TYLER, Texas (KLTV) – The One Big Beautiful Bill is shifting some SNAP responsibility onto the states.
States will now be responsible for more funding — and penalties could cost Texas price tags with nine figures.
Feeding Texas CEO Celia Cole said if a state’s payment error rate is higher than six percent, they must pay five to fifteen percent of SNAP benefits.
“Payment errors are not intentional or fraud,” Cole said. “They are honest mistakes made by the state or participants.”
So, what are payment error rates?
“It reflects a combined rate of overpayments and underpayments,” Jamie Olson, Feeding Texas Vice President of Advocacy and Policy, said.
These errors do not come from abusing the system, wrongful denials, or fraud.
According to Feeding Texas, in 2025, less than point one percent of Texas households committed SNAP fraud.
Olson said errors can come from paying too much or too little.
“They do not cancel out,” Olson said. “You could hypothetically have three percent overpayment and three percent in underpayments, meaning the exact right amount of dollars went out the door – and yet that would be a six percent payment error rate.”
Currently, Texas’ error rate is 8.32%.
“And it really is a measure of accuracy,” Olson said. “So, if you flip that in your mind, an eight percent payment error rate is ninety-two percent accurate.”
Texas would pay seven hundred and nine million dollars per year in SNAP benefits starting in October 2027.
But these rates can be reduced.
That’s why groups like Feeding Texas advocate for a two-year delay from Congress.
“This flexibility has already been given to Alaska and other states that have really high error rates and it gives them time to get their error rates down,” Cole said.
According to Feeding Texas, before the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas’ SNAP error rate was below six percent, and Feeding Texas said they believe Texas can return to that.
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