Press Releases
Wyden, Merkley Statement on Resignation of Roseburg VA Director Doug Paxton
Portland - U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today issued the following statement about the resignation of Roseburg VA Director Doug Paxton: “It’s been clear from the growing number of troubling reports from veterans served in Roseburg’s VA system that change is needed to provide the top-notch care those veterans deserve,” Wyden and Merkley said. “We hope this change marks a needed step forward to achieve the goal of transforming the VA’s Roseburg system into a place worthy of the … Continue Reading
February 01, 2018
Wyden Urges Administration to Make Rural Broadband a Priority
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and 15 of his colleagues are urging the Trump administration to include funding for broadband internet deployment in rural areas nationwide that lack access to high-speed broadband. "In an increasingly interconnected world and global economy, we must include in our discussion of infrastructure not just roads, bridges and waterways, but also high-speed internet access," Wyden and senators wrote in their letter. "While the vast majority of Americans have … Continue Reading
January 30, 2018
Wyden Response to the State of the Union Address
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., tonight issued the following statement after the State of the Union address: "Trump has spent the past two years making grandiose promises to put workers and families first, but he and congressional Republicans are frantically working to reward corporations and the politically powerful," Wyden said. "No amount of rhetoric can mask the reality that Trump's agenda is all about giving more power and influence to special interests by making life … Continue Reading
January 30, 2018
Wyden Pushes Trump Administration to Fund Earthquake Early Warning System
Washington, D.C. - Sen. Ron Wyden today pushed the Trump administration to fully fund essential preparedness functions that could save thousands of lives if a major earthquake or tsunami struck Oregon. In a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Wyden urged U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Deputy Director David Applegate to not repeat the Trump administration’s misguided approach from last year that proposed to eliminate funding for the USGS’s West Coast earthquake … Continue Reading
January 29, 2018
Wyden Announces Oregon DREAMer as State of the Union Guest
Washington - U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden today announced that Esli Becerra will be his guest at the Jan. 30 State of the Union speech. Becerra, a 26-year-old visual effects artist in Portland, will be accompanied to Washington, D.C. by his 24-year-old brother Kevin Becerra-Segura. The brothers’ parents brought Esli to the United States from Mexico when he was 8 months old. Kevin was born in Springfield, Oregon and the brothers grew up in Eugene. Kevin worked to help his brother graduate from Lane … Continue Reading
January 25, 2018
Wyden, Merkley, Blumenauer, DeFazio, Bonamici Urge Action to Protect State Marijuana Laws in Bipartisan Letter to Trump
Washington, DC - Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, Suzanne Bonamici and 49 of their Senate and House colleagues sent a bipartisan letter today to Trump requesting he urge Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reinstate the Cole Memorandum. Doing so would create a pathway to a more comprehensive marijuana policy that respects state interests. On January 4, 2018, Sessions rescinded the Cole Memorandum - putting jobs, small businesses, state … Continue Reading
January 25, 2018
Wyden Statement on Oregon Graduation Rates
Wyden Statement on Oregon Graduation Rates Washington - U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden today issued the following statement in response to the latest graduation rate numbers for Oregon high school students. "When Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act two years ago to ensure local educators got more of a leadership role in the classroom, I worked to get more students across the stage on graduation day and to track for the first time the graduation rates of students experiencing homelessness or … Continue Reading
January 25, 2018
Wyden to FBI Director Wray: Stop Misleading Americans About Encryption
Washington, D.C. -Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked FBI Director Christopher Wray to explain his recent comments calling for government backdoors into Americans' encrypted personal phones, computers and other electronic devices, in a letter sent today. While Wray said he was "not looking for a 'back door'", while speaking at Fordham University earlier this month, he advocated for weakening encryption to allow special government access to personal devices - the definition of a back door. "Your … Continue Reading
January 17, 2018
Wyden Announces ‘No’ Vote on House Spending Bill that Falls Short on Protecting Children at Every Turn, Ignores Bipartisan Solutions
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today announced he will vote against another short-term spending bill that fails to extend DACA protections for more than 11,000 Oregon Dreamers and hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth across the country. The bill also fails to extend Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding for the long-term, which would save taxpayers $6 billion. "In the face of a cruel and arbitrary deadline forced by the Trump administration, Dreamers in … Continue Reading
January 17, 2018
Paul, Wyden, Polis, and Massie defend hemp
Washington: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.; Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo.; and Rep. Tom Massie, R-Ky.; defended hemp farmers and businesses, authoring an amicus brief to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the Hemp Industries Assn, et. al. v. D.E.A. case. Hemp farmers and businesses filed the case after the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) instituted a rule that classifies parts of hemp and its extracts as a Schedule I drug. Labeling hemp as a Schedule I drug directly … Continue Reading
January 17, 2018
Wyden, Merkley Press Trump Administration on Forest Restoration Projects
