On July 4, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed Public Law 119-21, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025. The law contains several provisions that affect the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). These include changes to SNAP eligibility, benefits, and program administration. This information memorandum describes the SNAP provisions and effective dates for most provisions.
On July 4, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025. We are issuing this memorandum to provide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program state agencies with additional information on implementing Section 10103 of the OBBB, which changes the treatment of certain energy assistance payments for SNAP.
Updated guidance on the use of non-merit personnel for SNAP administration activities is forthcoming. In the meantime, FNS encourages states to submit demonstration projects that help create efficiencies and programmatic improvements.
On July 4, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 (OBBB). Section 10104 of the OBBB prohibits state agencies from treating internet costs as an allowable shelter expense for the purposes of the excess shelter deduction in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
This memorandum provides the FY 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustments to the SNAP maximum allotments, income eligibility standards, and deductions. Under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, COLAs are effective as of Oct. 1, 2025.
The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, as amended, requires the SNAP QC system use a tolerance level to set a monetary threshold for determining which QC errors are included in the calculation of payment error rates. This threshold is adjusted annually to correspond with changes in the Thrifty Food Plan. The threshold will increase from $57 in FY 2025 to $58 for FY 2026.
USDA has established the SNAP Information Database. In accordance with Secretary Rollins’ July 9, 2025, letter, and in order to ensure a complete and accurate database, state agencies must be compliant with the requirement of transmitting SNAP participant data to FNS no later than July 30, 2025.
On May 6, 2025, state agencies were advised of the United States Department of Agriculture’s intent to implement President Trump’s March 20, 2025, Executive Order 14243, Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos through State data sharing to the Food and Nutrition Service.
This memorandum provides revised guidance for school food authorities (SFAs) participating in the school meal programs regarding fees charged when families use electronic payment services to add money to school meal accounts. It also reminds SFAs that they must offer a free and accessible method for all families to add money to school meal accounts.
We work in partnership with state agencies to provide nutrition assistance to Americans in need through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It is imperative that USDA eliminates bureaucratic duplication and inefficiency and enhances the government's ability not only to have point-in-time information but also to detect overpayments and fraud.