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LINCOLN — He came to Nebraska in 2021 as a refugee from war-torn Syria.
On Thursday, Abdulrazzak Alkoutaini of Lincoln called himself “living proof” that public food assistance is “an investment not a cost.”
He told a legislative panel that access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program allowed him to learn the language and ways of the United States and advance in the workforce without “constant fear of hunger.”
“To become an asset, one must have their basic needs met during transition,” Alkoutaini told the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee during a public hearing on Legislative Bill 843.
The bill, introduced by State Sen. Victor Rountree of Bellevue, aims to restore SNAP benefits to income eligible refugees and immigrants eliminated from the grocery assistance program as a result of new rules in the Trump administration’s tax and spending bill adopted last summer.
Impacted are up to 7,000 refugees, asylees and other Nebraska newcomers who are in the country lawfully but don’t yet have permanent residency status, according to Nebraska Appleseed, a statewide organization that advocates for people in low-income and immigrant communities. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services had previously estimated the number closer to 6,300.
Rountree’s bill would instruct DHHS to request a federal waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to essentially return SNAP eligibility rules to what they were for refugees and immigrants prior to the law President Donald Trump has called “big and beautiful.”
Cutting new ground
Eric Savaiano, director of Appleseed’s food and nutrition access program, said the SNAP program currently serves about 137,000 Nebraskans, down from about 150,000 several months ago. New refugee and immigrant applicants have been subject to the new federal SNAP rules since Oct. 20, while existing participants are reevaluated and subject to the changed policy during their six-month renewal appointments.
The food benefits are fully paid by the federal government, but the state shares in the costs of administering the program. The new rules were expected to squeeze out some participants to help offset a reported $186 billion cut in federal SNAP spending nationally over the next decade.
Afghan refugee, father of 10 in Nebraska, faces hunger under ‘big beautiful’ law
Asked if other states had requested similar waivers, Rountree told the HHS committee that he knew of none, but added that Nebraska has sought to be a pacesetter in other ways.
“We’ve stepped out first on a number of things,” he said. “Let us be the first to seek this waiver so we can protect them and our communities.”
Alkoutaini, who now works with the refugee community as a case manager, told the committee of a widow who lost her husband in the war in Syria and has three young children in Nebraska. She can’t afford child care, he said, so she is currently not working outside the home.
“We are essentially abandoning her,” he said of her being cut from the grocery benefits formerly called food stamps.
A dozen supporters of LB 843, most with personal stories of how the SNAP changes impact friends and clients, testified during the hearing that forged on despite a major snowstorm. No one testified in opposition.
The committee took no immediate action on whether to advance the bill to debate by the full Legislature.
State Sen. Brian Hardin, HHS Committee chair, said 306 people had submitted comments backing the bill and 62 had written in opposition.
‘Deeply worried’
Joanna Lindberg, a member of St. Wenceslaus Church in Omaha, said her parish has sponsored refugees for a decade and currently sponsors three families. She spoke in detail about one dad who had worked as a cook for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and settled in Omaha in 2024 with a wife and four children under age 7, including one with severe physical disabilities.
Despite the dad’s full time job, Lindberg said, loss of benefits due to the federal budget changes translates into a $400 monthly deficit.
“I’m deeply worried,” she said. “How can … this ‘big beautiful bill’ take food away from a family of six whose parent worked for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and came here to escape the persecution of the government?”
Toby Rees, executive director of Koutze Commons Community Outreach Center in Omaha, said hers and similar pantry and social services are stretching as food security reaches “at alarming rates” now in Nebraska.
She said the population she was there to represent waited for a legal chance to enter from wartorn countries the U.S. pledged to help.
“Cutting off SNAP benefits to those who previously qualified will be no different than changing what the three-point line is during the middle of a basketball game,” said Rees.
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