Action Alert: End the Shutdown/Protect Healthcare and SNAP
- Sarah Andrews
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
Date: October 28, 2025
To: All LWVOR Members
From: Mark Kendall, LWVOR President
Jean Pierce, LWVOR Advocacy Chair
TAKE ACTION:
1. Contact your Congressional legislators to end the shutdown while protecting Healthcare:
Fight to end the government shutdown and at the same time extend Affordable Care Act subsidies (affecting more than 340,000 Oregonians)
Pressure the USDA to release the SNAP contingency funds Congress approved for November and to supplement it with other funds. Hunger should not be a political tool (affecting 757,000 Oregonians)
Feed our neighbors who are affected by the shutdown: Find Oregon Department of Human Services food resources or Oregon food bank near you and learn what they need now – money or food – to address unmet needs from SNAP.
DEADLINE: end of October
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The shutdown is about a disagreement on the budget bill which has largely been about whether to extend the set-to-expire Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits to protect health insurance coverage for millions of Americans. While outside of the budget itself, if Congress doesn’t extend these subsidies, an estimated 7.3 million people could lose their ACA coverage, 4.8 million of whom could become entirely uninsured in 2026. Millions of others would have to pay more for insurance coverage, resulting in financial hardship for many. This will extend the hurt that many families are already feeling.
If the shutdown continues into November, Oregon has warned that benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) could be delayed to 757,000 people.
LEAGUE POSITION:
Persons who are unable to work, whose earnings are inadequate, or for whom jobs are not available have the right to an income and/or services sufficient to meet their basic needs for food, shelter, and access to health care.