Press Releases

Merkley, Mannion Champion Legislation to Make Mental Health Care Accessible for Every Student in America 

Washington, D.C. – During Mental Health Awareness Month, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Congressman John Mannion (NY-22) announced the reintroduction of the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Act, legislation that would significantly boost the availability of mental health providers in America’s public schools. Mental illness affects nearly 20 percent of American youth. This bicameral legislation would put additional mental health providers in elementary and

Forty-One Senators Push to Keep Harmful Environmental Riders Out of Appropriations Bills

Senators warn that inclusion of poison pills harming the environment would undermine Senate’s ability to pass bipartisan spending bills Washington, D.C. – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works; Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior,

Wyden, Merkley, DeFazio Preserve Southwestern Oregon Mineral Withdrawal

Washington, D.C. – Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Rep. Peter DeFazio today announced that the U.S. Forest Service has told them it will not revisit a southwestern Oregon mineral withdrawal protecting more than 100,000 acres from development. That good news in a letter from Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who oversees

In Bipartisan Letter, Merkley and Young Urge Continued Support for International Food Aid

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Todd Young (R-IN) yesterday urged continued support for international food aid programs that save millions of lives. Merkley and Young are, respectively, the Ranking Member and Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee that oversees multilateral institutions and multilateral international development. In the letter, Merkley

Wyden, Merkley Push Zinke for Response to Five-Month-Old Sagebrush Request

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today asked the Interior Department for a positive response to their Sept. 22 letter urging approval for a program that has inmates produce sagebrush plants to help restore sage grouse habitat after fires.  Today’s letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke comes

Merkley Statement on Immigration Vote

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley released the following statement after a Senate vote on the Rounds-King immigration proposal failed: “After President Trump ripped away the legal status of our nation’s DACA recipients, we have been working for months to find a bipartisan compromise that would protect Dreamers –

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