LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) — More than a hundred immigrant and refugee families across Nebraska are without the SNAP benefits they once qualified for.
And now, they’re asking the Unicameral for help.
Bellevue Sen. Victor Rountree introduced LB 843, which would ask the USDA for a waiver to allow immigrants and refugees to receive SNAP benefits again.
Immigrants and refugees lost their eligibility for SNAP benefits after the passage of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill last July.
In Nebraska, SNAP is 100% funded by the federal government. The fiscal note provided with the bill shows no additional funds would need to be appropriated were the bill to pass.
Mohammad Sahil, founder and executive director, Nebraska Afghan Community Center(10/11 News / Darsha Dodge)
Mohammad Sahil came to the U.S. more than a decade ago after spending years helping the U.S. military as an interpreter in Afghanistan.
He now helps other immigrants in Nebraska, including those who have lost access to their food assistance.
“These families that we work with are hardworking families, and they are contributing back to our city and the community that we live in now,” Sahil told 10/11 ahead of a Health and Human Services hearing on Thursday afternoon.
Immigrants like Pawbway Htoo from Thailand have been affected. Her family was on SNAP benefits while they settled and became self-sufficient.
“When we were brought here, we were promised freedom, but in order to have that freedom, we just need a little help doing that transition,” Htoo said.
Sen. Rountree said it’s about caring for our community.
“When we have lost our humanity, when we can’t care for our brother and our sister, our neighbor, then we’ve lost humanity,” he said. “And that’s my call, is that we can restore a part of that humanity.”
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services told 10/11 that it is neutral on the bill, but said there are technical requirements to waive SNAP rules.
They believe this bill wouldn’t meet those requirements.
“Because this request does not test or evaluate a new approach to SNAP policy or administration, it does not meet the conditions,” DHHS wrote in its letter to the Unicameral’s Health and Human Services Committee.
Eric Savaiano with Nebraska Appleseed’s Food and Nutrition Access Program disagreed, saying waivers are designed to waive rules.
“Seems like a small handoff, especially if we’re inviting people in and not giving them what they need to survive in our country,” he said.
Savaiano added that passing LB 843 would make Nebraska one of the first states to show disapproval of the way the federal government is acting toward refugees and certain visa holders.
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