Nebraska is moving to restrict what some low-income households can buy with federal food-assistance benefits, becoming the first state to receive a USDA waiver to ban soda and energy drinks in SNAP. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the waiver on Monday, with the change set to take effect Jan. 1, according to the USDA and the announcement reported by the Associated Press.
The USDA said the waiver would affect about 152,000 people enrolled in SNAP in Nebraska. SNAP helps families pay for groceries and is administered by states under federal oversight, with benefits authorized under the federal Food and Nutrition Act of 2008.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said the move is aimed at keeping SNAP focused on healthy food. In a statement, Pillen said, “There’s absolutely zero reason for taxpayers to be subsidizing purchases of soda and energy drinks.” He added, “SNAP is about helping families in need get healthy food into their diets, but there’s nothing nutritious about the junk we’re removing with today’s waiver.”
Rollins described the step as aligned with broader efforts to improve diets, calling it “a historic step to Make America Healthy again.” The AP report said the push to ban sugary drinks and candy in SNAP and related changes has been a key focus of Rollins and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The details of how Nebraska’s waiver will be implemented were not immediately available, the AP reported. Still, the broader policy context is that states have increasingly sought waivers that limit SNAP purchases for certain items—an approach the USDA historically rejected over implementation challenges and the absence of clear standards for classifying foods as good or bad.
Until now, the USDA rejected requests for similar waivers and said there were no clear standards to define certain foods as good or bad. The agency also said restrictions would be difficult to implement, complicated and costly, and would not necessarily change recipients’ food purchases or reduce health problems such as obesity, according to the AP report.
The AP said six other states—Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Iowa and West Virginia—have also submitted requests for waivers that would ban certain foods and drinks or, in some cases, expand access to hot foods for participants. The Nebraska approval marks the first waiver of its kind to be granted, according to the AP.
Anti-hunger advocates said the Nebraska waiver would harm households that are already struggling with food insecurity. The AP report said Gina Plata-Nino, a deputy director at the Food Research & Action Center, criticized the plan, saying the waiver “ignores decades of evidence showing that incentive-based approaches — not punitive restrictions — are the most effective, dignified path to improving nutrition and reducing hunger.”
The underlying legal framework gives SNAP benefits for “any food or food product intended for human consumption,” with exceptions for alcohol and tobacco and for hot foods—including those prepared for immediate consumption. Over the past 20 years, lawmakers in several states have proposed barring SNAP purchases ranging from bottled water and soda to chips, ice cream and “luxury meats” such as steak, the AP reported.