The effects of pandemic supplemental nutrition assistance program waivers on program participation

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress authorized states to implement optional Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) operational waivers that reduced administrative burdens. This study focuses on a waiver that extended households’ certification periods, allowing many participants to continue receiving SNAP benefits without completing routine recertification reporting requirements. We examine how SNAP participation changed when states terminated this waiver and reinstated compliance requirements. Using monthly SNAP participation data from 17 states that consistently implemented the waiver and a staggered difference-in-differences design, our key independent variable is the state-by-month timing of waiver termination, which varied across states. Results provide quasi-experimental evidence that waiver termination led to statistically significant declines in SNAP participation. Effects emerged soon after termination and grew over subsequent months, consistent with cumulative disenrollment as more households reached recertification windows. Across specifications, termination is associated with an approximately 2–4% relative reduction in SNAP participation. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest this corresponds to thousands of individuals per state exiting SNAP in the year following waiver termination. Because the policy changes primarily reinstated administrative requirements rather than eligibility rules, some of these exits likely reflect administrative churn (“hidden cutoffs”) among households that may remain eligible but fail to recertify.