AUSTIN, Texas - Right now, it could take a family in need six months to get food assistance.

That's according to a whistleblower email sent to Texas Health and Human Services, the state agency that processes applications for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP.

REBECCA THOMAS: Would you explain what's known about this SNAP processing delay and just how bad it's gotten for families?

LLOYD DOGGETT: Yes, it is really troubling. You know, at Thanksgiving and the holiday period, so many families are out, church groups, civic organizations trying to help feed those who are most in need. And I found it encouraging Governor Abbott was out at Meals on Wheels, but contradictory that his administration has let this slip as Texas has been out of compliance with federal law for two years. And what this means, and we know about what it means largely because of some courageous state whistleblowers, is a 180-day delay from the time someone files an application until it gets processed. It was only 75 days when they originally complained back in August. But it's gotten steadily worse. And they predict that unless action is taken, it will take 200 days. Sometimes a person, a person with disabilities, a senior who has entitlement to this food assistance, which is all federal food assistance that the state is simply charged with administering. Sometimes that person loses their food assistance right in the middle of the month because the application has not...

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