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Oregon Congressman Greg Walden newsletter
3/14/08
Dear fellow Oregonian,
I’m in the middle of another busy week here in the nation’s
capital, occupied with many committee hearings, constituent
meetings, and key issues on the House floor. But I wanted to
take a moment to update you on what I’ve been up to over
these past few weeks before I return to Oregon on Friday to
complete my 332 nd round trip. Next week I’ll be
off on another extensive swing through eastern, central, and
southern Oregon, which I’ll update you on soon.
ON THE OREGON TRAIL
As you may remember from the last e-newsletter, I hit
the road in eastern Oregon for an extensive four-day swing
during the President’s Day District Work Period that covered
1,124 miles. Here’s a recap of those travels:
Day One – Wednesday, February 20
After a three hour drive from Hood River, I started the
swing off with
a tour of the Diesel Technologies Program at Blue Mountain
Community College
in Pendleton with about 20 administrators, staff, faculty,
and industry folks. There’s a real need for diesel
technicians in the area, and the school has done a great job
to fill that nitch. The program is now in the second year of
a three-year Department of Labor job training investment of
$1.2 million, and I was happy to see the funding being put
to such good use. BMCC President John Turner and his faculty
are leading a fine institution. I really think the federal
investment will help ensure a well-trained workforce that’s
ready to help grow the economy of eastern Oregon.
Next, it was down the road to La Grande
to open up the first-ever full-time Second District office
in eastern Oregon.
It was wonderful to see over 100 community members and
leaders attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony to show their
support for the office’s presence in eastern Oregon. I’ve
long wanted to open a full-time office in this part of the
district, and I knew it was essential to have an eastern
Oregonian with knowledge of the area’s issues staff the
office. After working for me for six years, first in Bend
and then as my senior resources policy advisory in
Washington, D.C., Colby Marshall (a Burns native) and his
wife (also an eastern Oregonian) were ready to head home to
the open spaces of eastern Oregon (think Blue Mountains
instead of blue suits). Colby is a great fit to help the
people of the area, and folks are always welcome to come
visit at 1211 Washington Avenue or give a ring at (541)
624-2400 to let Colby know how I can help out.
Immediately following the reception, we rolled up our
sleeves and got right to work in the new digs, testing out
the videoconferencing technology that will allow us to
connect my offices in Medford, Bend, Hood River, La Grande,
and Washington, D.C. with each other. I met with Eastern
Oregon University Interim President Dixie Lund; my senior
policy staff in the nation’s capital connected in via the
videoconferencing system. We discussed the repositioning
plan at the university, which will help ensure they continue
to grow Oregon’s workforce and keep good jobs on the eastern
side of the state.
Then it was on to Baker City for a meeting with the Farm
Bureau. Local president Peggy Browne, Oregon Farm Bureau
President and American Farm Bureau Vice President Barry
Bushue, and nearly 20 others shared their views on topics
such as county payments, water resources, forest policy, and
the farm bill. As regular readers of the newsletter know,
those are top priorities of mine, and ones I’m working with
my colleagues to make headway on in Congress.
Day Two – Thursday, February 21
The day started with
a really fun stop at Vale Elementary School
in Malheur County to take a look at a neat pilot computer
initiative. Students there are able to download assignments
and projects, complete the work, and then the teachers can
access the information and assign a grade…all with no paper
exchanged. The school is really doing a good job of
preparing these students with the technological skills
they’ll need for the 21st century. Principal
Darlene McConnell (who is a former high school classmate of
mine) and Vale School District Superintendent are doing
great work and really dedicated to the youth of the area.
Following the classroom visit, I presented new Eagle
Scout Collin Peterson with a flag flown over the Capitol. As
an Eagle Scout myself, I know how much work is required and
I always like to be able to express my congratulations
personally.
The next stop was at another school,
this time in Prairie City,
where I met with about two dozen leaders from all around
Grant County for what turned into an impromptu town hall. We
talked a lot about the resource issues that affect the area,
and how important healthy forests are to the economy and
environment of rural Oregon. Afterward, I visited a
classroom at Prairie City School to discuss my job as
congressman.
