New DHHS data reported by the Nebraska Examiner shows 25,000 fewer Nebraskans getting food aid than a year ago — the sharpest drop in over a decade. Part of that is Washington. Part of it is Lincoln. And Lincoln already has two real, cheap, cross-the-aisle ways to do something about it before the next session opens.
The numbers and reporting below on Nebraska's SNAP enrollment build directly on original reporting by Cindy Gonzalez at the Nebraska Examiner, published July 23, 2026. Read her full story here ↗. What follows adds the state-legislature angle — what Lincoln already tried, and what it could still do.
The headline number
Nebraska SNAP enrollment has fallen nearly 17% in a year — and the single sharpest monthly drop in at least a decade just happened, in June.
July 2025
Nebraskans enrolled in SNAP, the month Congress passed the federal tax and spending bill.
June 2026
Enrolled now. About 25,000 fewer people — nearly 17% — in eleven months.
May → June alone
The sharpest single-month drop since Nebraska Appleseed started tracking DHHS data in 2014.
Source: Nebraska DHHS SNAP performance data, via Nebraska Examiner, July 23, 2026.
Nebraskans enrolled in SNAP, month by month. DHHS's own numbers.
149,423 → 124,299 enrolled, July 2025 to June 2026.
Not all of the drop is the federal eligibility and work-requirement changes DHHS was required to roll out. Advocates say Nebraska has also quietly tightened its own paperwork. Eric Savaiano, Nebraska Appleseed's manager for food and nutrition access, says some new and renewing SNAP applicants have had to get a signed confirmation from a neighbor about who actually lives in their household.
“The state is now requiring verification for absolutely everything. It's making it harder and harder for people to apply and receive SNAP.” — Eric Savaiano, Nebraska Appleseed
Angie Lauritsen, director of Nebraska For Us, put it more bluntly: “Roadblocks and cuts are happening by design.”DHHS disputes the framing — spokesman Jeff Powell says the state's verification options are permitted under federal guidelines and modeled on approaches “successfully implemented in other states,” and that the agency is “working aggressively” on application backlogs while keeping benefit accuracy a top priority.
Independent of the enrollment drop, the state's own processing metrics missed their targets in June.
Expedited processing
June average, up from 3.25 in May and 2.79 in April. State goal: 3 days. Federal ceiling: 7.
On-time filings, non-expedited
June, down from 95.8% last July. State target is above 90%.
Call center wait time
June average, up from 13 in May, as call volume jumped from ~61,000 to over 80,000.
Source: Nebraska DHHS SNAP and economic assistance performance report, via Nebraska Examiner, July 23, 2026.
What we're not claiming
DHHS says its verification steps comply with federal rules and that summer always brings a spike in applications. That may well be true. We're not asserting bad intent — the point isn't to prove a motive, it's that real people, including two Nebraskans below, are falling through real gaps right now, regardless of why.
Malissa Lang, 37, and her husband Dillion Taylor live in a tent under a bridge in Lincoln. Lang says she's been without SNAP for six months. She'd been receiving benefits while caring for Taylor, who has been mostly deaf since childhood — but the state asked for an updated diagnosis, and he's had a long wait for the medical documentation to get it. Lang says she was also told she needed to work, which she found impossible while caring for him. They now get food from pantries — and dumpsters.
“They gave me time to fix it, we just couldn't get the documentation. We're trying, and waiting.” — Malissa Lang
LB 843 — restoring SNAP for refugees and asylum seekers
Sen. Victor Rountree of Bellevue introduced LB 843 to have Nebraska DHHS request a USDA waiver restoring SNAP eligibility for legal refugees and asylum seekers cut off under the federal bill — more than 100 immigrant and refugee families statewide. It got a real hearing in February 2026, testimony forging ahead despite a snowstorm, with a dozen supporters sharing personal stories. “Food is not an option,” Rountree told the committee. “Everyone in our state must eat.” DHHS stayed formally neutral but told the committee in writing that the request likely wouldn't meet USDA's technical bar for a waiver. It also wasn't Rountree's prioritized bill this session — he prioritized a disability housing bill instead — so it never got a floor vote. The session ended in April 2026 with no further action.
LB 319 — SNAP eligibility after old drug convictions
Also Rountree's bill. Would have restored SNAP eligibility for Nebraskans with certain older drug-related felony convictions — over 1,000 people. Passed the floor 32-17. Gov. Pillen vetoed it. The override attempt failed 24-24, six votes short of the 30 needed, after seven Republican senators who'd voted yes on the bill flipped to no on the override.
No one should go hungry over paperwork
Restoring eligibility for specific groups makes for a real fight, vote by vote. But Nebraska already has two proven, small, mostly non-controversial tools sitting right there — one already running, one the state just turned off.
1. Fund up Double Up Food Bucks
Since 2017, this program has matched what SNAP recipients spend on fresh produce at Nebraska farmers markets and local grocers — over $1.9 million matched for 4,000+ families across 25+ sites in 15 communities. It doesn't touch federal SNAP rules at all; it's state and nonprofit funded. It's not framed as welfare — it's local agriculture and small-grocer revenue that happens to fight hunger. Expanding it is an easy yes for a senator who wants to back Nebraska farmers, and an easy yes for one focused on nutrition access. Same program, same dollar.
doubleupnebraska.org ↗2. Reinstate the food donation tax credit
In 2023, LB 727 gave grocers, restaurants, and farmers a tax credit for donating surplus food to food banks, set to run through 2027. In 2025, LB 650 — a broad, Pillen-backed bill closing a $71 million state budget gap by trimming a grab-bag of unrelated tax credits — killed it three years early, effective for the 2026 tax year. Omaha food banks warned in December that cutting the incentive right as need was rising would discourage donations. It wasn't an attack on food banks; it was one line in a deficit bill. Restoring it through its original 2027 sunset costs exactly what was already budgeted for it, and rewards private charity instead of expanding government spending — a genuinely easy ask for either side of the aisle.
WOWT: food banks respond ↗Why this can't wait for the next news cycle
Every bill that didn't pass this session — including LB 843 — starts over from zero. A new Legislature convenes in January 2027. If a stalled bill isn't reintroduced, it's dead, and nobody outside the Capitol usually notices until it's too late to matter. That's the gap this site exists to cover.
It also gets more expensive to ignore: starting October 2026, states pick up a larger share of SNAP administrative costs, and states with higher payment-error rates start owing a cut of the benefits themselves. Nebraska is currently one of just nine states under the 6% error-rate line. Delay costs real money, on top of real hunger.
Related coverage on this site
The One Big Beautiful Bill: What It Actually Does to Nebraska
The federal SNAP and Medicaid cuts driving this decline, and who actually benefits from the tax cuts that pay for them.
2025 Nebraska Session Recap
How the state legislature handled tax incentives and budget cuts the same year it created, then gutted, the food donation credit.
Sources