State plans to bar SNAP recipients from buying soda and candy with food-stamp benefits are being pushed back in several states after the U.S. Department of Agriculture asked for more time to sort out the rules following a federal court ruling this summer. South Carolina, North Dakota and Ohio all had waivers approved to start restricting sugary purchases as early as this month, and USDA has since asked each of them to hold off, with North Dakota and South Carolina now pointed toward a November 1 start instead. For SNAP recipients trying to plan grocery budgets around a rule change, the delay means the EBT card that was supposed to stop covering soda and candy in September will likely keep covering it for at least a few more weeks.
Why USDA Is Pumping the Brakes
The delays trace back to a federal district court ruling in June that vacated SNAP food-restriction waivers USDA had approved for five other states: Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia. According to Grocery Dive’s reporting on USDA’s response, the agency told South Carolina it is requesting the delay while its general counsel and the Justice Department continue reviewing what that ruling means for other states’ previously approved waivers, even though the June decision technically named only the five states directly involved in that case. Ohio and South Carolina were also told USDA wants time to run the waivers through a formal public-comment process rather than let them take effect on their original schedules.
Virginia moved its own waiver’s start date back as well, separate from the South Carolina and Ohio timeline, adding a fourth state to the list of places where a purchase restriction that was on track for this fall is now pushed later in the year.
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The 30-Day Comment Period Ahead of Any Waiver
USDA has committed to publishing notice of each state’s waiver in the Federal Register at least 30 days before it can take effect, a step the agency is applying to South Carolina’s waiver specifically and treating as a template for the others under review. That comment window means a November 1 target date is itself contingent on USDA completing the Federal Register process on schedule, and a further slip is possible if the legal review or the comment period runs long. The USDA waiver status page is the place each state’s current approved date is tracked as it changes.
The pattern across all four states is the same: an approved waiver that had cleared USDA’s initial review is now paused for a second layer of process before it can actually change what a SNAP card covers at checkout.
The June court ruling did not strike down the concept of a food-restriction waiver itself; it vacated the specific waivers granted to Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia on procedural grounds. USDA’s caution with South Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio and Virginia reflects an effort to avoid the same legal vulnerability the agency’s lawyers found in those earlier approvals, rather than a decision to abandon purchase restrictions as a policy tool.
What Still Applies at the Register Today
Until a state’s waiver formally takes effect, SNAP’s existing purchase rules continue to apply, meaning soda, candy and other items covered by the paused waivers remain eligible purchases with SNAP benefits in South Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio and Virginia for now. A recipient in any of those states does not need to change shopping habits based on the original September target date, since that date no longer governs. Retailers and SNAP recipients alike should expect the actual restriction to arrive, if it does, no earlier than each state’s newly delayed date, and only after USDA completes the public-comment step tied to it.
Several other states have their own USDA-approved purchase-restriction waivers moving forward on separate timelines unaffected by this round of delays, so a SNAP recipient’s actual experience at checkout increasingly depends on which state issued the card rather than any single national rule, and USDA’s waiver status page remains the most current way to check a specific state’s status.
A Delayed Rule Doesn’t Delay a Renewal Deadline
A purchase-restriction waiver moving to November has nothing to do with when a household’s SNAP case itself is due for recertification, and the two dates can land in the same season without being connected. A household that spends the fall tracking one date risks losing track of the other entirely.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer is a 13-page organizer with a renewal and reporting calendar and 51 state packs covering each state’s SNAP rules.
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This article was written with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by The Financial Wire editorial team.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
