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.”