LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Friday marked the 31st of the month and the 31st day of the government shutdown, which is marching towards becoming the longest in history.
Funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is set to run out Saturday, leaving more than 40 million Americans without necessary dollars to feed themselves and their families.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services announced earlier in the week they paused SNAP benefits as of Oct. 29, meaning more than 150,000 residents in the Cornhusker State will not see their funding renewed until the shutdown is over.
A message appeared on the Nebraska DHHS website earlier in the week, which read: “Due to a failure by Democrats in the U.S. Senate to pass a clean funding bill, resulting in a federal government shutdown, SNAP benefits that many Nebraska families and kids depend on are now unavailable in November. Sadly, there is a wealth of misinformation coming from Senate Democrats. This shutdown was absolutely preventable. DHHS urges members to approve a clean funding bill and stop using Nebraska’s most vulnerable people for political leverage.”
By Friday, the message had been edited, adding quotations and attributing the statement to Gov. Jim Pillen.
Two messages posted to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services website this week. The top was posted first and captured on Wednesday; the bottom includes quotations and attribution to Governor Jim Pillen, captured Friday.(10/11 News)
Thursday evening, Lancaster County resident Kay Siebler filed a lawsuit against Steve Corsi, the Chief Executive Officer for the Nebraska DHHS.
Siebler’s attorney, Vince Powers, posted the filing in an announcement on Facebook, saying, “Thank you, Kay Siebler, for stepping up when no one else would.”
On Friday, Siebler told 10/11 she had been calling her representatives and the governor’s office when she stumbled across the message banner on the DHHS website.
“It’s okay to have a political opinion. It is not okay to use state websites to pursue false information and bad politicking,” Siebler said. “Anybody who goes to that website, they’re searching for information. It is a place that people go for accurate information regarding health and human services. That sort of politicking on a state-run website is blatantly illegal.”
Siebler lambasted Pillen and those who “purport to be Catholic, purport to be Christian” and are posting these messages instead of feeding Nebraskans.
“Jesus did not say let the little children suffer. Matthew 19:14, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me,’” Siebler said. “So these people who purport to be Catholic, who purport to be Christian, who purport to be pro-life, they are causing this suffering and it’s hypocritical, it’s despicable and it’s illegal.”
Siebler said she’s been losing sleep over the SNAP benefit funding, adding people are hungry because of these “shenanigans.”
“However, at the face level, they have to take this message down. It is fake, it is false, it is despicable, it is inaccurate and it has no place on a public website where people go for information about health and human services in the state of Nebraska,” Siebler said of what end result she’d like to see beyond restoration of SNAP benefits.
The Nebraska DHHS told 10/11 Friday that, “DHHS does not comment on pending litigation.”
Pillen’s office has not responded to 10/11’s request for comment.
Similar messages have popped up on government websites across the country since the shutdown started, prompting some consumer advocacy groups to file complaints alleging violations of the Hatch Act.
The Senate adjourned for the weekend on Thursday. The House has not voted since Sept. 19.
You can read Siebler’s lawsuit filing here:
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