Washington, D.C.’s food-stamp program posted a combined payment error rate of 18.66% for fiscal year 2025, the second-highest rate in the country. Only Alaska, at 23.15%, scored worse among the 53 state and territorial SNAP programs the U.S. Department of Agriculture reviewed. New Mexico, at 16.81%, came closest to the District’s number without passing it.
Most of the District’s error came from money that went out, not money that was withheld. USDA’s fiscal 2025 report splits every jurisdiction’s rate into an overpayment share and an underpayment share, and the District’s own numbers show which one carried its total.
How 18.66% breaks down: 15.33% over, 3.33% under
The District’s fiscal 2025 SNAP payment error rate was made up of 15.33% in overpayments and 3.33% in underpayments, according to USDA’s per-jurisdiction table. Overpayments, benefits sent out too high, made up more than four-fifths of the District’s total error. Alaska’s 23.15%, by comparison, split 20.58% over and 2.57% under, and New Mexico’s 16.81% split 15.76% over and 1.06% under, meaning all three of the jurisdictions at the top of the list were driven mainly by benefits that ran too high rather than too low. Nationally, USDA’s combined 10.62% rate broke down to 9.28% in overpayments and 1.33% in underpayments, so the District’s 3.33% underpayment share ran well above the national underpayment figure too, meaning its error ran high in both directions relative to the rest of the country. The District’s 18.66% is also more than six points above Virginia’s 12.32% and more than five points above Maryland’s 13.08%, its two closest neighboring states in the SNAP data.
Inside the organizer: The 51 state packs include a two-page section built around the District’s own SNAP and Medicaid renewal rules, alongside a renewal and reporting calendar for tracking deadlines. Both sit inside The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer.
Where the District sits against the rest of the country
USDA’s national combined error rate for fiscal 2025 was 10.62%, meaning the District’s 18.66% ran nearly two points shy of double the national figure. Behind New Mexico, the next-highest rates after the District belonged to Delaware (16.00%), Georgia (15.21%), Illinois (14.67%) and Oregon (14.14%). Nineteen states in total posted rates of 10% or higher, putting the District in a group of 21 jurisdictions, out of 53 nationwide, that crossed that mark. Guam, a territory rather than a state, posted 11.70%, which USDA counts separately from the 19-state list even though it also cleared the 10% mark.
A $10.1 billion national total with no jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown
USDA’s $10.1 billion figure for combined fiscal 2025 improper payments nationwide is not broken out by state or territory; the agency’s public reporting gives a dollar total only at the national level, with a percentage as the measure for each jurisdiction. That is why the District’s error is described here as a rate rather than a dollar figure: USDA has not published what share of the $10.1 billion national total came specifically from the District’s own SNAP payments.
The 6 percent line, and how SNAP rules already count the District as a state
This year’s federal accountability law, part of H.R. 1, attaches a cost to any jurisdiction whose error rate reaches 6% or higher: a rising share, 5%, 10% or 15%, of its own SNAP benefit spending, phased in for fiscal 2028 starting October 1, 2027, according to USDA’s June 24 announcement. Federal SNAP regulation defines a “State” for this purpose as any of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the Virgin Islands, according to the Code of Federal Regulations, so the District’s program is measured on the same formula as Alaska’s or New Mexico’s. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins framed the broader set of fiscal 2025 results, the District’s included, as a sign of insufficient state accountability across the program.
What comes before the 2027 start date
Jurisdictions at or above 6%, and the District’s rate clears it by more than twelve points, must also send USDA a corrective action plan spelling out what drove the errors; the agency has said it can layer on further financial penalties through SNAP’s existing quality control process. Those steps are meant to happen well before the cost-share requirement takes effect, giving the District and the other jurisdictions above 6% roughly a year to show their error rates moving in the other direction. USDA’s own accounting treats the requirement as a single shared rule: every jurisdiction facing it, from Alaska’s 23.15% down to the District’s 18.66%, files its plan under the same standard rather than a custom one written for each place.
The gap between a citywide rate and one renewal packet
USDA’s fiscal 2025 report grades the District’s SNAP program as a whole, not any single household’s recertification packet. The costly, confusing gap the report leaves is that a citywide error rate does not say whether one resident’s own renewal is complete, current or missing a document that could affect the next payment.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer includes a District-specific state pack and a renewal document checklist built to close that gap packet by packet.
See the District’s renewal pack in The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources.
