On Monday, the Trump administration said it would partially restore funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in response to two federal judicial rulings last Friday that ordered it to use contingency funds to pay for the federal food assistance program. Oregon and Washington were part of a coalition of 25 states and the District of Columbia that had sued to prevent the loss of monthly SNAP benefits on Nov. 1. The 42 million people across the nation who rely on SNAP will now only get half the amount they would normally get for the month and will likely face delays to access their partial benefits.
About 1 in 6 people, or roughly 757,000 households, receive SNAP benefits in Oregon. Last week, Gov. Tina Kotek announced sending $5 million in unspent state funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to help Oregon food banks. Her executive order also declared a 60-day food emergency and called on Oregonians to donate or volunteer in their communities “to help neighbors from going hungry.”
Gov. Kotek joins us to discuss this situation along with the impact of other actions by the Trump administration, including the possible deployment of the National Guard to Portland, which has been blocked until Friday, when a final ruling by a federal judge is expected.
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. Yesterday, the Trump administration said it would partially restore funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in response to the rulings of two federal judges. Forty-two million people across the country and more than 750,000 in Oregon alone rely on SNAP benefits to pay for their food every month. They will now get about half the amount they would normally get for the month, but it’s not clear when that money will be available. The federal government has said that there could be significant delays.
Meanwhile, last week, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek announced she will be sending $5 million in unspent funds to help Oregon food banks. She also put out an emergency Executive Order declaring a 60-day food emergency. Governor Kotek joins us now. Welcome back to the show.
Governor Tina Kotek: Thank you, Dave. Good afternoon.
Miller: Good afternoon to you. So federal officials said yesterday that it could take anywhere from a few weeks up to several months for states to recode their eligibility systems and get this emergency money onto folks’ EBT cards. What does the timeline look like, in Oregon, right now?
Kotek: Well, if I could be honest, Dave – and always appreciate the time with you – it’s very hard for me to stay calm about this. 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. We have 1-in-6 Oregonians [who] depend on these benefits. And now we’re hearing that the court has said to the Trump administration that they need to be using every contingency fund they have, that’s dedicated to this, to move benefits out to every state in the nation. And now they’re playing games again. Well, sometimes we’ll do partial or maybe we have to have a new process. It’s going to take longer.
This is just unacceptable. They’re playing politics with people eating. We have hundreds of thousands of children who are fed every day because their families have SNAP benefits. I don’t even know where to start with how crazy this is and how unacceptable it is that the Trump administration is not choosing to do the right thing here. They have choices under the shutdown. And unfortunately, I just heard this morning, President Trump on Truth Social was saying something opposite to what his agencies actually told the states, that partial benefits are coming. So it’s complete confusion, and the people who are suffering are the folks who need food to be able to go to the store and buy what they need.
Miller: It seems like maybe you don’t have any clarity from the federal government about some of these questions, but I have to ask them anyway, just so I know as much as you do. So, Oregonians who rely on SNAP benefits, on food on their EBT cards – before that money is on those cards, what are the different steps that have to happen?
Kotek: What I assumed, after Friday’s court rulings by two different courts, is that with the contingency money they had, which they would be issuing today, that they would be able to partially provide benefits to the states. That’s better than zero. But now we’re hearing they want to do something different. So this could be weeks, this could be several weeks. I hope that is not the case. When I was on the trade mission to Asia last week, I was in Tokyo when I issued the Emergency Order that we have to move money right now to our emergency Food Bank Network. That is not going to solve all the problem, but we have to make sure that if people show up at an emergency food pantry, there is at least food there.
And remember, our food pantries were already being under-resourced by the Trump administration. They had already cut commodities that normally float out of the food banks around the country. So they were already hard pressed. That $5 million that I approved last week is going into food purchases right now that will go out through the statewide network. But we just don’t have any answers from the Trump administration. So that is why I issued an Emergency Order. That’s why, yesterday, I met with philanthropic partners to say, what can you do? We need, as Oregonians, to come together to support our neighbors because the federal government is basically absent in
this conversation right now.