The day’s travels ended with a dinner with Harney County
Judge Steve Grasty and Commissioner Dan Nichols in Burns.
The theme of the meeting echoed what I had been hearing for
much of the swing; frustrations with federal land policy,
from county payments to public access to wildfire prevention
and response. I share in their frustration. I’ve been
working hard with Congressman Peter DeFazio and a bipartisan
group of rural representatives to provide a long-term
extension of county payments, and I’ve worked closely with
Washington Congressman Brian Baird to identify ways to fix
federal forest policy to create healthier conditions in our
national forests. But much work remains on all of these
fronts.
Day Three – Friday, February 22
As you may remember, southeast Oregon was hit hard by
wildfire this past year, and that dominated the talk of
a roundtable I organized
in Burns among ranching and farming groups and
representatives from the county, the state, Bureau of Land
Management, Forest Service, and other federal agencies. When
I visited Burns shortly after the Egley Complex fires began
last year, the residents in the area were pretty darn frank
with me about how frustrated they were with the
communication from federal agencies during the crisis. At
this meeting, I was able to get the agencies to commit to
training a group of local folks to work with fire command
teams before the next fire season to try to prevent such a
breakdown. Those present at the meeting also told me about
the need to conduct after-fire assessments. It was a
positive working meeting with over 50 people, and hopefully
the groundwork we laid can help avoid similar problems in
the future.
Our last stop in Burns was a meeting with the High Desert
Partnership (HDP), a coalition of ranchers, agency
officials, local government leaders, and environmental
groups to develop sustainable ecological, economic, and
social policies for the Harney Basin. They’re doing good,
proactive work to avoid conflict in that part of the state.
After another long stretch of road, I arrived at the
North Lake Medical Center in Christmas Valley in Lake County
to tour the new facility, which is a real asset to that
community. The clinic’s completion in October 2007 was the
culmination of over 20 years of work to develop a new clinic
in this rural, medically-underserved community. As a member
of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has
jurisdiction over health care policy, and co-chair of the
bipartisan House Rural Health Care Coalition, quality access
to rural health care continues to be one of my top
priorities. I also received a briefing on the current status
of the Over-the Horizon-Backscatter radar facility in
Christmas Valley. We hope to convert this old military
radar facility into a modern renewable energy site utilizing
the power transmission lines that used to serve the radar
transmitters to bring green power back to the grid.
Day Four – Saturday, February 23
On Saturday morning, I headed out to Liskey Farms in
Klamath Falls to learn how they’re using geothermal energy
to power a new biodiesel production unit, raise tropical
fish, plants, insects and soon produce electricity.
Engineering and marketing students from the nearby Oregon
Institute of Technology joined me, and we talked at length
about the important role of renewables in America’s smarter
energy future. I’ve been telling my colleagues on the Select
Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming about
the exciting and unique energy projects in the Northwest.
Last year, I helped secure $500,000 for the OIT’s new
Geo-Heat Center, and found out at my visit to Liskey Farms
that there is 199-degree water just 18 feet below the
surface that is capable of running a 10 megawatt power
plant.
The last stop was in Gilchrist at the Interfor Pacific
mill. The Klamath County mill is very dependent on federal
timber sales and finding adequate supply is often a serious
problem. Between the downturn in the housing market and a
limited supply of timber, the workers at the mill have
suffered weeks of layoffs. In fact the day I was there, was
the last day of operations for the month. After the tour of
the mill, I spoke to a crew of about 100 workers, and I told
them that federal forest policy needs to change. The current
policy puts mills out of business, can bankrupt small
communities, and leaves Oregon’s future with a legacy of
choked, unhealthy forests or, even worse and increasingly
all-too-common, burned dead forests. It makes no sense. We
need to get our over-grown forests back in balance and doing
so will produce domestic jobs and wood products.
Southern Oregon Meth Project
After returning from Washington, D.C. for another week
of legislative business, I was in Klamath Falls on Monday,
March 3 for the Southern Oregon Meth Project forums to
educate middle and high school students and the community at
large on the dangers of meth use. In the afternoon, the
students heard from some experts with first-hand experience
about just how damaging meth is.
