Press Releases
Heading into Warmer Summer Months, Wyden and Schrier Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Combat Catastrophic Wildfires
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Representative Kim Schrier, D-Wash., today reintroduced the bipartisan National Prescribed Fire Act of 2024, which would support pre-fire season prescribed burns as an essential, science-based strategy to save lives and property. In the 2022 Fiscal Year, 63 million acres of National Forest Service lands were at high or very high risk of being a wildfire hazard. Since vegetation continues to grow at an increased rate, the Forest Service … Continue Reading
May 23, 2024
Wyden, Merkley Join 13 Senators in Introduction of New Bill to Shine Light on Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today joined 13 senators in introducing new legislation that would bring much-needed transparency to decisions on the U.S. Supreme Court’s emergency docket, also called the “shadow docket.” The Shadow Docket Sunlight Act would require a written explanation and vote count for any decision concerning injunctive relief, including decisions on the Supreme Court’s shadow docket, to provide clarity and consistency to judicial … Continue Reading
May 23, 2024
Wyden, Merkley Join Bipartisan Deliver for Democracy Act to Help Local News Overcome Persistent Postal Delays, Surging Rate Increases
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today joined the introduction of bipartisan legislation that would help local news outlets overcome their current crisis by providing incentives to ensure reliable postal service and limit excessive rate increases. The Deliver for Democracy Act comes in the wake of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) consistently raising rates for periodicals under the guise of increased efficiency and improved service. However, local news has yet to … Continue Reading
May 23, 2024
Wyden, Merkley Reintroduce Legislation to Strengthen Accountability and Combat Discriminatory Police Practices
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today joined the reintroduction of legislation that would strengthen the U.S. Department of Justice’s and state governments’ ability to hold police and other officials accountable for discriminatory practices. After Michael Brown was fatally shot by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer in 2014, President Obama’s Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation, which concluded the Ferguson Police Department had a history of … Continue Reading
May 23, 2024
Wyden Secures New Protections for Intelligence Community Personnel Facing Political Firings and Whistleblower Retaliation
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced that he secured key protections for Intelligence Community personnel from political firings as part of the Intelligence Authorization Act that passed the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday evening. The Wyden provision ensures that personnel who are involuntarily moved from one employment status to another can retain their protections from firing. The provision also assures that if an intelligence community employee is fired … Continue Reading
May 22, 2024
Wyden, Merkley: NOAA Selects OMSI as Regional/National Heat Monitoring Center
Washington D.C.— U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today announced the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland will be NOAA’s Pacific Northwest hub for the Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring, gathering local temperature data to support heat resilience in Oregon and throughout the country. “As the climate crisis worsens, heat is becoming an even more grave concern for vulnerable Oregonians without air conditioning as well as farmers dealing with drought and … Continue Reading
May 22, 2024
Wyden, Colleagues Call on Feds to Crack Down on Tax Prep Giants’ Ongoing Violations of Taxpayer Privacy
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, today joined with four congressional colleagues to urge top federal officials to investigate use and disclosures of legally protected and sensitive taxpayer information by tax prep companies. The letter from Wyden and the four members of the Senate and House follows up on findings of the lawmakers’ July 2023 investigation that found H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer had illegally shared the data of … Continue Reading
May 22, 2024
Wyden, 14 Democratic Senators Commend Biden on Historic Student Debt Relief Effort and Offer Feedback to Strengthen Proposal
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said today he has joined 14 fellow senators in submitting a public comment letter to Secretary Miguel Cardona of the U.S. Department of Education on President Biden’s proposal to reduce or eliminate federal student loans for tens of millions of borrowers in Oregon and nationwide. Published in the Federal Register last month, the new proposal comes after the Supreme Court blocked President Biden’s original student debt forgiveness plan last summer. … Continue Reading
May 21, 2024
Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Call to Strengthen Federal Pell Grant Program
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today joined Senate colleagues in calling on the Senate Appropriations Committee to secure funding for the Pell Grant program for Fiscal Year 2025. In the letter, the senators request a discretionary increase to the award as Congress works towards doubling the Pell Grant for students. “We remain concerned that the value of the Pell Grant has steadily declined since it was first created - now covering the lowest share of the cost of … Continue Reading
May 21, 2024
Merkley, Wyden Tout $9.8 Million Coming to Oregon for Brownfield Cleanup
Washington, D.C. - Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced $9,806,847 is coming to the state from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to support cleanup projects at brownfields sites, land that has been previously polluted or contaminated. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Merkley and Wyden championed, added $1.5 billion to the EPA’s Brownfields Program to help assess and clean up contaminated properties and return blighted properties to productive reuse … Continue Reading
