USDA proposes rules for Alaska's SNAP work-limit reprieve, which must end by 2028

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday proposed rules for a federal exemption that gives Alaska extra time to enforce a three-month limit on SNAP benefits for many adults, an exemption federal law says can't last past 2028.

The same day, state officials told legislators that Alaska already has the exemption through Oct. 31, 2027. Division of Public Assistance Director Deb Etheridge said the state runs SNAP on a legacy computer system and the federal changes kept it from succeeding on the administrative side, according to the hearing record. She also cited the outreach needed for a change that affects people's food benefits. The state got its first year of the exemption, then asked for and received a second, she said.

Under the time limit, adults 18 through 64 who don't qualify for an exception can get SNAP for only three months in three years unless they work or join a qualifying program about 80 hours a month. Last year's federal budget law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, raised the top age from 54 and ended exceptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness and young adults who aged out of foster care. Adults responsible for a child are now excepted only if the child is under 14, down from under 18.

The proposed rule would write those changes into USDA's regulations, along with the good-faith exemption, which the law makes available only to Alaska and Hawaii. It expires by Dec. 31, 2028, and can't be renewed past that date.

In Anchorage, which the exemption's first year didn't cover, the time limit began applying in November 2025.

People who meet the federal Indian Health Care Improvement Act's definition of "Indian" or "Urban Indian" are excepted from the time limit outright. The state told legislators that covers qualifying Alaska Native and American Indian people. USDA says they don't have to live on reservation land.

In a consultation with USDA in October 2025, tribal leaders raised concerns that losing the exceptions for older adults, veterans and former foster youth could cost some tribal members their benefits. USDA said those changes are set by law and can't be altered by the rule, and that it expects many of those people to stay eligible under the new tribal exception.

Rep. Andrew Gray, an Anchorage Democrat, said at Tuesday's hearing that people who lose SNAP don't stop buying food. Instead, he said, they may stop paying rent or heating bills. "If you lose your SNAP, then you could end up homeless," he said.

To get the exemption under the proposal, a state would have to describe its efforts so far, the barriers it faces and a timeline with milestones, as the law requires. USDA would add two requirements of its own: a plan for tracking results and a list of which residents the state would exempt. Approved states would file quarterly progress reports. USDA could end the exemption early if reports are missed or show the state has stopped making a good-faith effort.

The law, which the proposal would also write in, lets Alaska and Hawaii seek waivers for areas where unemployment is at least 1.5 times the national rate. Other states need an area unemployment rate above 10%.

It follows a separate USDA proposal that could undo Alaska's 2024 expansion of SNAP, which raised income limits and dropped the asset test. Comments on the work-limit proposal are due Dec. 10.