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Which states continued emergency allotments after federal end and when did they stop?
Executive Summary
Federal law ended SNAP emergency allotments after February 2023 benefits, but many states used waivers tied to state public-health emergency declarations to continue extra payments through varying dates; reporting shows some states stopped earlier while dozens remained issuing higher benefits into February 2023 [1] [2]. Recent 2025 coverage about partial SNAP funding during a government shutdown does not supply a comprehensive, state-by-state stop date list, so the precise end date for each state remains uncompiled in these sources [3] [4].
1. How the headline claim is framed — Is the federal end absolute?
The central claim rests on two linked facts: Congress and federal agencies set a nationwide cut-off, and states retained some discretion through waivers. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 terminated the federal emergency allotments after the February 2023 issuance, creating a national legal end point for mandatory extra SNAP payments [1]. At the same time, the USDA issued guidance and waivers allowing states to continue emergency allotments if a state’s own public-health emergency declaration provided authority to do so. That created a patchwork: a federal termination date existed, but state-level continuations meant the effective stop date varied across jurisdictions [1].
2. What the 2023 reporting shows — many states kept payments into February
Contemporaneous reporting from February 2023 found that 35 states plus D.C. and some territories were still issuing emergency allotments at that time, while 18 states had already ceased extra payments when their own COVID-related emergency declarations ended [2]. Those reports estimated meaningful household impacts — average household losses around $95 per month and some reductions up to $250 — illustrating the financial stakes for recipients when states ended allotments [2]. The data show that while the federal statutory cutoff was February 2023, substantial state-level continuation meant many households still received emergency allotments through that month [1] [2].
3. Why the state-level picture is fragmented — waivers, declarations, and admin guidance
USDA guidance and waivers permitted continuation but did not standardize durations; states used differing legal bases and timelines tied to their own emergency orders, producing inconsistent end dates [1]. USDA acknowledged extensions through at least December 2022 for many states and noted further extensions into January and February 2023 for others, but the guidance did not compile a definitive stop-date roster for each state. This administrative fragmentation explains why subsequent news and government summaries report a mixed landscape without a single authoritative state-by-state termination list [1].
4. What later coverage in 2024–2025 adds — courts, contingency funds, and partial payments
Later coverage focused on different developments: litigation over halting benefits, USDA contingency planning, and, in 2025, partial SNAP funding decisions tied to a government shutdown. Reporting from November 2025 describes lawsuits by 25 states and D.C. over federal SNAP decisions and notes USDA contingency funds and partial distributions covering roughly half of expected November payments — but it does not supply a retrospective state-by-state chronology of when emergency allotments stopped [3] [4]. These later pieces show ongoing legal and administrative contention around SNAP but do not fill the gap on exact state stop dates.
5. Where the evidence leaves us — what can and cannot be concluded from these sources
From the available analyses we can conclude that the federal legal end point was February 2023, and that many states continued emergency allotments into that month under waivers, with at least 35 jurisdictions still issuing extra payments as of February 2023 while 18 had already ended them [1] [2]. We cannot, based on the cited materials, provide a definitive list of which specific states stopped on which exact dates after the federal cutoff: the USDA guidance described extensions but did not publish a complete, dated roster, and later 2024–2025 news coverage focused on other SNAP issues rather than compiling state termination dates [1] [3] [4].
6. What to look for to close the gap — where a precise state timeline would come from
A conclusive state-by-state timeline requires either: [5] an explicit USDA table or state filings listing the exact waiver end dates for every jurisdiction, or [6] a compiled review of state agency announcements and federal waiver approvals issued around late 2022 through early 2023. The cited guidance and February 2023 reporting establish the pattern — federal termination after February 2023 with many states continuing through that month — but the specific stop dates for individual states remain uncompiled in these sources [1] [2] [3]. For a full roster, consult USDA waiver records and archived state SNAP agency notices from December 2022–March 2023.