On May 22, 2025, Richard Hudson cast a vote the House needed to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act 215 to 214. Six weeks later, on July 3, his yes helped finish a law that removes $187 billion from SNAP through 2034, roughly 20 percent of the program and, by CBPP's reckoning, the deepest SNAP cut ever enacted.
It began with Hudson's February 25, 2025 vote, which decided the budget resolution that set a $230 billion floor for savings from the Agriculture Committee. North Carolina, where counties run SNAP, handed the law's higher administrative share to county governments, and NC Health News counted more than 110,000 fewer North Carolinians on SNAP by August 2026 than in September 2025.
Richard Hudson's Votes on SNAP, From the Budget Plan to the Final Law
- Hudson Carried the House Bill by One Vote and Then Voted for the Final Law's $187 Billion SNAP Cut. Richard Hudson voted yes on H.R. 1 on May 22, 2025, when the House passed it 215 to 214, so his vote was one it could not lose. He voted yes again on July 3, 2025 as the House approved the Senate's text 218 to 214. CBPP's tally of the result: "The megabill cuts SNAP by $187 billion or about 20 percent by 2034." The time limit that once stopped at 54 now reaches people up to 64, and it also covers parents whose youngest is 14, veterans and homeless adults; the Congressional Budget Office says those rules will "reduce participation in SNAP by roughly 2.4 million people in an average month."
- Hudson's Deciding February 2025 Vote Ordered $230 Billion From the Committee Over SNAP. On February 25, 2025, Hudson voted to adopt H.Con.Res. 14, which won 217 to 215, a margin that a lone switch by him would have turned into a failing tie. It instructed the Agriculture Committee, which writes SNAP law, to "reduce the deficit by not less than $230,000,000,000". Hudson then voted for the rules that brought H.R. 1 up in May and July 2025. When the final law passed on July 3 with Hudson's vote, it cut SNAP, including through a shift that, starting in fiscal year 2027, leaves the federal government paying only 25 percent of SNAP's administrative costs, with states covering the other three quarters. Beginning in fiscal 2028, states with higher payment error rates also pay part of the benefits.
What Richard Hudson's SNAP Votes Cost North Carolina Families and Counties
- More than 110,000 North Carolinians have dropped off SNAP, and pantries are seeing the overflow. North Carolina's SNAP caseload fell by more than 110,000 people between September 2025 and August 2026, NC Health News reported, while in Guilford County the food nonprofit A Simple Gesture said demand was running 20 percent above the year before. Families who leave SNAP still need groceries, and the pantries they turn to say charity covers only a small fraction of what federal aid did.
- CBPP put 90,000 older and parent North Carolinians at risk of losing SNAP under work rules like the law's. CBPP's June 2025 state estimates, which modeled a Senate Agriculture Committee draft carrying both expansions later written into the law, put 47,000 North Carolinians at risk in an average month among adults 55 to 64 with no children or disability, plus 43,000 parents whose youngest child is 14 or older. Anyone in those groups who cannot document the hours is cut off after three months.
- North Carolina counties pay $52 million more to run SNAP, and the state could owe about $140 million in fiscal 2028. North Carolina is one of two states that "passed increased costs entirely to counties," Ballotpedia News reported. NC Health News pegged the counties' added expense at roughly $52 million in year one; as Scotland County's manager told the outlet, "We juggle other things in the budget." In fiscal 2028, based on its 7.36 percent payment error rate, North Carolina would owe 5 percent of benefit costs, about $140 million, CBPP estimates.
Frequently Asked Questions About Richard Hudson on Food Assistance
What is Richard Hudson's record on food assistance under Trump?
Richard Hudson's 2025 House votes for the SNAP cuts include his deciding February 25 vote for the budget resolution that demanded $230 billion from SNAP's committee, his deciding May 22 vote for the House bill, and his July 3 vote for the final law. The law's $187 billion SNAP reduction is the largest the program has seen, CBPP found. North Carolina has passed the new administrative costs to its counties.
When did the SNAP work rules Richard Hudson voted for take effect in North Carolina?
North Carolina began applying the SNAP changes in the law Richard Hudson voted for on December 1, 2025, the state health department says. Since that date, SNAP recipients from 18 to 64, where the cutoff used to be 54, are held to a three-months-in-three-years limit unless they document 80 qualifying hours each month; the state also lists veterans, homeless people and former foster youth among those whose exemptions are gone.
When do North Carolina taxpayers start paying more for SNAP because of Richard Hudson's votes?
Under the law Richard Hudson voted for, the higher administrative share began on October 1, 2026, the first day of fiscal year 2027, and North Carolina left it to the counties, which hoped the state would cover it and did not get the money, NC Health News reported. A second charge arrives in fiscal year 2028, when the state starts paying part of SNAP benefits themselves, about $140 million that year at its fiscal 2025 error rate, by CBPP's estimate.
Last updated: 2026-10-27