Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins signed three new state SNAP food restriction waivers on Tuesday. The waivers authorize Arkansas, Idaho, and Utah to prohibit Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients from using the welfare program to buy soda, sugary drinks, and candy.
SNAP is a federally administered but state-operated public assistance program that provides food stamps to low-income individuals. The new waivers work by amending the states’ statutory definitions of food available for purchase using SNAP benefits, and they will take effect in the three states in 2026.
Prior to these waivers, SNAP recipients could buy any food, drinks, or food-producing seeds and plants in grocery or convenience stores except alcohol, tobacco, hot and prepared foods, and personal care products. According to the USDA, the Trump administration is leading an effort to “restore nutritional value within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).” Using federally granted state waivers allows individual states, cooperating with the Trump administration, to restrict SNAP without the need for Congress to pass national regulations on SNAP. The three new states joined Nebraska, Iowa, and Indiana, which had their waivers approved in May.
In the USDA statement, Rollins said that “the Trump Administration is unified in improving the health of our nation.” She added, “Each waiver submitted by the states and signed is yet another step closer to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to Make America Healthy Again.”
Roughly 42 million people, or 12.6 percent of U.S. residents, receive SNAP benefits. According to Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, food stamps amount to a $119 billion federal program. However, about 23 percent of food stamp spending, amounting to an annual cost of $27 billion, is spent to purchase soft drinks, unhealthy snacks, candy, and desserts. (RELATED: We Need Welfare Reform That Works)
According to a USDA study, sweetened beverages alone accounted for 9.3 percent of SNAP recipients’ household’s grocery bill and were the second-largest category, only behind the category for meat, poultry, and seafood.
The move for states to adopt SNAP food restriction waivers for unhealthy foods is a small but necessary step for the broader MAHA movement. Rollins said at Tuesday’s press conference that her department has “encouraged states to think differently and creatively about how to solve the many health issues facing Americans.” Rollins added that one way to work toward that goal is “disallowing taxpayer-funded benefits to purchase unhealthy items, like soda, candy, and other junk food.” She also touted the USDA’s cooperation with U.S. companies to remove artificial colors and other food dyes from their products.
Rollins was joined by MAHA movement leader Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently removed all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. Rollins and Kennedy have previously co-written an article highlighting the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic and the administration’s plan to combat it, which includes reforms. The article claims that one in five American children is obese today, and two in five school-aged children and adolescents have at least one chronic health condition. (RELATED: ‘A Clean Sweep’: RFK Jr. Fires 17 Members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices)
Further, one Stanford University study predicted that restricting sugary drinks from food stamps nationally would prevent obesity in 141,000 kids and type 2 diabetes in 240,000 adults. At the waivers’ signings on Tuesday, Kennedy called for “every governor in the nation to submit a SNAP waiver to eliminate sugary drinks — taxpayer dollars should never bankroll products that fuel the chronic disease epidemic.”
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