Bryan Steil, the House member for Wisconsin's 1st District, cast a deciding vote in May 2025 for the House version of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, then voted for the final law that July; by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' count, the law cuts SNAP by $187 billion, about 20 percent, through 2034. In February 2025 he cast a deciding vote for the budget plan that told the committee that writes SNAP law to cut at least $230 billion.
Steil praised the law for implementing "work requirements for able-bodied adults," and Wisconsin's health department estimates the expanded SNAP work rules affect about 43,700 FoodShare recipients. Since October 1, 2026, Wisconsin has paid three-quarters of the cost of running FoodShare, a change that adds $32.4 million to the state's costs.
Bryan Steil's Votes and Statements on SNAP and FoodShare
- Steil Voted for the Largest SNAP Cut in History After Casting a Deciding Vote for the House Version, in 2025. On May 22, 2025, Bryan Steil voted for the House version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 215 to 214, so it could not have passed without his vote. On July 3, 2025, Steil voted for the final law, which passed 218 to 214. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that "The megabill cuts SNAP by $187 billion or about 20 percent by 2034," the largest cut to SNAP in history. The Congressional Budget Office expects the law's new work rules, which now reach adults through age 64, parents of teenagers, veterans and people experiencing homelessness, to "reduce participation in SNAP by roughly 2.4 million people in an average month."
- Steil Cast a Deciding Vote for the Budget Plan That Told the Agriculture Committee to Cut $230 Billion, in February 2025. On February 25, 2025, Steil voted for H.Con.Res. 14, the budget resolution, which passed 217 to 215; a switch by him alone would have tied it, and a tie fails. It told the House Agriculture Committee, which writes SNAP law, to "reduce the deficit by not less than $230,000,000,000". He also voted for the rules that brought H.R. 1 to the floor in May and July 2025. The committee met that instruction with the law's SNAP cuts, including a rule that from fiscal year 2027 the federal government pays only 25 percent of the cost of running the program, with states paying the rest. Wisconsin's share of FoodShare's administrative costs rose from 50% to 75% on October 1, 2026, which the state health department says will cost Wisconsin an additional $32.4 million.
- Steil Praised the Law's Work Requirements, Which Reach 43,700 FoodShare Recipients, in 2025. On July 3, 2025, Steil posted that the bill "implements work requirements for able-bodied adults." At his August 7, 2025 town hall he said of the Medicaid work rules, "I suspect what we will see is a lot of that mirroring the work requirements that we see in SNAP," which he said Wisconsin first adopted in the 1990s (Racine County Eye transcript). The law's SNAP rules now cover adults through age 64 who have no child younger than 14 at home, among them parents of teenagers who used to be exempt, and Wisconsin's health department estimates the expanded rules affect about 43,700 FoodShare recipients, who lose benefits after three months if they cannot document the required hours.
What the SNAP Cuts Bryan Steil Voted For Mean for Wisconsin Families
- The law adds $69.2 million to FoodShare's costs in Wisconsin's budget. Wisconsin's health department says the law's SNAP changes add $69.2 million to the cost of FoodShare in the state's current two-year budget, money the state must find for staff and job-training slots; children make up more than 40% of FoodShare recipients, according to the Hunger Task Force.
- Tens of thousands of older Wisconsinites and parents became subject to SNAP time limits. Before the law passed, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that extending the work rules to adults ages 55 to 64 and to parents of children 14 and older, as the law does, put about 26,000 Wisconsinites ages 55 to 64 and 10,000 parents at risk of losing SNAP. In Steil's own district, Wisconsin's 1st, 36,376 households received SNAP in 2024, according to the Census Bureau; adults aged 55 to 64 and parents of children 14 and older in those households now face the time limit unless they document work hours.
Frequently Asked Questions About Bryan Steil on Food Assistance
What is Bryan Steil's record on food assistance under Trump?
Bryan Steil cast deciding votes for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's House version and for the budget plan that told the Agriculture Committee to cut at least $230 billion, then voted for the final law, which the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calls the largest cut to SNAP in history. He praised its work requirements in a July 2025 post. In Wisconsin, about 43,700 FoodShare recipients face the expanded work rules.
Who lost their SNAP exemption under the law Bryan Steil voted for?
Under the law Bryan Steil voted for, veterans, people experiencing homelessness and former foster youth no longer have an exemption from SNAP's three-month time limit, and the Congressional Budget Office expects SNAP participation among those groups alone to fall by a net 300,000 people. Parents keep the exemption only if they care for a child younger than 14.
What will the SNAP changes Bryan Steil voted for cost Wisconsin taxpayers?
The SNAP changes in the law Bryan Steil voted for will cost Wisconsin $69.2 million in its current two-year budget, according to the state health department, including $20.7 million to expand FoodShare's job-training program for people now subject to work rules and $16.1 million for staff to administer FoodShare accurately.
Last updated: 2026-10-26