
This article has been updated with reports that the federal funding portals are working again.
The federal cutoff of key funding portals to state benefit programs won’t have an immediate effect on Oregonians, Gov. Tina Kotek and Attorney General Dan Rayfield said on Tuesday.
But they urged the Trump administration to reopen the portals immediately.
“The Oregon Health Authority, on a regular basis, logs in to seek reimbursement of Medicaid dollars for the Oregon Health Plan,” Kotek said. “That system is shut down. We cannot seek those reimbursements at this moment.”
Kotek said low-income members of the Oregon Health Plan should “continue to seek care. This does not impact you today. This is about how money is coming back to the state to pay for the services that you're using — but do not delay care.”
The elected officials’ comments came as state officials around the country were reporting that portals allowing federal funding to go to benefits programs such as Head Start, SNAP and child care development had been turned off. Tuesday morning, Oregon's senior member of Congress, U.S. Sen Ron Wyden, said on social media that the Medicaid portals had been shut down in all 50 states, adding that loss of that coverage would "get people killed."
The outages occurred shortly after the White House announced it would pause a variety of federal grant payouts, but federal officials then said the freeze would not affect benefits such as Medicaid. Later, they said the portals would be turned back on shortly. Multiple states reported they were, according to news reports.
Rayfield said, “We're hearing that things aren't going to be impacting Medicaid. But the fact on the ground is that these portals are shut down, preventing us from getting access to these critical funds that are important to all Oregonians.”
Like Kotek, he blamed Trump for the portal outages, saying that he is joining with other Democratic attorneys general to file a lawsuit to block the president from exceeding his powers to turn off funding approved by Congress. Rayfield likened it to a judge’s recent ruling against Trump’s recent executive order attempting to unilaterally rewrite the legal definition of citizenship.
“Right now, the President has been playing fast and loose ... with his powers to play politics, to advance his political agenda,” Rayfield said.
But any impact of interrupting the federal funding would be delayed, Kotek said.
“When you're on the Oregon Health Plan and we have to pay for the services you receive, the state pays for things, and then we get reimbursement from the federal government. They do that on a regular basis, multiple times a day,” she said. “And it's like your household budget: if you pay for something and you don't get paid back for the reimbursement you're expecting, or you don't get your paycheck, that would be a cash flow problem at some point.”
She added, "Those dollars are set by Congress. That is a promise to Oregonians. Those dollars should be flowing to the state."
The closure comes as the Legislature is considering Kotek’s proposed budget. It assumed no obstacles or cuts to funding flows.
“I do think legislators have a lot of questions about what this means,” Kotek said of the funding shutdown. “And so do I.”
I am always curious why the state doesn't sit down and discuss this with the federal government, not just those that they agree with? Maybe they are and the headline is misleading?
Mike Shirtcliff DMD