May 20, 2024
Wyden, Merkley Announce $5.5 Million to Replace Aging Water Infrastructure in Oregon
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley said today that Oregon will receive $5.5 million in federal funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act to replace aging water delivery infrastructure in communities across Oregon. “Access to reliable and safe water is essential for communities to thrive in rural and urban Oregon,” Wyden said. “Updating our water infrastructure not only prevents waste, but keeps communities thriving. This funding is a … Continue Reading
May 20, 2024
Wyden, Merkley, More Than 130 Lawmakers Tout Direct File’s Successes, Urge Biden Administration to Expand Program and Make Permanent
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley said today that they and more than 130 lawmakers sent a letter to U.S. Department of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, applauding the Direct File program’s success pilot and urging them to make it permanent while expanding its functionality and scope. The letter follows the 2024 tax season’s conclusion and the IRS Direct File program’s implementation in 12 pilot states which allowed taxpayers to … Continue Reading
May 17, 2024
Wyden Presses Federal Officials to Make Improvements Quickly at Roseburg VA
Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden today urged top federal Department of Veterans Affairs officials to act quickly to make improvements identified in a troubling new report that details how problems with staffing levels and electronic records at the Roseburg VA Health Care System are undermining care for veterans. Wyden’s letter to Dr. Teresa Boyd of the VA Northwest Health Network Office follows a report this week by the VA’s Office of Inspector General (VA OIG). “First, I recognize … Continue Reading
May 16, 2024
Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Urge End of Private Immigration Detention Centers, Demand Closure of Facilities with Inhumane Conditions
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley said today they and seven colleagues urged federal agencies, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to phase out the use of private detention centers, and close four facilities with well-documented inhumane conditions. “The federal government should not pay private facilities with continuously problematic conditions,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Department of Homeland … Continue Reading
May 16, 2024
Merkley, Wyden Announce Over $6.2 Million to Boost Oregon’s Innovative Wood Products Economy and Support Healthy Forests
Washington, D.C. - Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced today the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is investing $6,276,170 in 13 projects in Oregon to boost the creation of innovative wood products, develop more markets for uses of mass timber and renewable wood energy, and increase the capacity of wood processing and manufacturing facilities. The federal funding is critical to ensuring the state’s leadership in the wood products industry, while helping to restore healthy … Continue Reading
May 16, 2024
Wyden, Merkley Announce $660,000 for Road Safety in Columbia and Clatsop Counties
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley said today that Oregon will receive $660,000 in federal funds to Columbia and Clatsop counties to help develop transportation improvement plans and boost public safety. “Oregonians need to be confident that the roads they drive on daily are safe,” Wyden said. “This federal investment funded from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that I fought to pass will help ensure that folks can dependably travel in Oregon’s northwest corner, and … Continue Reading
May 16, 2024
Wyden Announces Four Town Halls in Southern Oregon
Portland - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden today announced he will hold in-person town halls in Josephine, Curry, Coos and Douglas counties on May 28-29. Heading into these four town halls, Wyden will have held 1,081 town halls throughout Oregon - including 16 so far this year -- in fulfillment of his pledge to hold at least one town hall each year in each of our state’s 36 counties. The town halls in these four counties originally had been scheduled for April, but had to be postponed because of … Continue Reading
May 15, 2024
Senate Designates May 18 as “Kids to Parks Day”
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., and colleagues today applauded the Senate’s passage of their bipartisan resolution to empower young people and their families to get outdoors and promote healthy outdoor recreation by designating May 18, 2024 National Kids to Parks Day. Started in 2011 with the National Park Trust, the fourteenth annual Kids to Parks Day kicks off a summer-long series of events at local, state and national parks. The Senate … Continue Reading
May 15, 2024
Wyden, Colleagues Call to Provide At Least $3 Billion for Shelter and Services Program in FY 25
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and his colleagues today called on Senate Appropriations Committee leadership to provide no less than $3 billion in FY 2025 funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program for humanitarian assistance funding. That funding supports state, local, and nonprofit service providers who assist the federal government by providing critical services for asylum seekers released from government custody to continue … Continue Reading
May 15, 2024
Merkley, Wyden Announce Over $3.6 Million for the Tualatin Mountain Forest Project
Washington, D.C. - Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced today the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is awarding?$3.63 million to further support the Tualatin Mountain Forest Project through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Forest Legacy Program. This new federal funding builds off of the?$10 million foundation Merkley and Wyden announced for the project last year.?The additional investment will further help the project conserve and manage the economically and … Continue Reading
