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Happy Thursday! In today’s newsletter, we examine Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program expenditures over time, student debt in professional degrees, and the housing supply crisis.

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1. SNAP Spending
Topline: Total Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) expenditures in 2025 are nearly double what they were 20 years ago. AEI’s Angela Rachidi finds <[link removed]> that even after the cuts resulting from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), SNAP’s average costs will remain above pre-pandemic levels and
far above the early 2000s.

Big Beautiful Cuts: The OBBBA is expected to reduce SNAP spending by $186.7 billion over the next 10 years—or 16 percent annually—according to the Congressional Budget Office. Currently, SNAP provides nearly $100 billion in food assistance for low-income households each year. As Rachidi warns, the program’s growth has outpaced what population increases, economic changes, and unemployment rates would predict.

The Impact: Roughly 35 percent of the reduction in federal spending on SNAP comes from shifting costs to states. Rachidi argues that states are likely to cover these costs, as their alternative would be forgoing hundreds of millions of federal dollars still supporting SNAP. For this reason, individuals are unlikely to experience direct effects from the cuts.
2. Graduate Degree Debt
Topline: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will allow students in “professional degree” programs to borrow $50,000 per year, in contrast to the $20,500 limit set for students working toward nonprofessional graduate degrees. AEI’s Preston Cooper argues <[link removed]> this distinction is important and will help protect students from accruing high amounts of debt in pursuit of degrees that only lead to lower-wage professions.

Professional Programs: Ninety-seven percent of professional degrees are awarded in health care or law fields. In contrast, social work programs awarded 220 professional degrees—a mere 0.62 percent of the total work degrees conferred in this field during the 2022–23 academic year.

Hidden Incentives: While universities will bring in more cash if their students can borrow more, higher caps work against the best interests of students in programs with lower expected
wages. Consequently, Cooper warns that the Department of Education should be wary of schools attempting to reclassify certain degrees as “professional.”





“In OBBB, Congress struck a great victory against rising student debt. However, colleges may undermine this victory if the Education Department is not vigilant. Schools will undoubtedly seek to reclassify degrees as professional to allow students to take on more debt and charge higher tuition. To defend Congressional intent and save students from crushing debt, the Department must stop them.”—Preston Cooper
3. Housing Supply Solutions
Topline: Allowing homes to be built on smaller lots can help alleviate housing shortages, AEI’s Edward J. Pinto and Tobias Peter highlight <[link removed]>. For example, if lot sizes had been 25 percent smaller in the Dallas–Fort Worth metro since 2000, an additional 200,000 homes could have been built.

The Shortage: While 640,000 single-family homes have been built since 2000, estimates still put the Dallas–Fort Worth metro at 84,000 housing units short of what is needed. Combined with home prices that have surged 170 percent since 2012, first-time and move-up buyers are left out to dry.

A New Bill: A recently passed Texas bill allows for lots smaller than 3,000 square feet, the previous minimum, in new subdivisions. The authors estimate that this is likely to provide as many as 9,000 starter homes in each city.





“Left unaddressed,
Texas risks following California’s path towards increasing housing unaffordability. Or, it can choose a path of growth, opportunity, and rising living standards by allowing a more plentiful housing supply. This would mean a Texas where young people can afford to start families and where grandparents can see their grandchildren more than just on the holidays.”—Edward J. Pinto and Tobias Peter
DIVE INTO MORE DATA
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