Nebraska recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will be banned from buying soda, soft drinks and energy drinks starting next year under a pilot program announced Monday by Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.
The pilot program, which will begin in January and last for two years, is the first of its kind in the country, according to Pillen and Rollins. Pillen, through the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, requested the waiver in April. At least four other states – Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas and Indiana – have also formally requested a waiver to restrict certain foods from SNAP, and Rollins said governors in Colorado and West Virginia have also expressed interest.
“Governor, you and your team should be very proud… that Nebraska is the first one we’re signing,” Rollins said after touring a pork processing plant in Fremont, Nebraska. “Of all of the states, we have had some great states, great conversations, we’ve made a lot of great progress, but I have in my hand here the actual waiver that I will be signing today that puts Nebraska at the front of the pack.”
States can request a waiver to “deviate from specific regulatory provisions” in SNAP if the Food and Nutrition Service determines that “the waiver would result in a more effective and efficient administration of the program.”
No other administration, including President Donald Trump's first administration, has approved a waiver to change the statutory definition of food under SNAP – but Monday’s news in Nebraska indicates that other states are likely to have SNAP waivers approved in the near future. In an opinion piece published Monday by Rollins and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the pair heralded SNAP waivers as part of the agenda to “Make America Healthy Again.”
“We call on all governors to submit waivers to help promote access to these critical sources of nutrition, including waivers that can limit what can be purchased with food stamps, get healthy food to rural communities and prioritize nutritional standards in school meals,” they wrote.
Iowa’s proposed waiver, as reported by Iowa Public Radio, is more far-reaching than Nebraska’s. It would exclude all items subject to state sales tax, to include soft drinks, punches that are less than 50% juice, candy, breath mints, dried fruit leathers, some kinds of popcorn and granola bars without flour.
The waivers requested in Arkansas, Indiana and Kansas seek more narrow bans of soft drinks and candy. Arkansas also proposed adding rotisserie chicken to the list of items permitted to buy with SNAP benefits. Currently, hot and prepared foods are not eligible for purchase under the program.
States are also expected to evaluate the pilot programs for efficacy during the length of the program. Details about Nebraska’s evaluation plan were not immediately available, but Pillen said the state department of health and human services would be collecting a “ton of measurements.” Iowa’s waiver request included a proposed random-sample study of SNAP recipients to track their health outcomes before, during and after the pilot project.
Removing “junk food” and soda from SNAP eligibility has been a point of contention for decades. Proponents say allowing SNAP recipients to buy sugary drinks and candy adds to health issues like obesity. Opponents, including advocacy organizations and grocery associations, say it undermines the autonomy of low-income people and will have a negligible impact on actual health outcomes.
A 2016 study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the most complete picture of the shopping habits of SNAP recipients as compared to non-SNAP households. It found that soft drinks were the top commodity by expenditure, representing about 5.4% of all SNAP purchases. Soft drinks were the second largest commodity for non-SNAP households, representing more than 4% of all purchases.
SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp program, is administered by the USDA through the Food and Nutrition Service. Across the country, more than 42 million people across more than 22 million families receive SNAP benefits every month.
Rollins also announces policy proposals targeted at small farmers
After the SNAP announcement and various tours across Nebraska, Rollins held a closed-to-media roundtable with farmers and ranchers before announcing a new 10-point policy proposal aimed at helping small farmers.
The proposal, dubbed "Farmers First," includes some technical actions, like digitizing paper applications through the USDA and combining loan programs. It also lays out loftier goals like "aggressively exploring" solutions for a "stable, reliable and legal" agricultural workforce through nonimmigrant visas, which allow immigrants to come to the U.S. for a short time for a specific purpose, such as a seasonal job. Among some of the more specific goals were reforming certain environmental regulations, like the National Environmental Policy Act and provisions of the Clean Water Act, as well as disincentivizing the use of federal funds to install solar panels on farmland.
The plan also calls on Congress to exempt the "vast majority" of farms and ranches from an increase in the death tax. It says the Department of Agriculture will be "engaging with agricultural tax and legal professionals across the country" to develop tools for the transition of agricultural land and operations between generations.
Rollins characterized the proposals as an opportunity to "save our family farms," which make up the majority of the country's farms.
"This is the first step of many steps we will be taking, and you'll be hearing about more initiatives, more programs, more partnerships in the coming weeks and months," she said.
Molly Ashford first covered this story for Nebraska Public Media. This version was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
