Warner says 100,000 Virginians were kicked off SNAP — here’s what actually changed

BS BULLETIN:

Sen. Mark Warner says more than 100,000 Virginians have lost SNAP benefits since Republicans passed their 2025 budget law.
Virginia’s own data show SNAP enrollment fell by 100,913 people between July 2025 and January 2026, though that raw decline does not by itself establish why every recipient left the program.
The federal law expanded work requirements and also eliminated eligibility for several categories of lawfully present noncitizens.

Sen. Mark Warner dropped a big number into the SNAP debate this week.

“100,000 Virginians have been kicked off SNAP because of Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill,” the Virginia Democrat wrote Monday. “These are real consequences for families just trying to put food on the table.”

Warner wasn’t pulling the 100,000 figure out of thin air.

His office has previously said 100,913 Virginians disappeared from SNAP rolls between July 2025 and January 2026, after President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 4, 2025.

But what exactly happened to those people is more complicated than either side’s social-media shorthand suggests.

Virginia’s Department of Social Services says the federal law expanded the population required to work, train, study or volunteer at least 80 hours per month to remain eligible for benefits.

“These changes are required by federal law and apply to every state,” the agency says. “They are not decisions made by the Commonwealth.”

Among the changes: the upper age for the work requirement was increased from 54 to 64, while the exemption for parents was narrowed so that adults with children 14 or older may now be subject to the requirement.

The law also eliminated previous exemptions for some veterans, people experiencing homelessness and young adults who aged out of foster care.

“If a customer is between 55 and 64 years old, they may now be required to meet SNAP work requirements,” Virginia DSS explains.

A Virginia government presentation on implementation of the law estimated that roughly 14,500 people in the state became newly subject to the work rules.

There was another major change as well.

The law narrowed eligibility for some noncitizens who had previously qualified for SNAP, including certain refugees, asylees, Afghan visa holders and trafficking survivors.

Much of the online response to Warner’s post suggested the people losing benefits were undocumented immigrants.

Federal SNAP rules say otherwise. “SNAP eligibility has never been extended to undocumented non-citizens,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture states.

But before the 2025 law, certain lawfully present noncitizens could qualify under specific conditions. The new law narrowed that group.

Virginia’s current rules also retain numerous exemptions from the expanded work requirement, including pregnancy, disability or temporary inability to work, caring for a sick or disabled person and living in a household with a child under 14.

People subject to the rule can satisfy it through work, education, training, volunteering or a combination totaling at least 80 hours per month.

So Warner’s headline number — 100,913 fewer Virginians receiving SNAP between July 2025 and January 2026 — matches the figure his office has been using.

What the available public numbers do not neatly establish is that all 100,913 were individually “kicked off” solely because of one particular provision of the Republican law.