Greg Abbott and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: Record-Low SNAP Enrollment Under His Health Agency, the Private-School Tax Credit He Opted Texas Into, His Call to Finish the Bill, and a $31 Billion Medicaid Cut

Since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act became law, SNAP enrollment in Texas has fallen 20.8% in a year, to 2.8 million people, the fewest since 2009, a drop experts tie to the law. Over the same period the state health agency run by Greg Abbott's appointee, working to avoid the law's new penalties for payment errors, handled only 64% of SNAP applications on time in September 2026.

Since October 1, 2026, Texas has carried a larger share of SNAP's running costs, about $117 million more a year, with no money set aside for it, and in December 2025 Abbott opted Texas into the law's federal tax credit for donations to private-school scholarship groups, which EdTrust estimates could cost up to $56 billion a year nationwide.

On May 22, 2025, Abbott urged Congress to get the bill to the finish line. By KFF's estimates, the law cuts federal Medicaid spending in Texas by $31.27 billion over ten years and leaves 480,000 more Texans uninsured in 2034.

Greg Abbott's Actions and Statement on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

• Abbott's Health Agency Processed Only 64% of SNAP Applications on Time as It Worked to Avoid the Law's Penalties. Stephanie Muth, whom Greg Abbott appointed to run the Texas Health and Human Services Commission from January 3, 2026, told the Legislature in her 2028-2029 budget request that lowering the state's SNAP error rate was her top priority; under the law, a rate near 9% could cost Texas up to $2 billion in that budget. The agency told the Texas Tribune that "New SNAP mandates require a thorough review of each case to ensure program integrity and accuracy." In September 2026 the agency processed 64% of SNAP applications within 30 days, against 91% a year earlier and the 95% federal standard, and advocacy groups say the drive to cut errors has built a large backlog of SNAP and Medicaid applications. Enrollment fell to 2.8 million Texans, down 20.8% from a year earlier, and the Tribune reported that experts believe the drop stems from the law.
• Texas Under Abbott Set Aside No Money When the Law Raised the State's Share of SNAP Running Costs. Under the law, the federal share of SNAP's administrative costs fell from half to a quarter on October 1, 2026. Under Greg Abbott, Texas made no appropriation for the larger state share: Ballotpedia found that Texas lawmakers finalized their budget before the law was enacted and that budget did not include the money. Texas would need an additional $117 million a year to cover the increase, KERA reported, and Ballotpedia named Texas as one of four states whose budgets left it out.
• Abbott Opted Texas Into the Law's Federal Tax Credit for Private-School Scholarship Donations. On December 10, 2025, Greg Abbott announced Texas's plan to join the federal tax-credit scholarship program the law created, saying: "Thanks to President Trump, generous Texans can receive a tax credit for donations to a qualified scholarship granting organization." Texas is on the IRS's June 2026 list of states that elected to take part. The credit repays donors dollar for dollar, up to $1,700 each, for gifts to groups that fund private-school scholarships, and EdTrust estimates it could cost the federal government up to $56 billion a year with scholarship eligibility reaching about 90% of families, the very wealthy included. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy expects most eligible people not to give, in part "because private school vouchers are unpopular with the public."
• Abbott Urged Congress to Finish the Bill That Became the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. On May 22, 2025, the day the House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Greg Abbott thanked the House for designating $12 billion in the bill to reimburse states for border security and said: "there is more work yet to be done to get this legislation to the finish line." The bill became law on July 4, 2025. The Congressional Budget Office found that the law leaves the lowest-income tenth of households about $1,200 a year worse off, mostly through its Medicaid and SNAP cuts, while the top tenth gains about $13,600, and that it adds about $4.2 trillion to federal debt by 2034.

Greg Abbott and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Date by Date

### May 22, 2025: Greg Abbott Calls for Finishing the House-Passed Bill

On the day of the House vote, Greg Abbott's office issued a release crediting the Texas congressional delegation for the bill's border reimbursement money and saying the legislation still had to get through Congress.

### July 4, 2025: The Bill Becomes Law

H.R. 1 became Public Law 119-21, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with provisions that take effect from 2025 through 2028.

### November 3, 2025: Texas Applies to the Law's Rural Health Fund

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission submitted its Rural Texas Strong application to the fund and was awarded $281.3 million for the first year, which KFF puts at $66 for each rural Texan.