Later that night, the message was drilled home to parents
and others in a separate session. Several hundred people
attended each forum. These kinds of gatherings always
deliver an important message: meth lays waste to
individuals, families, and communities alike. I’ve held many
similar town halls in the past across the district, and was
pleased to participate in this one, as well.
There are signs we may be getting a better handle on the
epidemic, partly thanks to aggressive federal, state and
local initiatives to curb the production and use of this
poison. But make no mistake, more needs to be done to not
only prevent meth use, but also to rehabilitate those caught
in its grip, and prosecute those providing the dangerous
drug to our communities.
DC ACTION
You may remember in the last newsletter that I expressed
my frustration that the House majority leadership had
refused to allow the House to vote on the bipartisan Protect
America Act, which passed the Senate with 68 votes.
The bill is a critical anti-terror law that closes loopholes
in our intelligence laws and protects our civil liberties.
The President and the Senate leadership are on the same page
and the bill could become law if the House leadership would
schedule it for a vote.
Thursday night, the House convened a rare, secret session —
the first since 1983 — to discuss the threats to our country
and the reasons behind why the provisions contained in the
Senate measure are so very important to protecting our
country from attack. We started that secret session at
10:15 p.m. and the discussion lasted an hour.
While obviously I cannot discuss what was said, I can tell
you what I learned made me more convinced than ever of the
importance of renewing the foreign surveillance program as
envisioned by the Senate.
Unfortunately, on Friday the House was again denied the
opportunity to vote on the Senate measure and instead the
majority approved a bill that, in my opinion, leaves our
country unnecessarily vulnerable.
Meanwhile, as Director of National Intelligence Mike
McConnell wrote, “without the act in place, vital programs
would be plunged into uncertainty and delay, and
capabilities would continue to decline.” It’s been a month
since the law expired, and the threat to our country
remains.
In other news…
As a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and
the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global
Warming, we’ve reviewed some interesting topics in the last
couple weeks, including food safety and sustainability,
wireless consumer protection, climate change in developing
countries, the renewable energy economy (which we know much
about in the Northwest), nuclear power, and fuel pipeline
safety. Thankfully, we have held no new hearings on Roger
Clemens.
A steady stream of people from the Second District
continues to come through Washington. I met with people from
Nyssa, The Dalles, La Grande, Klamath Falls, Baker City,
Medford, Hood River, Vale, Bend, Ashland, Pendleton,
Boardman, John Day, Sisters, Jacksonville, Redmond, Burns,
and Grants Pass.
This week I received a special honor from the National
Association of Community Health Centers. They named me a
“Distinguished Community Health Superhero” (no, there’s no
cape with the award) for 2008. Last year, the same group
honored me with the “Community Health Defender” award. I
continue my work to address the unique challenges of
delivering quality health care to rural Oregonians. The
system of community health centers and clinics across our
district provide essential and timely access to health care
for thousands of our neighbors. I’m continuing to work with
them and the home health care folks and other providers to
make sure people who need care get it in a timely and
affordable manner.
I also met with Governor Ted Kulongoski who was in town
recently to brief our delegation on his priorities, which
included extending the county timber payments program and
some enhancements for the Oregon National Guard’s mission
and resources, among other things.
I addressed the gathering of the Pacific Northwest
Waterways Association, where I pointed out how important the
Columbia River deepening project is to the economy of the
Northwest and we discussed the problems related to the
damage to the lock at John Day Dam. Keeping commerce
flowing on the Columbia is essential for our economy in the
Northwest.
A lot of local associations visited the Capitol over the
last few weeks. I hosted county commissioners from across
Oregon for breakfast during last week’s National Association
of Counties meeting in the nation’s capital. As you might
expect, county payments dominated the discussion and
Oregon’s commissioners hit the halls of Congress hard to
press our case to members across the country.
The League of Oregon Cities and the Oregon Community
Colleges representatives were back talking about ways to
strengthen the partnership between cities and the federal
government, and the importance of job training and education
for our workforce.
