Under a proposed rule change, people would have to apply for SNAP benefits under more restrictive federal requirements than now used in Oregon and 41 other states
Tens of thousands of Oregonians could lose their food stamp benefits if a proposed federal rule change that specifies eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is approved — the comment period ends Monday.
The rule forces applicants to enroll in SNAP, commonly referred to as food stamps or the Oregon Trail Card, separately from other state-regulated benefits and would make it harder to meet the income and asset requirements as set by the federal government and not the state.
Oregon’s Department of Human Services estimates the proposed rule change would result in the loss of benefits for 66,000 individuals, or 34,990 households in the state, but data-driven policy group Mathamatica provided numbers for the USDA that estimate 119,495 Oregon individuals, or 66,622 households, would lose their benefits.
By Tatiana Parafiniuk-Talesnick, Register-Guard