Secretary Rollins and Secretary Kennedy Announce SNAP Updates, Mar. 5, 2026
March 5, 2026 · USDA · 0:58:12
Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube
What happened
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., joined by Dr. Carson, announced updates to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at an event published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on March 5, 2026. According to the department’s description of the event, the secretaries announced the commencement of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Strategic Partnerships and delivered an update on the impending Stocking Standards final rule, which the department describes as holding any retailer interested in accepting SNAP benefits accountable to a higher minimum standard of staple food stocking requirements. The department also states that Secretary Rollins signed additional SNAP food restriction waivers at the event.
Why it matters
SNAP is the largest federal nutrition program USDA administers, and the stocking-standards rule and state food-restriction waivers are the two levers this announcement moves at once — one setting what SNAP retailers must stock, the other expanding what states may restrict. It is also a joint Rollins–Kennedy appearance, tying USDA’s nutrition programs directly to the Make America Healthy Again agenda Secretary Kennedy leads at HHS.
Scoreboard watch
This is a candidate item for the weekly scoreboard: the additional SNAP food restriction waivers Secretary Rollins signed and the Stocking Standards final rule as the department described them on March 5, 2026, to be checked against the waivers’ and the rule’s published terms.
Sources: U.S. Department of Agriculture, ‘Secretary Rollins and Secretary Kennedy to Announce SNAP Updates,’ March 5, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All program characterizations are as stated in the department’s published description of the event.
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