Tackling Climate Change

The carbon pollution in our atmosphere from burning fossil fuels like oil and coal is waging a direct and unchecked assault on our farming, fishing and forests – the cornerstones of Oregon’s rural economy.

When Jeff was young, his dad worked as a millwright. He spent his childhood in Southern Oregon timber communities, where timber jobs were what put food on the table and kept roofs over folks’ head. Fires and insect infestations are already killing trees at alarming rates across the Northwest, and climate change will only make these threats to our forests worse. Other iconic Oregon industries like our coastal oyster hatcheries are threatened by ocean acidification, and fishing and farming alike are facing threats from declining snowpacks and increased drought.

Congress needs to wake up. Climate change is real, and it’s bad for our economy and jobs, especially in rural Oregon and the places that most depend on our abundant natural resources.

Merkley, Murray, Heinrich, Klobuchar Demand Immediate Halt to Forest Service Reorganization, Funding Cuts

Washington, D.C. – Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Merkley, Panetta Lead the Charge to Protect Monarch Butterflies

Lawmakers also introduce bipartisan resolution marking National Pollinator Week Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and U.S. Representative Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-19) today teamed up to introduce the Monarch Action, Recovery, and Conservation of Habitat (MONARCH) Act. The bicameral bill would help prevent the extinction of the Western Monarch butterfly and

Merkley: Forest Service Dangerously Unprepared for Wildfire Season

Washington, D.C. – Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-OR) issued the following statement after a hearing with U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz on the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request for the agency: “Forest Service Chief Schultz’s testimony only underscored the immense, serious challenges facing communities

Merkley Remarks at Forest Service Budget Hearing with Chief Schultz

Washington, D.C. – Today, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley—the Ranking Member of the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee—delivered the following remarks as prepared for delivery at the hearing reviewing the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request for the U.S. Forest Service with Chief Tom Schultz: Senator Merkley’s remarks, as prepared for

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