In all, I had over 90 meetings and hearings on my
schedule during the last two weeks here in the nation’s
capital. I’ll spend Saturday in Heppner, then home on Sunday
before hitting the road again next week to visit Umatilla,
Morrow, Crook, Deschutes, Jackson, and Josephine counties to
focus largely on health care, economic and workforce
development and other issues important to district, state
and nation as I continue my regular visits throughout the 20
counties in our vast district.
Until the next newsletter, you can refer to the Library
of Congress website
here
for more information on what’s happening in Congress. You
can always reach me through my
website
or by contacting
any of my offices
in Oregon or Washington, D.C. If you would like to
unsubscribe from this mailing, simply reply and type the
word “unsubscribe” in the subject box.
Best regards,
Greg Walden
Member of Congress
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Dear fellow
Oregonian,
Greetings from
Washington, D.C. where I this week returned
following a very busy summer district work period.
I have much to update you on regarding my
extensive visits with residents in eastern,
central and southern Oregon, along with some
legislative accomplishments from earlier this
summer. I’ll also preview some legislative
priorities for the remainder of the year in this
edition of the Congressional Connection.
ON THE OREGON
TRAIL
All in all, it’s
been a very busy summer, as my swings in August
alone covered nine counties, with over 30 public
meetings and events and more than 2,000 miles
covered on the road. I have visited nearly all of
the 20 counties in the vast Second Congressional
District twice or more this year, and my visits
will continue for the rest of the year. In fact,
I’ve made 55 official visits this year to counties
and held hundreds of meetings across the district.
It is certainly a challenge representing such an
immense district, but one I welcome with
enthusiasm as it is always a joy to interact with
the people of central, southern, and eastern
Oregon and it’s where I get my best “to do” list
to take back to our nation’s capital each week.
The summer has been
packed with many meetings and public events in
Oregon during both the weekends in June and July
following workweeks in Washington, D.C., and also
during the summer district work period in August.
I held multiple town hall meetings in southern,
central, and northeast Oregon, which covered a
diverse range of topics and attracted a broad
range of people.
During the first
week of the August district work period I made a
swing through northeast Oregon. I met with the
Oregon Wheat Growers League and the Pendleton
Rotary before heading to Enterprise for meetings
with local residents over the Forest Service’s
proposed Travel Management Plan, a town hall in
the evening and a tour of and meeting at the
Wallowa Lake Dam the following morning to discuss
the successful House passage of my bill to
authorize essential repairs to the dam. Later that
day I was honored to help dedicate the brand-new
Elkhorn Valley Wind Project in Union County. I
visited the construction site in April, and am
happy to see such wonderful progress on a project
that will create 100 megawatts, or enough energy
to meet the annual needs of over 25,000 Northwest
homes. I was able to meet separately with the
Baker, Umatilla, and Union County commissioners to
brief them on progress in Washington, D.C., and
also to hear the latest on the issues affecting
each county.
Water was very much
on the mind in Milton-Freewater in Umatilla
County, where I met with members of the Walla
Walla Basin Watershed Council and other local
officials to discuss the Walla Walla River
Restoration Feasibility Study. I also met in
Hermiston with stakeholders of the Bureau of
Reclamation’s Umatilla Basin Phase III Project for
which I helped secure a federal investment to
continue. Representatives from the Westland
Irrigation District, Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation, Umatilla County, and
local farmers attended. This long-term project
will provide a secure supply of water for
irrigation needs and fish habitat. After a long
day of meetings, I was able to meet at the
Umatilla County Fair with many students involved
in 4-H and Future Farmers of America and also met
with the Umatilla County Fair Court. Later that
evening I attended the Farm-City Pro Rodeo and had
a great time visiting with residents and watching
the rodeo.
In central Oregon, I
spoke to and took questions from members of the
Bend Rotary and also attended the groundbreaking
for the new terminal at Redmond Municipal Airport.
