Delaware
Delaware faces $400M loss due to federal funding cuts, tax policy changes
Senate Republicans said in a statement that federal tax policy is not to blame for Delaware’s woes.
“What’s hurting Delaware isn’t federal reform, it’s runaway spending and misguided state policy,” they wrote. “When government tries to provide everything, it replaces opportunity with dependency. Real progress doesn’t come from bureaucracy, it comes from empowering people to work, create, and build a better life for their families.”
The financial impact of the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ on state programs
According to the Delaware Healthcare Association, this summer’s massive tax bill will cut $4 billion in funding to the First State over the next 10 years. The bill’s new work requirements for Medicaid recipients aged 19-64 who are covered through the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion could result in over 50,000 Delawareans losing their Medicaid coverage and more than 30,000 becoming uninsured.
The new law also makes the largest cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in U.S. history. For the first time, older Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 and parents without children under age 14 who don’t have a work-limiting disability will be subject to work requirements. While the federal government previously paid for 50% of the administrative costs, the federal share will drop to 25% beginning in October 2026.
Delaware distributes more than $20 million in monthly SNAP food benefits to about 60,000 Delaware households. But SNAP recipients will be forced to survive without food assistance next month, due to the government shutdown.
“Households who were approved for food benefits on or after Oct. 17, 2025, will receive benefits for October,” a spokesperson for the Delaware Division of Social Services said in a statement. “However, further benefits will be on hold until the federal government re-opens and funds are approved by Congress for distribution to states.”
Delaware Democratic Congresswoman Sarah McBride said the lack of funding for food assistance is a choice by the Trump administration.
“They have chosen to call these programs ‘Democrat programs,’ and they believe that they are punishing people who they presume didn’t vote for them in the last election,” she said. “That’s no way to govern a country and it’s no way to serve constituents.”
Sens. Chris Coons and Lisa Blunt Rochester, along with dozens of other Democratic senators, sent a letter Thursday to Brooke Rollins, secretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, asking her to use legal authority to release November’s food stamp funding. The senators pointed to her legal ability to use contingency funding to pay out benefits. The administration has already used its discretion to transfer money to the federal supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, known as WIC.
“Any halt in SNAP funding will have devastating impacts for program beneficiaries, increasing food insecurity and undermining family budgets,” they wrote. “Given the critical importance of SNAP benefits, the USDA must take all steps possible to ensure that families do not go hungry.”
Thomas Jefferson University is opening a regional campus of its Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Delaware, an effort that will result in the state’s first medical school.
Jefferson beat out three other bidders to establish the four-year program in partnership with the state. The other bidders were the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, the consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico, Spotlight Delaware reported.
MORE: SEPTA reopens underground concourse connecting Walnut-Locust and City Hall stations
The inaugural class of 40 medical students will begin instruction in July 2028. Initially, the campus will be based at the University of Delaware in Newark, with Jefferson faculty providing instruction. A permanent home for the campus is still being finalized, the Inquirer reported.
The medical students will receive 18 months of preclinical training on campus before receiving clinical training from healthcare providers in Delaware’s southern counties, where the state’s physician shortage is most deeply felt. That shortage is compounded by an aging population, Delaware officials said.
“Jefferson is committed to being part of the solution to Delaware’s physician shortage,” Jefferson CEO Dr. Joseph Cacchione said in a statement. “We are proud to help build a future where every Delawarean has access to the care they deserve. Jefferson is all in.”
The school’s creation is being supported by $157.4 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Delaware is one of three states without a Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program. Since the late 1960s, Jefferson and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine have reserved seats for Delaware students.
“Sidney Kimmel Medical College has trained generations of physicians for more than 200 years, more than any other medical college in the country,” Said Ibrahim, dean of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, said in a statement. “It is a privilege to bring our mission to Delaware’s patients and communities.”
Jefferson has announced several expansions recently. The university is establishing a full-time doctor of nursing practice-nurse anesthesia program and several online graduate programs at the Lehigh Valley Health Network Center for Healthcare Education in Lehigh County. It also is opening a satellite respiratory therapy lab at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown.
Delaware officials said medical students will start their classroom instruction at UD and then do their clinical training at offices and health care systems in Kent and Sussex counties, where the shortage of doctors is most acute.
However, ChristianaCare, which has its own partnership with Jefferson, is not participating. The state’s largest health care system was part of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s unsuccessful bid to operate the school. In a joint statement from ChristianaCare and PCOM, the two organizations expressed disappointment with not being part of the consortium of higher education institutions and healthcare organizations.
“The path forward raises genuine questions about whether the school’s goals can be fully realized without ChristianaCare’s meaningful participation in its clinical training mission,” it said. “The success of any four-year medical program depends not just on an academic institution, but on a true and committed partnership with its clinical partners — one built on shared mission, mutual investment and trust developed over time.”
Students in the first class can get their tuition subsidized, covering all of their education costs, in exchange for an agreement to work in rural Delaware for five years.
Running the medical school is expected to cost Jefferson $78 million over the next five years. The money is from a federal rural health grant through the Rural Health Transformation Program, which congressional Republicans created in the so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”
The program will give $50 billion to every state over five years, though exactly the total each will eventually receive is unclear. Half of the money is to be distributed equally to states and the other half is awarded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services based on a variety of factors.
The state applied for $1 billion late last year to improve health care in Kent and Sussex counties. The Trump administration has so far allocated Delaware $157 million. Delaware is expected to receive at least $500 million over the life of the fund.
Delaware Ohio Housing Growth
A look at the rapid expansion of housing developments in Delaware, Ohio.
—
Every few weeks Delaware city approves a new housing development. The city has more than 4,000 housing units in its development pipeline, contributing to the rapid growth in one of the fastest-growing counties in Ohio.
A crash shut down U.S. 42 in Delaware County in both directions June 2.
As of 7 a.m., U.S. 42 was closed from U.S. 23 to Jegs Place near the Delaware Municipal Airport.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured in the crash or when the roadway would open.
This is a developing story and will be updated
Public Safety and Breaking News Reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
-
Nevada5 minutes agoCountry artist Caleb Montgomery performing at State Fair of Nevada
-
New Hampshire7 minutes ago12 beautiful hikes this season in Mass. and NH
-
New Jersey12 minutes agoDramatic video shows ferocious flames shooting from row house in Camden, NJ
-
New Mexico20 minutes agoCumbres & Toltec to begin summer season June 9
-
North Carolina22 minutes ago‘Bonsai in the Blue Ridge’ exhibit brings dozens of displays to North Carolina Arboretum
-
North Dakota27 minutes agoAnd he’s off
-
Ohio35 minutes agoThe purge? Ohio moves to downgrade non-domiciled CDLs
-
Oklahoma37 minutes agoWhat Oklahoma Does Better Than Texas and Why It Matters
