The chair of the House Agriculture Committee is squaring off with his home state’s popular Democratic governor over the GOP’s overhaul of federal food aid — an early sign of how implementation of President Donald Trump’s megabill is already emerging as a political flashpoint.
In a letter obtained by POLITICO, Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) accuses Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro of mismanaging his state’s administration of the federal nutrition program as he seeks to rebut Shapiro’s attacks on the “big, beautiful bill” and its spending cuts across safety-net programs.
Shapiro, a possible 2028 presidential contender, has blasted the legislation Trump signed into law in July — particularly its provision forcing new Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program costs onto states with higher payment error rates.
Thompson says in the letter that Shapiro has “a history” of mishandling SNAP in Pennsylvania, which he adds was on “an unsustainable fiscal trajectory” prior to the GOP bill. He called on Shapiro to “reexamine” his budget priorities and invest more in the food aid program if the commonwealth can’t properly implement strict new work requirements for low-income beneficiaries and lower the state’s higher payment error rate. Under the GOP law, states that can’t comply will face a barrage of new costs.
The fights between GOP lawmakers and their home-state governors, including key 2028 presidential contenders, will continue to shape the rollout of the bill’s changes to key safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid. They will play out with control of the House and Senate at stake in the 2026 midterms.
State governments in Pennsylvania and elsewhere will soon face millions of dollars in new costs if they can’t curtail their higher payment error rates. Shapiro joined dozens of other governors in June to urge Congress not to “gut this critical food assistance.” He also suggested this summer that his state might have to cease its participation in SNAP altogether under the new GOP law.
Contacted for comment Tuesday, Shapiro’s office provided a response from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services noting that the error rate “is not a measurement of fraud or intentional misuse” but can instead involve “minor paperwork errors.”
The agency also cited “substantial progress” in improving its error rates in recent years but said the state could have to cover an additional $660 million when the megabill’s SNAP provisions go into effect if there is not further improvement, as well as another $125 million in administrative costs that will be newly shifted to states.
“To continue lowering our error rate, Pennsylvania will ramp up efforts to continue that progress,” the department said. “We are evaluating additional opportunities to improve case processing and lower the rate.”
“The administration has a game plan to improve case processing to lower the SNAP error rate and ensure we get the most Pennsylvanians the support they need,” added Rosie Lapowsky, a spokesperson for the governor.
Thompson says in his letter that Pennsylvania’s 11 percent error payment rate lands it in the top third of the worst-performing states — meaning it erroneously paid out more than $450 million in benefits from the federally funded program.
“It is troubling that you have been outspoken in blaming insufficient federal funding as an attempt to obfuscate a clear lack of program integrity in Pennsylvania’s SNAP program,” Thompson writes in the letter.
