship status, and work-requirement exemptions in NE), where the harm is usually a quieter benefit reduction rather than an outright denial. Virginia's executive directive ordered household-composition verification too, but the manual never implemented it.Watch list — reported but not yet publicly documented
No states currently sit on the watch list — every tracked change either carries a citable document (Confirmed, above) or was examined and excluded (below).
Examined but excluded
Maryland — no statewide self-attestation removal. Its documented HR1 changes are Action Transmittal 26-09 (ABAWD work requirements) and AT 26-08, which implements H.R. 1 §10103’s federal requirement that households receiving energy assistance verify heating and cooling expenses for the SUA — a federal change, not a state election above the floor. The earlier signal was a single advocate noting local offices asking how far back to request documents — operational drift, not policy.
Oregon — its June 1, 2026 change reinstates SNAP interviews for all applicants (ending a COVID-era waiver), a return to the standard federal process — not a removal of expense self-attestation above the federal floor, which Oregon's live verification rule still doesn't require. Included here so it isn't mistaken for one. ODHS notice
Legislative watch
Bills that would mandate added verification — tracked so the next wave is visible. Status as of August 25, 2026.
- Idaho — enacted. HB 730 (SNAP integrity measures and verification), signed April 2, 2026, Session Law ch. 294, effective July 1, 2026 — operational law; whether it removes self-attestation in practice awaits an instrument review of the implementing policy.
- Iowa — enacted, effective Jan 1, 2027. SF 2422 (formerly SSB 3140; SNAP citizenship/immigration-status verification via SAVE), signed June 2, 2026. Companion HF 2716 passed the House 62–30 but died in Senate HHS (March 27, 2026).
- Kentucky — died. SB 257 (eliminate broad-based categorical eligibility, asset test, more frequent reviews) — last action March 13, 2026; session adjourned April 15, 2026.
- Florida — died. CS/HB 693, an omnibus health-and-human-services bill directing DCF to develop a food-assistance payment-accuracy improvement plan — died in Senate Rules, March 13, 2026.
- District of Columbia — a lengthy ABAWD work-requirement screening form launched June 1, 2026. Adds paperwork but is scoped to ABAWD eligibility, not general self-attestation.
Per-state detail on the verification lever
These four states were examined in detail during the May 2026 analysis. The two-lever framing that originally grouped them was withdrawn on 2026-08-18 (see above), so what follows is per-state detail on the verification change itself rather than a claim about certification cadence. Note also that as of the August 2026 data refresh the steepest non-Arizona declines belong to Nevada (−21.3%, through May 2026), Louisiana (−20.6%) and Florida (−19.8%, both through June 2026), and that Louisiana is not a verification-change state at all.
- Georgia (−24.3% in the May FNS-series read; −9.1% on the state-reported series through June 2026). The eligibility-worker corpus describes the agency moving from self-attestation to documentary verification of shelter and utility costs; the resulting shelter-deduction collapse is visible at the recipient level as benefit cuts to the $24 minimum allotment. (Georgia does have a citable source, PAMMS 3617: "Effective July 1, 2024, third-party verification is required for all SNAP shelter expenses, including Senior SNAP." It sits outside the H.R. 1 cohort because that change predates H.R. 1 by a year, and because the H/C and Limited SUA are still accepted on the household's statement unless questionable.)
- Virginia (−12.7% in May; −13.2% through June 2026). The verify-deductible-expenses change documented above (Transmittal #36 / Executive Directive Thirteen), landing on a short certification cycle.
- Utah (−12.2% in May; −15.6% through June 2026). The shelter/utility/medical verification documented above — notably framed by the agency as a Payment Error Rate response despite Utah carrying no direct cost-share fiscal exposure under H.R. 1.
- Pennsylvania (−9.9% in May; −10.8% through June 2026). Beyond the shelter/utility verification in the table above, Pennsylvania also lost instant income verification when the Equifax Work Number became unavailable to the state; eligibility workers now wait for manual pay-stub submission at intake and recertification.
Arizona — the outlier
What this means
In the states that have removed self-attestation, a household that previously just stated its rent or utility costs now has to prove them — or the deduction drops and the benefit shrinks (in Arizona, the whole application can stall). Most states gave no public notice, so households learn at the caseworker's desk. That is the gap a proactive Propel message can fill: tell users in these states, before they apply or recertify, exactly what they now need to bring. The documented-removals table above is the set we can name with a citable source today.
