Between the on-again-off-again tariffs and the cancellation of federal funding, Oregonians across the state are affected by the many changes coming from the federal government. Reporters at the Portland Business Journal set out to take the temperature of business, nonprofit and political leaders across the state, three months into the Trump administration. Elizabeth Hayes, reporter for the Portland Business Journal, joins us to share what they found out.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Between tariffs, the cancellation of federal grants, a huge reduction in the federal workforce and the revocation of student visas, Oregonians all across the state are feeling the effects of the Trump administration’s first 100 or so days in office. But it’s hard to get a statewide picture of what that looks like. That is why the editorial team at the Portland Business Journal talked recently to business, nonprofit and political leaders in all 36 Oregon counties to get a better sense for how the cuts and the chaos are actually playing out.
Elizabeth Hayes is a reporter for the Portland Business Journal. She joins me now to talk about what they found. It’s great to have you back on the show.
Elizabeth Hayes: Thank you.
Miller: I want to start with healthcare. We’re talking today with the head of the Hospital Association of Oregon about the big challenges hospitals are facing. That’s one of the themes that came up [among] people who you talked to in a couple different counties, including Union County where the Grande Ronde Hospital is the largest private employer. What did you hear from the CEO about what they’re dealing with right now?
Hayes: They are dealing with uncertainty, as really everybody we spoke to for these stories. In their case, they operate a hospital in a rural area of the state. About a quarter of their patients are on Medicaid. And something like $880 billion worth of cuts are on the table in Washington. And as to how this affects this hospital, the CEO told me he’s not really sure. It could mean anywhere from a $300,000 hit to a $13 million hit. But either way, they’re running on very, very thin margins, just paper thin. And any hit like that, any reduction, they will feel. So that could mean cuts in services or who knows. They’re really bracing for this. He said he’s losing a lot of sleep over it for sure.
Miller: Then in Clatsop County, in a story, the Columbia Memorial Hospital is dealing with probably a lot of what you just mentioned there, but also a loss of a different kind of federal funding. What are they dealing with?
Hayes: Yeah, this was more of a capital project. They had this $20 million grant through FEMA to expand and upgrade part of their facility to create what would have been the only vertical evacuation shelter on that part of the coast. It could serve like 1,900 people to provide refuge in case of a tsunami or other natural disaster, and keep the hospital up and running. And those grants were cut. So they had a $20 million grant. It didn’t cover the full project, but it was certainly a significant chunk of it.
Miller: And this is a project that’s already underway, right?
Hayes: Yeah, yeah. So it really is a setback.
Miller: In Wasco County, the Columbia Gorge Community College and the local Education Service District had been counting on a nearly $20 million grant from the Inflation Reduction Act for a new childcare center. This is in The Dalles. What’s the childcare situation like there right now? What did you hear?
Hayes: What I heard is that it was a “childcare desert” out there. Almost 90% of respondents to a recent survey said that finding dependable childcare has really limited their access to jobs and education. And part of the impetus for [creating a new childcare center] was obviously, to serve the folks out there. But it also was to be used as a recruitment tool to get companies to the area. The center would have been on the campus – or maybe it still will be if they can find more funding – at a middle school. It would also have served as a climate resilience center, similar to the project I just mentioned on the coast. So if there are wildfires in the area or any kind of climate events, excessive heat or what have you, people would have a place to go.
Miller: In Jackson County, you heard about the effects of the cancellation of a different grant, this was to a nonprofit called Our Community Forest. What kind of work do they do?
Hayes: This is just a small nonprofit. It was started by someone after the 2020 wildfires ripped through Talent, Oregon. His name is Mike Oxendine. I spoke with him. The idea was to create more tree resiliency. He got this $600,000 grant from the Arbor Day Foundation, which had gotten the money from the federal government. And he had spent about $100,000 of it before the Arbor Day Foundation learned that it was canceled. He figures that cost about 1,000 trees that they cannot plant now and like 30 hazardous tree removals that they can’t do.
Miller: What’s happening with the library system in Wheeler County?
Hayes: Out in rural areas, there is a courier service that couriers books around to 15 different counties. It’s called the Sage Library System. And to take one example, the library in Fossil, Oregon, a tiny community, has 4,700 items on the shelves for people to check out. But through the Sage Library System, patrons have access to 2 million items. This program just lost half of its funding when cuts were made at the IMLS [Institute of Museum and Library Services], which funds libraries all over the country.
Miller: Let’s turn to Sherman County now. You focused on the Rufus Food Pantry. What’s happening there?
Hayes: The administration cut a USDA program that supports food banks. So the Oregon Food Bank was cut by 17%. That basically trickles down to all the regional food banks, including the one in the Columbia Gorge that serves this county. This food bank alone would have 250,000 fewer pounds of food to distribute. And, already, the Rufus Food Bank is open, I think, just a few times a month – I can’t remember exactly. They have a lot of seniors, disabled people, veterans, widows, according to the person who runs it, and they really depend on this food bank to help supplement their food supplies.
Miller: One of the things that I valued about this project is that you get at both huge issues like trade, healthcare, education policy and the effects of these various grants, but also how these decisions are impacting individual Oregonians. Can you tell us about one of them, Shawn McMurtrey, who until recently worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Hood River County?
Hayes: That’s right. He spoke at a town hall last month and told his story. He was a disabled veteran, went back to school, got a degree, and was working for the USDA out in Hood River, keeping fungus off of the pear orchards. Pears are a huge crop out there. I think Oregon is the second biggest producer in the country, after Washington. So this is a huge deal for the economy and to have people like him, plant scientists basically making sure this crop is disease-free.
So yeah, he spoke at this town hall, as I mentioned, and just seemed rightly angry and frustrated that suddenly he lost his job, and it was not related to any performance problems on his part. He got swept up in these cuts to the workforce.
Miller: In Benton County, which includes Corvallis, you focused on the Trump administration’s decision to terminate student visas, including students who have not committed any crimes. What were you able to learn about one of these students, Aaron Ortega Gonzalez?
Hayes: Yeah, he was getting his PhD, specializing or writing his dissertation on restoration of livestock ranch lands, especially after wildfires. Again, just suddenly learned that he lost his student status, as had over 1,000 students around the country. A lawsuit was filed on his behalf and they did win a temporary restraining order. A few days later, the Trump administration revoked the cancellation of these visas. So it seems like it’s status quo for now, but things change quickly, as we’ve seen.
Miller: Finally, a lot of what we’ve talked about so far falls into the categories of grants being terminated or other reductions in federal spending. What did you hear specifically about the effect of tariffs in Oregon?
Hayes: Yeah, that’s kind of an interesting one. A lot of people we spoke to … it depends whether they’re an importer or an exporter, and some do both. So a lot of people we spoke to were kind of optimistic that maybe this could help them, including someone who works in Coos Bay and does seaweed production, which is a plant-based protein that has become more popular. A lot of the product comes from Asia, but he is really hopeful that this could give his business a boost.
And there are others too. Some wine producers are hoping higher tariffs on foreign wine will help them. But other farmers get a lot of inputs from abroad. They’ll be hit by tariffs. Anybody who just has a supply chain that isn’t completely U.S.-based is having to figure out on a day-to-day basis, “Am I going to have to raise prices? Can I pass this along or not?” So there’s a lot of confusion.
Miller: Elizabeth, thanks very much.
Hayes: Thank you.
Miller: Elizabeth Hayes is a reporter for the Portland Business Journal.
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