Where safe running water isn’t a given, federal officials are tying solutions to embattled spending bills. Democratic senators from Oregon brought officials with the Biden administration to rural Central Oregon last week – thousands of miles from the political fight in Washington, D.C., – to tour neglected water systems on
WASHINGTON – Some House and Senate Democrats, smarting from a move by Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, to kill a major element of President Biden’s climate plan, are switching to Plan B: a tax on carbon dioxide pollution. A carbon tax, in which polluting industries would pay
SOUTHERN OREGON, Ore. – After touring the burn scar from the South Obenchain fire on Thursday, Governor Kate Brown, Senator Jeff Merkley and other state and federal officials discussed how the infrastructure bill could help mitigate fire incidents in the future. The proposed $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act, which
The big story on Capitol Hill this week is the debt ceiling showdown between Democrats in Republicans. Last week, the two parties drafted a short-term deal to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its debts, averting a self-inflicted government crisis, for now. “It’s absolutely essential to maintaining the credit of
WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats, looking for a way to raise the debt limit without Republican support, are considering changing the chamber’s rules and allowing the debt limit to be increased with a simple majority. Creating a new exception to the filibuster is gaining support among Senate Democrats, four sources with
With Congress working hard to approve funding to keep the government open, Democratic senators from the West Coast said the budget must include funding to deal with climate change. During a press call Wednesday, the senators, led by Patty Murray from Washington and Oregon’s two senators, said the country cannot
City Council unanimously passed a resolution Thursday urging Congress to strike the slavery clause from the U.S. Constitution. The move supports Senate Joint Resolution 21 and House Joint Resolution 53. These pieces of legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley and U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams propose a constitutional amendment that
A Uyghur refugee is advocating passage of bipartisan legislation that would prevent Chinese goods made by Uyghur slave labor from entering the U.S. market. Kuzzat Altay, 36, a Uyghur-American tech entrepreneur and human rights activist, arrived in the U.S. in 2008 as a refugee with no English skills and few
Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, alongside Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR-04), announced Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is making a number of changes to reduce barriers for underserved populations seeking to access federal assistance in the wake of future natural disasters, including wildfires. The announcement comes
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