Miller: I want to hear more about the $5 million in funding. It’s worth pointing out, since you brought that up, the enormous gulf between that $5 million and what Oregonians normally get through SNAP – that’s $142 million a month. So it’s an enormous gulf there that, as you and other governors said, states cannot make up that difference. We’re not even close to making up that difference.
But back to the benefits payments, the SNAP benefits payments. Can you do anything to speed up the process once the money gets there? My understanding is that Oregon contracts with a third party processor to make those benefit payments, to make it so Oregonians actually have access to the money. Will there be extra delays, even once the feds do finally release the money?
Kotek: I think it depends what they decide to do with those dollars. If everything flows as normal, we are going to do everything we can on our end to make sure there are no barriers to turning those dollars back on to people’s EBT cards so they can go to the store. We have made a commitment here in Oregon to make sure people don’t go hungry. And we don’t have a partner in the federal government. So what we can do right now is like, how does the process have to work? What are they asking us to do? How quickly can we turn it on?
We’re doing that kind of planning behind the scenes. But we’re scenario planning because we don’t know exactly what they’re telling states to do. But I can assure Oregonians that we’re trying to think of every possible scenario. We don’t want to be the barrier. When money starts flowing again from the federal government, we want to get it out to people as soon as possible.
Miller: From your perspective, is the Trump administration now contravening the orders of these federal judges?
Kotek: They’re certainly not doing their job. I think it’s pretty straightforward. There are contingency dollars available right now, regardless of the shutdown. The president is choosing how to spend money. You know, he’s spending millions of dollars every day to keep 400 troops, National Guard troops in Oregon, sitting in bases. He’s paying for that. They’re actually feeding folks right now. But I also know folks who are in the National Guard who are not in deployment, who might have been receiving SNAP, are now worried about getting a food box. This is like topsy-turvy. It’s unacceptable. This is not what we need from the federal government. It is a crisis when people cannot feed themselves. And it’s a national security issue, frankly.
Miller: I want to turn to the Emergency Declaration. So as you mentioned last week, you made available $5 million, as I understand it, in unspent federal funds for needy families for the SNAP system. Is that a one-time allocation?
Kotek: Well, it’s what we’ve moved right now. It’s the thing that I could do, absent legislative approval with resources available at the Oregon Department of Human Services. We know that about 700 pantries across the state are in the statewide Oregon Food Bank Network. They know how to buy food, move food, get it out to communities around the state through the regional food banks to the individual pantries. So it is the most cost-effective, quickest way to make sure there would be food out in the communities.
But I also see Oregonians around the state doing their part. In addition to that Emergency Order, I also asked people to step up and help their neighbors. You know, the Oregon Food Bank website almost shut down because so many people wanted to give money to the Oregon Food Bank. I was at Heretic Coffee yesterday in Portland who took it upon themselves to figure out how they could raise money to help people. They’re feeding people breakfast and meals when they come into the coffee shop. They’ve raised over $300,000 to go towards food purchases through pantries and things like that. Oregonians are stepping up. When the federal government is absent and not doing their job, I’m so proud of Oregonians saying, we want to volunteer, give money, give food. That’s the situation we’re in right now.
Miller: I’m curious about the big picture of food insecurity and hunger in Oregon. Nationwide, a little over 12% of Americans are on SNAP. In Oregon, I’ve seen conflicting numbers, but it’s something more like 17% or 18%. We are among the top three states in the country in terms of our rates of SNAP benefits. Why are we so much higher than the national average?
Kotek: So a little bit of history. When we were determined to be the hungriest state in the nation, when I was still at Oregon Food Bank, there was a commitment made in this state, to maximize getting our federal tax dollars back to Oregon through our federal programs, like the SNAP Program. So we have done everything we can to use that program to its fullest degree, making sure that anyone who needs access to SNAP, whether you’re older, whether you’re a working family, whether you have a disability, making sure that program works for people. We have simplified the SNAP application form.
