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As the federal shutdown drags on, funding for a key food program remains in limbo even after the courts intervened to release the money. This means about 750,000 Oregonians were on Tuesday still awaiting benefits that would have normally arrived at the beginning of November.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is federally funded but run at the state level. The Trump administration had earlier said the month’s SNAP benefits would not be released to states until Congress ends the shutdown by approving funding for the government. Half the country, including Oregon, sued to pressure the administration to tap emergency funds, and multiple courts ordered it to do so.
One portion of the Trump administration has indicated it would comply—though in a way that left some advocates unsatisfied and would create new administrative complexities for states.
On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent states a memo directing them to issue 50% of each household’s normal monthly SNAP benefits in November. Yet at press time, the Oregon Department of Human Services said the feds had still not released funds to the states, and that it had no timeline for when the money would come.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, also on Tuesday, seemed to contradict his administration’s own memo: SNAP benefits, he announced, would not be distributed until the federal government reopened, which he said “Radical Left Democrats” could easily make happen.
Democrats, who at the Congressional level are locked in a standoff with Republicans over health care costs, say Trump could distribute the benefits amid the shutdown if he wanted to. “It is very hard for me to stay calm about this,” Gov. Tina Kotek told Oregon Public Broadcasting in an interview aired Tuesday. “My anger is right up here for me right now. This is all the choice of the Trump administration. This is unprecedented. We have never had, during a shutdown, the suspension of benefits through the SNAP program.”
In recent days, local agencies and institutions around Portland have announced efforts to fill the breach. Kotek said she released $5 million to assist the state’s emergency food pantry network. On Tuesday, Metro Council directed half a million dollars to the cause.
But these are minute sums compared to the missing federal money. Oregon distributes $140 million SNAP benefits per month. Few states are more dependent on the assistance program than Oregon.
