The number of Oregonians who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits dropped by 4% in the first six months of new eligibility and filing requirements put into place by President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, according to a report by the nonpartisan think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
That, despite the state’s unemployment rate climbing to 5.3% to end 2025, a 0.3 percentage point increase since OBBB was passed. The rate hasn’t been that high since June 2021.
“Unemployment being flat or going up and grocery prices being high, we would have expected SNAP to be flat or even have gone up over the last few months,” said Dottie Rosenbaum, a senior fellow with the center and its director of federal SNAP policy.
National food prices also increased during that time by 1.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Changes to SNAP went into place in July 2025, and the study followed how those changes affected usage for the rest of the year.
Rosenbaum said such changes are not as visible as other health policy moves.
“A lack of food happens behind closed doors,” she said. “It's very hard to get a good handle on when people are not having enough to eat. They don’t show up in the emergency rooms the way they do when they lack health coverage.”
She said one place where it could be visible is demand for assistance from food banks.
Every U.S. state and the District of Columbia saw a decrease in SNAP benefits between the enactment of OBBB’s SNAP rule changes and the end of 2025.
Seven states had a larger decrease in percentage of people on SNAP and increase in unemployment rate: Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Montana, Connecticut, West Virginia, Arkansas and Delaware.