Other states have less enrollment, not because they have less need, but because they have done a poor job utilizing a program that the federal government, up until this point, has paid 100% of the benefits. These are our tax dollars coming back to Oregon to feed folks. We have just been very committed in this state to say that program should work as best as possible. There should be no barrier to being determined eligible so you can get on the program. And so that’s why those numbers look big for us. But remember, that’s getting our tax dollars back to feed people through a program that, for decades, has been a commitment from the federal government. You pay 100% of the benefits when someone goes to the store.
Miller: As you were talking, it reminded me a little bit of Medicaid expansion, where, because Oregon over the years has been either savvier or more eager to take advantage of federal programs, we’re also going to be hit harder now that those programs are being either chipped away at or decimated.
Kotek: Ninety-seven percent of Oregonians have health insurance. That has been a commitment, because we agree, as Oregonians, to keep people healthy and fed. They will be more successful, our communities will be healthier, and we have worked very hard to make sure those federal programs, paid by our tax dollars, come back to Oregonians who need it. And we’ve just really believed in that here. And I’ve been a supporter of that, even before I was elected to office.
That’s what it means to stand up for each other and help each other out, because the people will be healthier. And the result of that is, with these cuts coming down from the federal government and SNAP benefits being suspended, we are disproportionately hurt because we have said to folks, these are basic programs that you deserve to have if you’re eligible. And the federal government, frankly, wants to kick people off programs so they can pay for tax cuts for billionaires. Let’s be really clear. That’s what that is. And now the Trump administration is playing politics with the shutdown when they know that they can be providing SNAP benefits right now.
Miller: You mentioned the potential federal troop deployment. Those troops remain federalized but have not yet been deployed. There’s been an incredible amount of legal back and forth, and we’re still now waiting for the final ruling from a federal judge, but it seems like she is highly skeptical of the administration’s arguments.
But let’s say that this eventually goes to the Supreme Court and that that court is sympathetic to the administration and there are federal troops, say, in a perimeter around the ICE building in South Portland. Would you consider putting state police as a kind of buffer between federal troops and protesters?
Kotek: First I want to thank the judges, not only in Oregon, but in other places who have been so thoughtful in really trying to understand what is a constitutional crisis right now. Who would have thought that we would be in the middle of a situation where we’re defining what a rebellion is and how the president can use the National Guard, in our states, over top of governors, over top of the citizens who do not want them in their states. This is a critical moment for the country and we’ll obviously be closely watching what the Supreme Court decides. I would hope that they will follow what the federal judges at the local level are saying, that this is unwarranted and it is overstepping the authority of the president to what he’s doing right now. So I’m hoping that’s where the Supreme Court will be.
It is hard for me to anticipate what we would do at this point. I will say that Oregon State Police has been working in partnership with Portland Police to help manage the situation at the ICE facility. I was just reading yesterday that it’s raining and not a lot is going on at the ICE facility. So why don’t we focus on what really matters, which is getting people fed, helping people have health insurance, not worried about what the federal government seems to think is a problem, at one facility, in one block, in downtown Portland.
Miller: You said it’s hard to know what you would do if there are federal troops there. But aren’t you going through all kinds of different contingencies given that it remains a possibility?
Kotek: I always believe in scenario planning. But to say exactly what we could do, we don’t know how the troops will be used. We don’t know what this means for that facility. I will say there is increased fear and anxiety across the state right now because we’re seeing increased ICE enforcement happening. That, I think, is intentional to really scare our immigrant communities – and that’s unacceptable. It’s just, frankly Dave, hard to imagine every single day there seems to be something new.
So I’m going to hold out that the law will be upheld and the Guard will not be deployed. I don’t know what the answer is, to be honest. But what I will say is we’re going to stand up against what we think is unnecessary, unwarranted, and we’re going to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. Because this is just wrong and it’s not what Oregonians want or need.
Miller: Tina Kotek, thanks very much for your time.
Kotek: Thanks, Dave.
Miller: That is Oregon Governor Tina Kotek.
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