Senators Smith and Wyden, and many other local
officials and residents also joined this
outstanding event. Before leaving Washington,
D.C. for the August district period, I submitted
a tribute in the Congressional Record
commemorating the history of Roberts Field. Then I
drove 175 miles to Medford to begin a swing
through Jackson and Josephine counties, where I
had the honor of handing out service medals to a
group of southern Oregon military veterans. I
attended the dedication of a very exciting new
facility in Ashland, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service’s Clark R. Bavin Forensic Lab, which is
the only crime lab in the world dedicated entirely
to wildlife and is expected to serve both the
national and international communities. I also
spoke to the Grants Pass Rotary and attended the
groundbreaking of the new terminal at the Rogue
Valley International-Medford Airport. Like the
Roberts Field event, it was very well attended and
highlighted the smart and needed growth of the
airport to accommodate the region’s growing
business and passenger needs.
In-between my
travels throughout the district, I also held a
number of requested meetings in my office in my
hometown of Hood River.
D.C. ACTION
Rural Health Care
Congress has made
progress on several of my top legislative
priorities since I wrote you last. I joined my
fellow co-chair of the Rural Health Care
Coalition, Congressman Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.), to
unveil the Health Care Access and Rural Equity
(H-CARE) Act of 2007, H.R. 2860.
This bipartisan legislation, which has 66
cosponsors to date, is a comprehensive bill that
proposes several improvements to our nation’s
health care infrastructure. The improvements would
help rural health care providers address the
unique challenges associated with delivering
quality health care close to home in rural areas
like Oregon’s Second Congressional District.
As you may know, we
introduced similar legislation last year and were
successful in passing some of its provisions. One
new aspect of the legislation this year is the
flexibility it gives to Critical Access Hospitals.
During my many meetings with health care providers
across the state the past year, I have been told
of the burden of the 25-bed daily maximum rule for
Critical Access Hospitals, which are so designated
because they are the only hospital for many miles
around. However, the 25-bed daily cap is firm; if
a hospital exceeds it, they could potentially lose
their “critical access” designation and the
federal investments that come with it. Thus, these
hospitals can do little else but refuse care
to the 26th patient, forcing the
patient to make the difficult decision to either
travel extensively to the next hospital or forego
treatment altogether. H.R. 2860 would give
hospitals the flexibility to treat patients as
they come in as long as their average daily bed
occupancy does not exceed 20.
Click here
for more information on the bill and a list of the
groups that support the H-CARE Act of 2007.
Oregon Water
Resources Development Act
The House also
unanimously passed the Oregon Water Resources
Development Act (H.R. 495), which I sponsored and
introduced early this Congress in January. The
bill includes four separate projects that would
provide important tools to help balance land use,
conservation, and public safety. Proper management
of water is one of the most serious issues in many
parts of Oregon, and the projects included in this
bill see to it that water is handled the right
way. The legislation is actually a collection of
four separate acts, including the Deschutes River
Conservancy Reauthorization Act, the North Unit
Irrigation District Act, the Wallowa Lake Dam
Rehabilitation Act, and the Little Butte/Bear
Creek Subbasins Water Feasibility Act.
Click here for more information on each of these
acts.
Now that the Oregon Water Resources Management Act
has received solid bipartisan support for two
straight sessions, I will continue to work closely
with the Senate to ensure that this legislation
gets to the President’s desk as quickly as
possible so we can deliver sound results for water
users, conservation groups and the public across
Oregon.
The Fairness
Doctrine
When the Senate’s
proposed immigration legislation was defeated
earlier this summer, many proponents of the bill
blamed talk radio for torpedoing the highly
controversial bill. Some senators were not pleased
about the fact that some talk radio shows helped
to mobilize an effective grassroots effort. Now,
some legislators are proposing to bring back the
so-called Fairness Doctrine, which found its
origins in a 1949 Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) regulation that required
broadcasters to "afford reasonable opportunity for
the discussion of conflicting views of public
importance." This was interpreted for many years
to essentially mean that any station that
broadcast one political viewpoint must also
provide the opposite political viewpoint too,
essentially suppressing political speech on the
airwaves. Facing mounting pressure from the
courts, in 1987 the FCC dropped the Fairness
Doctrine, ushering in the current era of diverse
and vibrant talk radio that has been so valuable
to the public exchange of ideas.
