People who use EBT may have felt some anxiety seeing January’s headlines about a “pause” or “freeze” in federal funding. But there’s good news for anyone who’s worried—SNAP payments to households are not impacted, and deposits of SNAP funds should land in February as regularly scheduled.
UPDATE: On January 29, 2025, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rescinded the order for all agencies to "pause" their spending. Households who receive SNAP and other benefits should continue to expect their February benefits to arrive as scheduled.
On Monday, January 27, 2025, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) made headlines with an order that federal agencies “ must temporarily pause” federal financial assistance.
This order was followed by a clarifying memo on Tuesday, January 28th, which stated that, "... any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from this review process. In addition to Social Security and Medicare, already explicitly excluded in the guidance, mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause."
Funding for SNAP benefits is typically delivered to states by the federal government weeks ahead of when funds for a given month begin to be disbursed. So yes, people who receive SNAP should expect their February deposits as typically scheduled.
