(The Hill) — The Trump administration has approved six additional states for bans that would prevent people from using food stamps to buy sugary sodas and unhealthy foods, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Wednesday.
The six additional states that will be able to impose the restrictions on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program spending are Hawaii, Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.
“We all know we’re at the point where we must do something to correct the chronic health problems that Americans face,” Rollins told reporters at a news conference touting the “Make America Healthy Again” policy initiative.
The new states join Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and West Virginia in having the bans, which would begin next year.
The 18 states will have federal waivers to adjust SNAP guidelines to outlaw the purchase of junk food with state funds in 2026. Each state is banning food items deemed unhealthy by different standards.
For example, Arkansas will restrict the purchase of soda and fruit and vegetable drinks with less than 50 percent natural juice in addition to unhealthy drinks and candy. Florida is planning to restrict the purchase of soda, energy drinks, candy and prepared desserts.
Waivers last two years, with the option to extend for another three years, according to the National Grocers Association.
Rollins and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested that the restrictions will encourage beneficiaries to buy healthier food.
“President Trump has made it clear: we are restoring SNAP to its true purpose – nutrition. Under the MAHA initiative, we are taking bold, historic steps to reverse the chronic diseases epidemic that has taken root in this country for far too long,” Rollins said in a Wednesday release.
Some critics of the restrictions have raised the issue of people living in “food deserts,” who may not be near grocery stores that provide healthy food.
Low-income families in food-deprived areas often shop at gas stations or corner stores.
“ We do not have quality data that says that if you restrict access to candy and soda in SNAP, you are going to see improved diet quality, improved nutrition, reduced chronic disease,” said Joelle Johnson with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, as reported by NPR. “That data does not exist.”
She later added, “Just because somebody participates in SNAP doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve the same food choices that somebody who doesn’t participate in SNAP has.”
The Agriculture Department previously identified around 6,500 food deserts between 2000 and 2006. Experts now estimate that around 23.5 million people in the U.S. live in low-income areas that are more than 1 mile to the nearest large grocery store, according to Medical News Today. Of these people, 11.5 million have low incomes.
The average American is paying nearly 30 percent more for groceries compared with six years ago, according to the grocery price index from Datasembly, a data firm tracking retail pricing.
But Trump administration officials say SNAP should not be used to pay for unhealthy foods.
“U.S. taxpayers should not be paying to feed kids foods, the poorest kids in our country, with foods that are going to give them diabetes. And then my agency ends up, through Medicaid and Medicare, paying for those injuries,” Kennedy previously said.
“We’re going to put an end to that, and we’re doing it step by step, state by state,” he added.