Walden only Oregon yes vote on govt. funding bill

(Update: Walden votes yes, issues statement)

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., was the only member of the Oregon delegation to support the bill approved early Friday that ended the second, brief shutdown of the federal government.

He also issued a statement explaining his support of the Bipartisan Budget Act:

“Today’s agreement marks an important step forward on key priorities for Oregon.

“After months of needless delay, Community Health Centers will finally receive the full two-year extension passed out of the House under my legislation last fall. Community Health Centers care for over 240,000 Oregonians across 63 delivery sites throughout our district, and this funding will provide them with the certainty they need to continue serving Oregonians.

“The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) will receive 10 years of full funding, adding four years to the historic six-year extension I was proud to secure in January.

“Additionally, the increase in funding to fight the opioid crisis provides much-needed tools to combat this scourge that is plaguing communities in Oregon and across the country. As Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I’ve made combatting the opioid crisis a priority of our committee, and we plan to move forward with additional important reforms and continue to ramp up our efforts in this fight.

“Top scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will have more resources to continue the ground-breaking research that will yield the next great breakthrough on the diseases and disorders we battle every day.

“Likewise, I am pleased to see the agreement commits resources to much-needed infrastructure priorities, including broadband for rural communities, clean and safe drinking water, and several energy initiatives — all of which are critical for our state.

“Most importantly, we give our military the tools and training they need to keep us safe. After too many years of asking our military to do more with less, we are providing our men and women in uniform with the necessary funding to complete their missions.

“While no bill is perfect, I believe this agreement advances important initiatives for Oregonians. I will continue to work alongside my colleagues on these critical priorities for our state and country.”

Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., released the following statement after voting ‘no’ on the continuing resolution (CR), which passed 71-28 early Friday:

“This bill is an important step forward in Congress’s budget negotiations. It sets the foundations for a two-year budget deal and makes significant strides on key priorities I have fought for, including opioid addiction treatment, water infrastructure, and community health clinics. As we work to implement today’s budget agreement, I will keep working fiercely on the Appropriations Committee to invest in these priorities that are so important to Oregon’s communities.

“However, today’s CR fails our nation in several critical ways, and for that reason, I could not support it.

“It entirely neglects to prevent future disastrous fire years. It does not include a fire fix that would end the practice of ‘fire borrowing,’ which robs funding from fire prevention to pay for fighting fires. It also repeats the same failed underinvestment in forest management that has turned our forests into tinderboxes.

“We saw in 2017 the disastrous consequences of that strategy. In Oregon alone, we have 1.6 million acres that have been approved for thinning that would make the forest fire resilient, create jobs, and provide saw logs for our mills.

“But without funding for this work, the forests will continue to burn, as we saw last summer. With the western snowpack at 30% of normal and much of Oregon already facing another dry year, Oregonians can’t afford for their federal government to repeat this mistake.

“For many years, our nation has invested huge sums in our military – which is already by far the largest in the world – while neglecting the education, health care, and infrastructure American families need. While this CR improves investments in some domestic priorities, on the whole this bill continues that trend – increasing spending on our military by $165 billion while continuing to underinvest in the basic foundations of our communities here at home.

“Finally, this bill once again fails our Dreamers. President Trump has destroyed their legal status, throwing their lives into stressful chaos. The Dreamers grew up in America, attending our schools and colleges and contributing significantly to our communities. This must be remedied.”