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are urging federal officials to include full funding for proven forest restoration programs in the Department of Agriculture's FY2019 budget. "Without adequate funding for these programs, rural communities will continue to sink into further economic and ecological distress due to the many overstocked and unhealthy tree stands within some of our national forests," the Oregon senators wrote in their Jan. 16 letter to Agriculture Secretary … Continue Reading
January 11, 2018
After Interior Exempts Florida from Controversial Offshore Drilling Plan, Merkley and Wyden Call on Trump Administration to Ban Drilling Off Oregon Coast, Too
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Oregon's Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden today joined a group of U.S. Senators representing coastal states to tell the Trump administration that they don't want oil and gas drilling off their coasts, and are demanding the same respect for their states that was recently given to Florida, which was granted a special exemption by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. In a letter sent to Secretary Zinke today, Merkley and Wyden, along with 20 of their colleagues, requested that … Continue Reading
January 11, 2018
Wyden Statement on Investigation of VA Roseburg
Washington - U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden today issued the following statement after meeting with U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials about the ongoing investigation into the VA's Roseburg healthcare system: "Our country's commitment to the veterans who have served so proudly demands they receive the best possible health care when they return home. And that objective in turn depends on hardworking VA staff who provide that care getting the top-notch support they need for their … Continue Reading
January 11, 2018
Wyden, Merkley Demand Critical Disaster Funding for Coastal Communities Hurt by Fishery Disasters
Washington, D.C. - Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today called on their colleagues to include funding for coastal communities damaged by fisheries disasters as part of any disaster relief package that moves through Congress. In the letter, the senators noted that as of this month, Congress has yet to address nine fisheries disasters, with several other disasters pending official declaration. The senators urged swift action to provide emergency funding to communities that depend on … Continue Reading
January 10, 2018
Wyden Calls for Investigation into Interior Department’s Misuse of Wildfire Preparedness Funds
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today called for an investigation into the Interior Department's misuse of federal wildfire preparedness funding to pay for Secretary Ryan Zinke's unrelated travel. News reports from recent weeks indicated the Interior Department used funds intended to go to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, for a Zinke helicopter trip around Nevada. The National Interagency Fire Center coordinates federal, state and private fire … Continue Reading
January 09, 2018
Merkley, Wyden Shred Trump Administration’s Offshore Drilling Reversal
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Oregon's Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, along with more than 30 of their colleagues, today sharply criticized the Trump administration's decision to reopen offshore drilling leases three years ahead of schedule. This decision puts vast stretches of coastline in the Arctic and along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts at risk, including in Oregon. "This draft proposal is an ill-advised effort to circumvent public and scientific input, and we object to sacrificing public … Continue Reading
January 09, 2018
Wyden, Colleagues Call on Justice Department to Maintain Critical Funding for Local Law Enforcement, Violence Prevention Programs
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has joined a group of Senate and House lawmakers in filing a congressional amicus brief in support of preventing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) from blocking critical violence prevention funds from American cities in order to boost the Trump administration's extreme immigration agenda. In July, DOJ attempted to place new and onerous conditions on local law enforcement's access to federal funding … Continue Reading
January 05, 2018
Wyden Statement on New Border Search Guidelines
Washington, D.C. -Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today said new restrictions on searches by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers of Americans' phones, laptops and other personal devices at the border are an improvement, but still allow far too many indiscriminate searches of innocent Americans. The new guidelines require "reasonable suspicion" for Customs agents to conduct a deep, forensic examination of Americans' devices at the border. CBP agents will continue to be able to … Continue Reading
January 04, 2018
Wyden Statement on Trump Administration’s Decision to Allow West Coast Drilling
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued the following statement after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced plans to allow oil and gas exploration off the Pacific Coast. The move reverses a decades-long ban that protected the West Coast from oil and gas drilling. "Just a week after the Trump administration proposed to eliminate critical offshore drilling safety and environmental protections, Zinke now wants to open nearly the entire United States' coast to drilling. With … Continue Reading
January 04, 2018
Wyden Unveils Bill to Repair, Replace Bridges Across America, Promote U.S. Jobs
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) today unveiled new legislation to repair and replace outdated bridges, and require all bridge projects funded by the bill to use American-made steel and iron. "Reliable bridges are critical to Oregonians' safety and for local Oregon businesses to successfully transport world-renowned agriculture products, athletic apparel, manufactured goods and so much more, " Wyden said. "Over half of the bridges in our state were built more than half a … Continue Reading
