A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows 81,800 Alabamians have lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program since last year.

The report shows that SNAP enrollment in the state decreased by 11% from July 2025 to April 2026. The decline in enrollment affects 23,324 children’s access to SNAP benefits. 

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that nationwide SNAP enrollment has decreased by 11% in that same timeframe. 

SNAP enrollment decreased following new SNAP work requirements and cost-sharing requirements included in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Under OBBA, the upper age limit of the work requirements to receive SNAP benefits was raised from 54 to 65. Additionally, the bill also requires caretakers of children older than 14 to work for a minimum of 20 hours per week in order to receive benefits.

In a press conference held last week, several nonprofit and healthcare leaders raised concerns about decreased SNAP enrollment. 

“To the extent that we are making policy decisions today, about foregoing the opportunity to feed hungry children, we are having consequences that will haunt us going forward a generation from now,” Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said.

Other leaders raised concerns that lower SNAP enrollment could impact businesses. The USDA estimates each dollar of SNAP benefits generates $1.50 to $2 in economic activity. 

OBAA’s SNAP requirements also introduced a penalty for states with high enrollment error rates — a measure of overpayments and underpayments to those enrolled in the benefit program. This penalty would require states with an error rate of more than 6% to pay a fine that would contribute to the program’s operating costs. This measure is set to take effect in October 2027.

Alabama SNAP error rate for fiscal year 2025 was 9.52%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Alabama Department of Human Resources. Unless state officials can get the error rate to below 7.99% for fiscal year 2026, Alabama will have to pay for roughly 10% of the state’s SNAP benefits — totaling in at about $174.3 million — in October 2027. This cost exceeds the Alabama Department of Human Resources’ 2026 budget by more than $20 million.

However, Alabama officials are pushing for the federal government to extend the deadline to lower error rates. The board of ADHR unanimously voted last week to ask the Alabama congressional delegation to push for a two-year delayed implementation of the error rate penalty.

“It’s not even close to a measure of fraud. It’s when a household circumstance changes, and they do not report that, it ends up becoming a potential error in that case,” Alabama SNAP Director Brandon Hardin said at an ADHR meeting. 

Alabama top stories in brief

Two environmental groups seek to block Conecuh National Forest drilling

• The Center for Biological Diversity and the Alabama Ornithological Society last week filed an appeal seeking to block oil and gas drilling in the Conecuh National Forest.
• Earlier this year, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service chose to open 2,000 acres of the national forest to private oil and gas drilling.
• The environmental groups claim that the decision to open the forest for drilling violates the Endangered Species Act because the Bureau of Land Management did not consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about the impacts of drilling on the forest’s ecosystem. Instead, the agency relied on an impact study from 2004 in its decision.
• The forest is home to several endangered species — nine of which have been listed as endangered since 2004. This includes the Escambia map turtle, the Eastern black rail and the Northern long-eared bat. 

Auburn grad students, professors sue university over alleged ‘frat house’ environment

• Two former doctoral students and three professors have filed a federal lawsuit alleging grad students faced sexual discrimination at Auburn University’s College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment.
• The lawsuit alleges that the two students, Kaitlin Connelly and Marlene Walters, endured a hostile “frat house” environment — including sex jokes and an “overtly sexualized culture” — that negatively impacted their ability to work and study.
• Both Connelly and Walters left the program before completing their PhDs.
• The lawsuit names one professor, Jonathan Valente, as allowing “the ‘frat house’ atmosphere to flourish” among male colleagues in the college and giving preferential treatment to male grad students.
• The three professors involved in the lawsuit — Professors Christopher Lepczyk, Robert Gitzen and Jean Fantle-Lepczyk — said they complained to department leadership and the EEOC about the students’ treatment. They allege they faced retaliation for complaining by being passed over for promotions.

Federal oversight of Tutwiler Prison terminated

• A federal judge last week terminated a consent decree between the Alabama Department of Corrections and the U.S. Department of Justice that provided greater federal oversight over the Julia Tutwiler Prison in Wetumpka. 
• The consent decree dates back to 2015, after the DOJ released a report detailing rampant sexual abuse and harassment inside the women’s prison. The report found that inmates in the prison were victims of rape and sexual harassment from prison staff and that ADOC did not have a system for reporting sexual abuse.
• The consent decree required staff to undergo training to respond to sexual abuse and harassment in the prison, as well as requiring ADOC to develop gender-responsive policies to respond to sexual abuse. 
• Majority of the provisions — 38 out of 444 — outlined in the consent decree were terminated in September 2024 during negotiations between ADOC and the DOJ, with the federal agency scaling back its oversight of daily prison operations.
• “Over the past decade, the Alabama Department of Corrections has made real, measurable progress in strengthening oversight and safety at Tutwiler, and this judgment reflects that work,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a press release.

APT board using emergency funds to pay for controversial survey

• The Alabama Educational Television Foundation Authority — the board that oversees Alabama Public Television — voted last week to use APT’s emergency funds to pay for a survey gauging Alabamians’ opinions on PBS.
• The survey will be conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, a Republican-aligned national survey research company, and is expected to cost $47,400.
• APT staff members criticized the board’s decision to use the emergency fund. “We didn’t use the rainy day fund nine months ago when we unfortunately had to lay off 11 people because of the defunding,” said APT’s Chief Financial Officer Melissa Austin.
• The plan to conduct a survey was approved by the board in April as part of an ongoing discussion about disaffiliating APT from PBS.

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