### December 10, 2025: Greg Abbott Opts Texas Into the Private-School Tax Credit

Greg Abbott announced that Texas intends to take part in the law's federal scholarship tax credit, and the IRS later listed Texas among the participating states.

### January 3, 2026: Greg Abbott's Appointee Takes Over the State Health Agency

Stephanie Muth, appointed by Greg Abbott, became executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the agency that runs SNAP and Medicaid in Texas.

### October 1, 2026: Texas Starts Paying 75% of SNAP's Running Costs

The state's share of SNAP administrative costs rose from 50% to 75% under the law, with no added appropriation in the Texas budget.

### October 23, 2026: Texas SNAP Enrollment Reaches a 17-Year Low

The Texas Tribune reported that the September count of SNAP recipients was the lowest since August 2009, and that the state was meeting the 30-day deadline for less than two thirds of applications.

What the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Greg Abbott Urged Congress to Finish Costs Texas, Topic by Topic

• 480,000 more Texans uninsured in 2034. On health care, KFF projects the law will leave 480,000 more Texans without insurance in 2034, 110,000 of them through Medicaid, and will reduce federal Medicaid dollars for Texas by $31.27 billion over a decade.
• $3.48 billion a year in Texas hospital payments phased down from 2028. For rural hospitals, the law phases down about $3.48 billion a year in Texas hospital directed payments starting in 2028 and takes about $4.0 billion over ten years from Medicaid in rural Texas.
• About $725 million a year in SNAP benefit costs from October 2027. On food assistance, Texas's 9.34% error rate would put it in the 10% cost-share tier from fiscal 2028, about $725 million a year by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' estimate, and the law's wider work rules put about 107,000 Texans aged 55 to 64 and 76,000 parents of teenagers at risk of losing aid.
• 350,000 Texans losing marketplace coverage. On insurance costs, KFF counts 350,000 of the 480,000 newly uninsured Texans as people losing marketplace plans, where the law ends automatic re-enrollment with financial help from 2028 and makes enrollees repay excess credits in full.
• Tax cuts that favor the top. On taxes and the deficit, the top 1 percent of Texans will save an average of $114,680 a year on federal income tax under the law, the Texas Tribune reported from Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy figures, while the law adds $4.2 trillion to the debt through 2034.
• Texas household energy bills would rise by $3.7 billion in 2030. On energy and utility bills, Energy Innovation projected that the House-passed version of the law would raise Texas household energy bills by $3.7 billion in 2030 and cost Texas 61,100 jobs that year.
• 91 million more tons of greenhouse gases. On climate, Energy Innovation's analysis of the House-passed bill projected more than 91 million metric tons of added greenhouse gas emissions in Texas in 2035 and 156 more premature deaths a year by 2035 from dirtier air.
• Texas borrowers pay $2,159 more a year. On student debt, the Center for American Progress estimates that Texas borrowers moved from the SAVE plan to the law's new repayment plan will pay $2,159 more a year on average.
• A detention system holding nearly 70,000 people. On immigration, the law gave ICE $45 billion for detention; by March 2026 nearly 70,000 people were held in ICE detention and 23 had died in custody since October 2025, NPR reported.
• Older immigrants lose Medicare. On Medicare, the Congressional Budget Office projects that about 100,000 lawfully present immigrants, including refugees and people granted asylum, will have lost Medicare under the law by 2034.
• No minimum staffing in nursing homes until 2034. On elder care, the law blocks the federal nursing-home staffing standard through September 30, 2034, a standard that only about one in five nursing facilities met, KFF found.
• Children lose the Child Tax Credit. On child care and families, the law's Social Security number rule strips the Child Tax Credit from about 2.6 million or more children nationwide, by the National Immigration Law Center's estimate.
• Silencers and short-barreled guns untaxed. On guns, the law cut the federal tax on silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns to $0, which Everytown estimates will cost about $1.7 billion in revenue over ten years.
• A farm subsidy loophole that hurts younger farmers. On agriculture, the law lets farms multiply the $155,000 cap on farm program payments by the number of pass-through entities in an operation, which University of Illinois economists say favors established farmers over younger ones.
• SNAP time limits for homeless people and veterans. On homelessness and poverty, the law ended the exemptions from SNAP's three-month time limit for people experiencing homelessness, veterans and young adults who aged out of foster care, part of a net drop in SNAP participation of about 300,000 people a month that the Congressional Budget Office expects.

Frequently Asked Questions About Greg Abbott on One Big Beautiful Bill

Last updated: 2026-10-26

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