In 1949, there were
only about 3,000 broadcast radio stations across
America. Today, however, with over 10,000, the
media landscape in this country is much different.
The marketplace of ideas has never been more
diverse and competitive. Whether you are looking
at a print publication, listening to the radio, or
perusing the Internet, it is never a challenge to
find someone expressing his or her opinion on a
matter of national significance.
Unfortunately, those
in Washington, D.C. who are interested in bringing
the Fairness Doctrine back would muzzle the voice
of talk radio. This is a blatant assault on the
First Amendment, and as a broadcaster for over
20 years I am extremely concerned about it. The
First Amendment is the underpinning of our
political discourse and the underpinning of our
democracy. It is what allows the free flow of
vibrant and diverse discussion of every viewpoint
in our country.
Congressman Mike
Pence, myself, and 202 other members of Congress
are supporting the
Broadcaster Freedom Act
(HR 2905) to protect the First Amendment and
broadcasters’ rights. We must pass this
legislation to protect the fundamental right to
free speech.
County payments
I continue to work
with the rest of the Oregon delegation to identify
a way to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and
Community Self-Determination Act (county
payments). While we were able to secure a one-year
emergency extension of the program to fund the
program through the current fiscal year, I am
nonetheless very frustrated that more action has
not been taken in this Congress to come up with a
long-term solution that ensures the federal
government keeps its commitment to rural
communities. Of course, if the legal gridlock
could be undone to actually generate more revenue
from the public lands — as has always been
intended in federal statutes — there would not be
such a drastic need for the federal government to
deliver funds to counties where it owns, in some
cases, over 75 percent of the land in the county.
While a revenue source that has solid bipartisan
support has not been identified, we in the
delegation continue to pursue every means at our
disposal to ensure that the federal government is
a good neighbor to rural America.
H.R. 811 – The
Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act
of 2007
When I was
originally approached to support H.R. 811, the
Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act
of 2007, I signed on as a cosponsor because I
support its goal of ensuring a paper trail in
elections. Indeed, Oregon already ensures a paper
trail in its elections because of our unique
mail-in ballot system. However, local election
officials soon alerted me that this legislation
could seriously complicate voting procedures in
the state and ultimately threaten Oregon’s
electoral integrity. I passed along the concerns
of Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury and
multiple county clerks in our district to the
sponsor of the bill, but was not assured that
Oregon’s concerns would be addressed. Therefore, I
tried to remove my name from the bill as a
cosponsor, but could not do so due to a
technicality in the House rules. I expect this
bill to come to the House floor very soon, and
will continue to do all I can to modify the bill
to ensure that Oregon is not adversely affected.
INTERNSHIP
OPPORTUNITIES
My Washington, D.C.
office is currently accepting applications for
interns. Interns are an integral part of my office
as they help with office management, constituent
services and various other hands-on projects.
Serving as a congressional intern is an exciting
educational opportunity for those interested in
learning more about Congress and the
inner-workings of the House of Representatives.
Those interested should fax or e-mail their resume
with a cover letter, as well as any questions they
might have, to Melinda McIntyre in my Washington,
D.C. office (Melinda.mcintyre@mail.house.gov
or fax: (202) 225-5774). Applicants should be in
college or graduate school, or recent graduates of
either, and willing to spend approximately three
months working in the office.
I look forward to a
busy September in Washington, D.C., with important
meetings on both the Energy and Commerce Committee
and the Select Committee on Energy Independence
and Global Warming. I will also be attending many
more meetings in the district during the upcoming
weekends and will keep you posted on them. Until
the next Congressional Connection, remember that
for more on the current happenings in Congress,
you can always refer to the Library of Congress
website
here.
And you can always reach me through my
website
or by contacting
any of my offices
in Oregon or Washington, D.C. Thanks for taking
the time to read my newsletter, and I look forward
to updating you again soon on my work for the
people of Oregon’s Second District.
Best regards,
Congressman Greg
Walden
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