On July 4, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 (OBBB). The law contains several provisions that affect our programs.
This memorandum covers questions related to provisions in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Standardization of Heating and Cooling Standard Utility Allowances rule and the implementation process. FNS plans to publish additional question and answer guidance in the following months.
Electronic Benefits Transfer is an electronic system that allows a SNAP participant to pay for food using SNAP benefits. When a participant shops at a SNAP authorized retail store, their SNAP EBT account is debited to reimburse the store for food that was purchased. EBT is in use in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.
The Agricultural Act of 2018 authorizes the use of mobile technologies for the purpose of accessing SNAP benefits for payment at the point-of-sale. This will allow SNAP participants to input their Electronic Benefit Transfer card into a mobile device and make SNAP purchases at the point-of-sale without the presence of the EBT card.
In October 2019, FNS published a proposed rule entitled “Standardization of State Heating and Cooling Standard Utility Allowances.” This action modernizes the standard utility allowances used in calculating Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in order to enhance program integrity and ensure equity among program participants.