Policy for the People

Roughly 70,000 Oregonians have already dropped off the SNAP program since 2025, because of the Trump administration enacting the biggest cuts in the history of SNAP, our nation’s main line of defense against hunger. At the same time, the Trump Administration also clawed back federal funding to food pantries around the country, including the Oregon Food Bank. Combined, these attacks on our state sa...

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, what kind of country do we want to become? We speak with Taifa Butler, President of Demos, about the challenges facing American democracy and the need for a "Third Reconstruction." We discuss the connection between economic power and political power, the role of worker power in a healthy democracy, the enduring impact of racism and t...

In this episode of Policy for the People we discuss a recent report by the Oregon Center for Public Policy examining Oregon's economic performance. As OCPP Policy Analyst Tyler Mac Innis explains, Oregon's economy has done quite well over the long haul, outperforming that of most other states.  Oregon's main economic challenge is not the lack of prosperity, but the lack of shared pr...

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, workers across the country began organizing at levels not seen in years. From Starbucks to Amazon, employees pushed back against low wages and poor working conditions — and Oregon workers are part of that movement. One group of Oregon workers who successfully fought to unionize are the workers at Serenity Hospice in Eugene. In this episode of Policy for the Pe...

The big business lobby constantly complains that Oregon’s “business climate” is terrible, but what does the data actually show?  In this episode of Policy for the People, we dig into one of the most common myths about Oregon’s economy: that the state has a bad business climate. Economist Joe Cortright of City Observatory joins the show to break it all down. Drawing on national data and decades of...

In this episode, Alejandro Queral of the Oregon Center for Public Policy speaks with Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, the state’s chief elections officer, on efforts by the Trump administration to make it harder for people to vote. These efforts include the SAVE Act, which imposes costs and barriers on voters, as well as changes to the rules by which the U.S. Postal Service postmarks mail, w...

Oregon is one of the nation’s top destinations for data centers, attracted by the state’s cheap power and favorable climate. Despite the state being an ideal location for data centers, Oregon and communities like Hillsboro in Washington County have been doling out massive tax subsidies to the corporate owners of data centers. That has been a very foolish thing to do, says Dirk Knudsen, a real esta...

Oregon's subsidized child care program, Employment Related Day Care (ERDC), is on course to run out of money in less than a year. If that happens, thousands of families would lose child care, and with that, the ability of parents to work. That would be catastrophic for families and the state, explain our two guests: Marchel Kaleikini and Ivy Major-McDowall of For All Families Oregon. Marchel...

As the number of elderly Oregonians surpasses the number of children, demand for long-term care is rising. But the workers who provide this essential care are underpaid, overworked, and leaving the industry at alarming rates.  Melissa Unger, Executive Director of SEIU Local 503, which represents tens of thousands of long-term care workers across Oregon, describes the physically and emotionally dem...

We break down the latest data on income inequality in Oregon. OCPP policy analyst Tyler Mac Innis explains that the gap separating the rich and everyone else remains vast, even with the dip in income inequality seen in the two years following the peak set in 2021. That dip may have already reversed, given that the job-market factors driving the decline during the pandemic years have disappeared. A...

In this episode, we examine how the Trump administration’s decision to end the federal food security report threatens to hide the reality of hunger in America. Oregon Center for Public Policy analyst Tyler Mac Innis explains what losing this data means for families and policymakers, while Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality executive director Lelaine Bigelow  discusses why poverty endures...

Starbucks does more business in Oregon than in just about any corner of the world. For one, the U.S. is the largest market for the world’s largest coffee chain.  And in the U.S., there are more Starbucks stores per capita in Oregon than any other state. So how much in profits does Starbucks make in Oregon and how much does it pay in taxes to the state? We don’t know. That information is secret. Bu...

Rideshare drivers have had enough. Confronting low pay and tough working conditions, drivers for Uber and Lyft are organizing and fighting to change public policy. In this episode of Policy for the People, we speak with Nathaniel Hudson-Hartman and Joe Jackson, rideshare drivers and organizers with Drivers Union OR, about the realities of the industry and how drivers are fighting back.  Support th...

 Much of the progress Oregon has made in expanding health care access is at risk as a result of the federal budget reconciliation bill enacted by Congress.  In this episode of Policy for the People, we discuss the past, present and future of Oregon’s system of health care, including the threats posed by the federal budget reconciliation bill. Our guest is Dr. Bruce Goldberg. Bruce is a professor a...

It's hard to overstate the danger that lies ahead for many families in Oregon and across the country, especially the families already struggling the most to stay afloat economically, as a result of the budget reconciliation law passed by Congress. This law will leave many Oregon families less healthy, hungrier and poorer. Support the show

The reconciliation bill passed by the U.S. House is truly monstrous, slashing health care and nutrition assistance to help pay for tax cuts that mainly would go to the rich. But there's more harm that would flow from the bill. One thing that hasn't gotten a lot of attention is the fact that the reconciliation bill threatens to shrink Oregon revenue collections, due to the way our state t...

Just ahead of the Memorial Day weekend, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget reconciliation bill – a massive tax and budget package. If this bill ultimately becomes law, it will – among other things – force deep cuts to safety net programs, especially Medicaid and nutrition assistance. One of the members of Congress who voted no on the bill was Representative Andrea Salinas, who repre...

Food banks across Oregon are seeing record numbers of people coming in through their doors. Ever since the pandemic, the rising cost of living has been making it harder for families to afford food.  And now, at a time when there is a hunger crisis going on, actions by the Trump administration and Congress threaten to make matters worse – far worse. In this episode of Policy for the People, we exam...

In celebration of May Day, International Workers Day, we are issuing this special episode of Policy for the People examining the state of the labor movement. Our guest is Don McIntosh, editor of the Northwest Labor Press, who has been reporting about the labor movement for over two decades. Don discusses the present state of the labor movement, what the Trump Administration means for organized lab...

Right now, the Republican controlled Congress is speeding down a path that would raise costs for food and health care for millions of families by taking away Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. It would do so in order to help pay for massive tax cuts primarily benefiting the most well-off, including millionaires and billionaires. In this episode of Policy for the Peopl...

The revival of an old idea is offering hope for improving pay and working conditions in entire industries all at once. That policy is often referred to as Workforce Standards Boards. In this episode of Policy for the People, Ira Cuello-Martinez of PCUN, Oregon’s Farmworker Union, discusses the tough working conditions that farmworkers in Oregon endure, and why the creation of a Workforce Standards...

For some Oregonians, the complexity and cost involved in tax filing is a barrier to doing their taxes. Oregonians who would be due a tax refund, who would get money back by filing a tax return, don't receive those dollars because they're unable to navigate the complicated process of preparing and filing a tax return. In this episode of Policy for the People, we discuss two initiatives th...

Oregon’s workforce is getting older, as more and more Oregonians continue to work into their later years of life. But many older workers run up against age discrimination. Age discrimination in the workplace is prevalent in Oregon and nationally, according to research by AARP.  In this episode of Policy for the People, we explore the issue of age discrimination in the workplace. Our guest is Andre...

For families struggling to pay the bills, for parents juggling multiple jobs to try to keep things afloat, small amounts of cash can make the difference between making it or not, between having some breathing space or being suffocated by the daily grind. Simply giving cash to families in need is very effective at improving economic and mental well-being. That’s a key takeaway from the many experim...

“The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) is facing an unprecedented crisis that threatens worker protections and civil rights enforcement in the state,” according to the Bureau itself.  In this episode of Policy for the People, we speak with Oregon Labor Commissioner Christina Stephenson about the funding crisis that BOLI faces, and what that means for the economic well-being of working O...