More than 700,000 Oregonians receive aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Oregonians will go hungry if congressional Republicans plow forward with plans to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and shift costs to states, senators and Gov. Tina Kotek warned on Tuesday.

Kotek and Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley joined a press call Tuesday with three other Democratic senators and the head of a Vermont anti-hunger group to discuss proposed cuts to SNAP, the food benefits used by 42 million Americans and more than 700,000 Oregonians.

Congressional Republicans on Monday night unveiled a plan to cut federal SNAP spending by at least $230 billion, mostly by shifting costs to states. But states including Oregon can’t afford those shifts, Kotek said.
“We just do not have the kind of money that it would take to maintain the program at the current level if these cuts go through,” Kotek, also a Democrat, said. “It will just not happen, and people will go hungry in Oregon.”

The details of congressional Republican’s budget reconciliation proposal arrived just before Wednesday’s release of Oregon’s May revenue forecast, which state budget-writers will use to craft the next two-year budget. Lawmakers are bracing for a downturn tied to tariffs, federal funding cuts and economic instability.

The federal proposal means that the taxes Oregonians pay to the federal government will not return to the state to help their neighbors in need, Kotek said. Kotek, who started her career as a policy advocate for the Oregon Food Bank, said she saw firsthand what it means for people to skip meals to afford rent or medicine and knows how fragile food security is for many.

“When you cut SNAP, you’re not cutting bureaucracy,” she said. “You’re cutting a child’s dinner. You’re cutting their breakfast. You’re cutting their family’s dignity.”

Every dollar spent on SNAP generates another $1.50 to $1.80 in economic activity at grocery stores, farmers’ markets and other local businesses, Kotek said. Without that money, stores could close and people could lose their jobs.

Merkley said Oregon stands to lose about $400 million under the proposal to shift costs from the federal government to states. And Wyden decried potential cuts to SNAP and Medicaid as a “double whammy” for health care.

About 1.4 million Oregonians are covered by Medicaid, or the Oregon Health Plan. Republicans proposed instituting work requirements and withholding funding from states like Oregon that cover health care regardless of immigration status and cover gender-affirming care.

“The combination of less food assistance for seniors and kids, and then Republican cuts in Medicaid, is a prescription for a sicker America,” Wyden said. “What we’re talking about is health care 101: You need access to food to be healthy, and you need access to timely healthcare when you’re ill.”