Scope and limitations
- Not a statistical causal proof. This analysis is pattern recognition supported by cited evidence — reasons-for and reasons-against per headline claim, with no confidence intervals reported.
- Not a judgment on pre-H.R. 1 state behavior. The analysis measures what changed under H.R. 1, not the underlying starting posture of any state's program.
- Not a state ranking or quality score. The tier assignments describe documented operational changes; they are not measures of relative program quality.
- Work-requirement enforcement is a separate lever, and it is now inside the data. Counting for the newly subject groups began December 2025 in most states — November 2025 counted in no state per FNS’s November 13, 2025 instruction; Maine, Oregon, and South Dakota carry October 2025 enforcement starts, and several states began later — so the first time-limit removal waves land in the March–June 2026 months of these series — visible as, for example, Georgia's March 2026 cliff. People already subject before H.R. 1 could cycle off throughout. Per-state timing and attribution live on each state page's "What's driving this" analysis.
Methodology
For each of 51 jurisdictions: pull the state-direct or FNS monthly persons series for July 2025 through the most recent reporting month; identify state-issued operational changes — transmittals, bulletins, press releases, and manual updates — from agency websites and the CBPP SNAP Advocates listserv; and layer in the r/foodstamps recipient signal — every chart marker an LLM-verified, state-confirmed post linked to its source thread, drawn from a complete read of the subreddit's post history (Jan 2025–present) — alongside a comment-level read for eligibility-worker self-identifications and first-person client accounts of procedural changes. Each state is tagged for documented self-attestation removal posture (Comprehensive / Piecemeal / Baseline strict / Weak signal / No documented change) and for the standard certification period applying to most households (6 or 12 months), drawn from each state’s published SNAP manual via the SNAP policy corpus (verified July 2026). Per-source citations appear on the individual state pages, accessible from the State Reports tab.
State reports
All 51 jurisdictions. Each state report contains: a narrative summary, an interactive caseload chart annotated with operational-change nodes, lifecycle-phase bullets, an atmospheric-posture classification (5 categories), recipient signals, data gaps, and source citations.
Self-attestation removal tier — definitions
A — Comprehensive. The state agency has issued a documented, broad-scope removal of self-attestation across multiple verification categories. A primary-source memorandum or transmittal is on file.
B — Piecemeal. The state agency has removed self-attestation for one or two specific verification categories (for example, shelter only, or medical only). Either a primary-source memorandum or eligibility-worker corpus confirmation supports the change, but the scope is narrower than Tier A.
C — Baseline strict. The state required hard-document verification before H.R. 1 and never accepted self-attestation — there is nothing operationally to "remove." Currently Louisiana, New York, Ohio, and New Hampshire.
D — Weak signal. Recipient or eligibility-worker accounts describe an experience consistent with self-attestation removal, but no documented state-level policy change in the H.R. 1 era is retrievable (a pre-H.R. 1 instrument may exist — Georgia’s July 2024 PAMMS 3617 is the standing example, outside this cohort by scope ruling). The operational change may be real — and may occur at the sub-state level — but the provenance is too thin to attribute to a state-level policy decision.
E — No documented change. No evidence of state-level self-attestation removal across the corpus — state memoranda, the advocate listserv, eligibility-worker comments, or recipient signal.
ABAWD work-requirement rollout timeline
How the OBBBA / HR1 (P.L. 119-21) ABAWD work-requirement expansion came into force across all 53 jurisdictions, July 2025 – December 2026 — when each state's waiver ended, when enforcement (the first countable month) began, when the first cohorts lose benefits, the single lawsuit that reset the cohort's timeline, and the 36-month clock windows that open or close in this period. Every chip opens a sourced detail panel with direct quotes and links. Open the full timeline in a new tab →
SNAP forms audit
Every publicly accessible SNAP form across all 51 jurisdictions — … catalogued (audit built June 5, 2026), with the modernization spectrum, per-state cards, and a recertification deep-dive. Open the full forms viewer in a new tab →
Local SNAP help — advocate & community orgs
The single best public SNAP-help organization we identified for each of the 51 jurisdictions, drawn from public community-org and legal-aid websites and ingested into the Policy Oracle. Click an org to open its public SNAP resource page. Data as of June 13, 2026.