USDA’s SNAP food-restriction waiver table, updated October 2, 2026, lists 23 states as approved to limit what food stamps buy. Five of those approvals were vacated by a federal court on June 22, which leaves 18 states whose waivers still stand: eight with a limit already at the register and ten waiting on a start date.
The count matters because the table’s own approved column does not separate the two groups, and one of the five vacated states, Nebraska, still carries an “Approved” row.
From 23 rows to 18
Each row of USDA’s waiver table falls into one of three groups once the court order is applied. Eight states have limits in force, according to start dates that have already passed:
- Indiana and Utah, since January 1.
- Idaho and Oklahoma, since February 15, and Louisiana, since February 18.
- Texas, since April 1, and Florida, since April 20.
- Arkansas, since July 1.
Five more have approvals with a November 1, 2026 start still ahead: Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia. Another five are scheduled further out: Wyoming on February 1, 2027, Kansas and Missouri on February 15, 2027, Hawaii on April 1, 2027 and Nevada on February 1, 2028. Eight, five and five make 18.
The five the court removed
The table names four vacated waivers: Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and West Virginia. The fifth is Nebraska. USDA’s Nebraska page, updated October 2, carries the same sentence as the other four states’ pages: “On June 22, 2026, the US District Court for the District of Columbia, in Aragon et al. v. Rollins et al., 1:26-cv-00861 (D.D.C.), ordered that FNA’s approval of the waiver be vacated and that the waiver’s implementation may not proceed.” The table row for Nebraska still reads December 1, 2026, approved.
Covington & Burling’s analysis of the decision confirms the five: it says the plaintiffs were SNAP recipients in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia. USDA’s Nebraska page also records a new request the state filed on September 1, 2026, and says the agency is working on a response, so the state may return to the list under a fresh approval.
The 18 stand as approvals, not as guaranteed limits. USDA’s pages for states such as Florida and Texas carry no court notice, which is why they count, but a start date on the table is a target and not a promise.
What the judge said Congress, not USDA, decides
The ruling turned on who defines food. Covington reports the court held that “Congress defined what ‘food’ is supposed to be, and it did not authorize the agency to amend or waive the definition it enacted.” The court found USDA had relied on the wrong statutory provision, 7 U.S.C. 2026(b), and had not met the stricter requirements of section 2026(k). It also found that USDA failed to publish required Federal Register notices 30 days before starting the projects.
That same provision, section 17(b) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, is the authority USDA’s September 15 Federal Register notices still recite for pending projects. Covington adds that the ruling “may also affect other waivers and future requests,” which is the open question hanging over the 18.
An appeal that has reinstated nothing
USDA did not accept the decision. Feedstuffs reported on August 27 that on August 20 the department filed a notice of appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and noted that an appeal does not bring the five waivers back unless the ruling is stayed or reversed. No stay request appears in that report. A September 9 Keller and Heckman summary says the parties had not yet briefed the issues.
The same summary says USDA directed South Carolina and North Dakota to hold off until November 1, 2026 while it publishes Federal Register notices and takes public comment. Those are two of the five states with a November 1 target on the table, and USDA’s September 15 notices opened comment dockets for Idaho and Utah by the same process, with written comments due October 15.
Eighteen is a ledger of approvals
For a household, the practical split is between the eight states where a restricted item is already declined at checkout and the ten where nothing has changed yet. In the five vacated states, SNAP purchases stay under the federal definition of food while the order stands. The USDA table, which the agency refreshed on October 2, keeps the states’ rows and the court sentence on the same page, so the reading of which waivers stand depends on following both.
The count is only as current as USDA’s pages: the Colorado and Iowa pages were last updated July 7, the Tennessee page September 18 and the Nebraska page October 2. The June 22 order remains the controlling event on every one of them, and the D.C. Circuit appeal, filed August 20, is the next one to watch.
Which state’s SNAP rules are live
USDA’s table puts 23 approvals beside five vacated orders, and the difference between an approved waiver and a restriction in force is easy to lose for a household in any of the 18 states. A purchase limit that is scheduled for November 1 or February 2027 sits next to recertification and reporting dates that a SNAP case also has to meet.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer carries a renewal document checklist and sets out the SNAP work-rule time limit and who is exempt from it, which is the ground a household in one of the eighteen states with a standing waiver has to keep track of.
This piece was drafted with AI assistance; the counts and court terms were checked against USDA’s waiver table and state pages updated through October 2, 2026, and the Covington & Burling analysis of the ruling.
