Part of a post-election series today exploring the impact on business in Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico has been outside SNAP since 1982. Its Nutrition Assistance Program instead receives a fixed block grant, $2.98 billion in fiscal 2026 for about 1.42 million monthly participants, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, that does not grow in a recession or a hurricane.
USDA’s own feasibility study puts annual SNAP benefits on the island at $4.5 billion in 2031 dollars, plus up to $414 million a year in administration. The difference with today’s block grant is both the prize and the obstacle.
Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández filed the Puerto Rico Nutrition Assistance Fairness Act in September 2025 with four Democratic and four Republican cosponsors, proposing a 10-year transition with a five-year overlap and budget neutrality.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s Senate version gained Roger Wicker of Mississippi in June, a step Hernández called a breakthrough.
Both bills hit the same wall. The House passed its farm bill this year without the transition, and the Senate version, delayed by a fight over SNAP cuts in the 2025 tax law, cleared committee only in September. The 2018 farm law’s extension lapsed Sept. 30 with no final bill.
The leadership signal is clearer. Hakeem Jeffries, likely the next speaker, backed moving the island from PAN to SNAP during a May visit to Puerto Rico, calling it the right thing to do, as reported by Metro, a Caribbean Business sister newspaper.
How 2027 is likely to unfold
The farm bill becomes a Democratic rewrite. Michael Bennet, or Sherrod Brown on past seniority, is expected to chair Senate Agriculture, while Shontel Brown and Jim Costa vie for the House gavel, according to farm press reports. Bennet told Civil Eats the goal is “not just reversing the cuts” but improving SNAP.
There is precedent for inclusion. Senate Agriculture Democrats put Gillibrand’s bill in their 2024 framework, with the transition deferred to 2034 to contain cost. Expect a similar design: a long runway, planning money for data systems and Disaster SNAP access first.
The Trump team is the harder sell. The administration spent 2025 shrinking SNAP, and the farm bill still needs 60 Senate votes and a presidential signature. The expected Democratic majority of 56 senators will only be four Republicans shy of including Puerto Rico over a veto, not an insurmountable task given the political winds of the moment.
Farm-state Republicans need commodity programs renewed, which gives Democrats leverage, but Puerto Rico will compete with restoring cuts in the states.
A CB review found no prominent campaign pledges on the issue among newly elected members. The votes that matter belong to veterans such as Cory Booker, who sits on Senate Agriculture, Darren Soto and Ritchie Torres.
The federal retreat from clean energy slowed Puerto Rico’s solar push, while the Iran war and a gas-supply rupture drive record power bills. Washington’s leverage differs sharply on each
