The Trump administration proposed a new rule Tuesday that would deny food stamps to 3.1 million Americans currently receiving them.

Agriculture Department officials said that by tightening eligibility requirements for food stamps the government would save about $2.5 billion a year. Reuters reports that a separate estimate by the Congressional Budget Office puts the savings at $8.1 billion between now and 2028 (roughly $1 billion per year).

Food stamps are supplied to qualifying Americans by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and President Trump “has argued that many Americans now using SNAP do not need it given the strong economy and low unemployment, and should be removed,” Reuters says.

SNAP currently provides food stamps to about 40 million people, or 12% of the U.S. population.

USDA officials say the Trump administration will propose to tighten access to food stamps — cutting 3.1 million people from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) https://t.co/WIaDWYmoTx

— Axios (@axios) July 23, 2019

Announcing the plan, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue cited “abuse of a critical safety net system” through what he called a “loophole” in the program, allowing states to make anyone eligible for food stamps if they receive other benefits from another program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Currently, 43 states do so.

“For too long, this loophole has been used to effectively bypass important eligibility guidelines. Too often, states have misused this flexibility without restraint,” Perdue said, according to the Associated Press.

The new rule will be open for public comment for 60 days.

But according to a USDA official, the agency does not need approval from Congress to stop states from automatically making TANF recipients eligible for food stamps.