Category: In the News

Sen. Merkley Learning The Ropes In D.C.

t’s been about a hundred days since Jeff Merkley was sworn in as Oregon’s U.S. Senator. He’s an experienced legislator at the state level, but new to the scene in Washington D.C. April Baer checks on how Merkley’s doing on the job. As a Senator, Jeff Merkley isn’t under the

Fixing the damage to the American dream

There is nothing that characterizes the American dream better than owning your own home. Unfortunately, instead of strengthening homeownership as part of the American dream, we’ve allowed it to turn into the American nightmare. As a result, we’ve deeply damaged the foundations of Main Street and Wall Street. On Main

Resolution would fund forest plan

Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley on Tuesday introduced a budget resolution that would fully fund the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. The amendment would provide an additional $200 million for reducing hazardous fuels and for thinning on overstocked forests. Funding for the program has historically reached less

Merkley gives first speech in Senate

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., put the blame for the current housing crisis squarely on a failure of federal regulators in his first speech on the Senate floor Wednesday. “This fiasco is first and foremost the consequence of colossal regulatory failure,” said Merkley, tracing the history of deregulation

Merkley Outreach Includes Cave Junction

While campaigning for office last fall, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley visited more than 100 towns throughout Oregon. Now, Merkley and his staff are making an extra effort to maintain those contacts, they say, for the sake of providing good constituent services. On Tuesday, March 10, Cave Junction City Hall was

In Congress, Oregon has a few voices in key climate negotiations

WASHINGTON — To Sen. Jeff Merkley, federal action to slow U.S. greenhouse gas emissions isn’t just necessary for the planet. It could ignite a Beaver State explosion of green manufacturing jobs and spur wind, solar and geothermal energy production across the state. Done correctly, a bill capping carbon emissions would

Merkley draws full house in Mac

Single-payer health insurance got a major thumbs up from a packed town hall U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley hosted Sunday in McMinnville. Not proving so popular were illegal immigration, AIG and insurance companies. The tradition was launched in the 1990s, when U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden kept a campaign promise to hold

Wyden, Merkley put appropriation requests online

WASHINGTON – Oregonians were invited Friday to start reviewing and commenting on fiscal year 2010 appropriations requests received by the offices of U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). The first wave of appropriations requests received by the two offices — for the Commerce, State, Justice and Defense appropriations

Merkley has first White House chat

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley wasn’t disappointed by his first White House meeting with President Barack Obama. Senate Budget Committee members, including Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, met with Obama on Wednesday to discuss next year’s plan for federal spending. “It was a pretty cool thing with him sitting there

A glimpse at Merkley’s new life in the Senate

WASHINGTON – My colleague Charles Pope and I sat down for breakfast with Sen. Jeff Merkley Wednesday morning to get at least a glimpse of how the Oregon Democrat is settling into life in the Senate. A glimpse is sort of what you get, given how senators are kept moving

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