Senate Republican leader pitches increased state scrutiny of Oregon Food Bank

Yahoo

05-02-2025

Sen. Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, talks during a legislative preview on Jan. 16, 2025. (Photo by Ron Cooper/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
For years, legislative Republicans have argued that the Oregon Food Bank strayed from its mission of eliminating hunger by weighing in on political debates. On Tuesday, the top Republican in the Oregon Senate made his case for increased legislative scrutiny of the food bank and other nonprofit organizations that receive state funding.
Sen. Daniel Bonham's Senate Bill 644, which would create a legislative committee to audit the food bank, had a skeptical reception in the Senate Human Services Committee. Democrats who make up the majority on that committee and in the Legislature questioned the need for that bill, as the food bank already publishes annual financial audits and it would cost the state to conduct the audit.
Bonham's proposal reflects growing tensions between the food bank and Republicans, most of whom voted against sending $7.5 million to the food bank in 2023 when the federal government ended its pandemic-era temporary increase to food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Republicans objected to a food bank statement opposing the war in Gaza and support for hot-button bills on agricultural overtime and climate change. And most personally for Bonham, the food bank strongly opposed recent legislative walkouts — including one in 2023 that led to Bonham and other Republicans being barred from running for reelection.
As the food bank laid out in its blog in 2019, 2020 and 2023, those walkouts delayed or outright blocked the Legislature from passing bills or approving spending. But Republicans have argued that the food bank went too far.
'I think what flagged this for me was seeing my face on the back of a full-page Sunday Oregonian ad, that I know cost $17,000, sponsored by the Oregon Food Bank,' Bonham said. 'And I thought, 'Wow, our tax dollars hard at work telling Republicans to get back to work on a bill that, quite frankly, would have raised the cost of living for every Oregonian by $1,200.' How does that align with this core mission that they put forward?'
The Food Bank's stated mission is to 'to eliminate hunger and its root causes,' and it refers to root causes when it weighs in on legislation that may not immediately appear connected to feeding people. In 2023, for instance, it supported the abortion and transgender care bill that Senate Republicans including Bonham walked out to protest, reasoning that a lack of access to reproductive health care leads to increased hunger and poverty.
Andrea Williams, president of the Oregon Food Bank, said the organization knows that food distribution alone — it gave out more than 91 million meals in 2024 — won't eliminate hunger.
Williams brought printed copies of the food bank's annual financial audits, which are also on its website. In 2023, for instance, the Oregon Food Bank reported spending more than $90 million on food programs and $3 million on advocacy, out of a nearly $112 million total budget. It received more than $20 million in government funding, including the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Oregon Hunger Response Fund. None of that government funding was used for advocacy, Williams said.
She said she believed it was right and fair to comply with legally required audits, but that Bonham's proposal would create a 'duplicative and frivolous audit' that would take resources from the food bank's mission when hunger is on the rise.
'Furthermore, we believe it would set an unfortunate and damaging precedent that if an organization lawfully advocates for policies and legislation on behalf of the people they serve, they risk a retaliatory and onerous audit by the legislature,' Williams said.
Sandy Chung, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, said the state risked lawsuits if Bonham's 'dubious and undemocratic' bill passed. For instance, she said, the ACLU recently represented the National Rifle Association in a successful U.S. Supreme Court case against a New York state regulator who tried to coerce banks and insurance companies to deny financial services to the pro-gun group.
'We see it as fundamentally undemocratic, a dangerous abuse of power and likely unconstitutional to target a nonprofit organization with an audit because of its political speech,' Chung said.
After Chung laid out some of the ACLU's concerns in a written statement on Monday, Bonham said he would introduce an amendment to broaden the scope of the bill to include more nonprofit organizations. But that, according to Jim White, executive director of the Nonprofit Association of Oregon, would likely cost the state millions of dollars.
That's because thousands of nonprofits receive state funding, and the average cost of an audit is between $15,000 and $20,000. Hiring third-party certified public accountants to conduct audits would cost more.
White added that the legislation could have a chilling effect on nonprofit organizations in Oregon.
'(It) would send a really bad message to nonprofits that they should not practice their legal right to engage in the democratic process because they might get audited by a legislative committee,' White said. 'Nonprofits should not live in fear of legislative committee audits if they disagree on policy put forward by the Legislature.'
The bill isn't likely to advance in the Legislature. Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene and an attorney, said he couldn't imagine supporting it.
'It seems to me that this is an attempt to set up for vindictiveness against nonprofits that someone may disagree with their philosophy or how they have done stuff,' he said. 'Clearly, this organization, based on the testimony I've heard today, has made it very clear they are following all the rules, all the regulations, following all the requirements of the state of Oregon.'
And committee chair Sara Gelser Blouin, D-Corvallis, said she wanted to have a debate and discussion but didn't think an audit was the right way to do that. Instead, she said, lawmakers should talk about nonprofits' use of state money when they're deciding what to include in the budget.
'I think that we have to welcome that conversation, have the opportunity to get clarification, to point to where information is available to folks,' she said. 'And I hope as we move through the session we can give space to each other to have these conversations, to disagree with one another, and then figure out what we do in terms of policy, through that voice of debate.'
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