Washington, DC – When the 108th Congress
convenes in Washington today, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) will
continue his work for the state of Oregon and for the nation. Wyden's
office today is releasing the following list of the Senator's accomplishments
in the recently concluded 107th Congress, which include 30 legislative
measures approved by the Senate. Fourteen of those were also passed
by the House of Representatives and signed into law by the President.
Following is a selected list of Wyden's accomplishments for the 107th
Congress.
STANDING UP FOR OREGON CITIZENS: IMPROVING SECURITY AND SAFETY
* Wyden won Senate passage of the "Science and Technology Emergency
Mobilization Act," and that legislation's main provisions were incorporated
into the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The legislation authorizes
the creation, under the new Department of Homeland Security, of
rapid-response teams of technology volunteers known as the National
Emergency Technology Guard, or "NET Guard," to assist communities
after a terror attack. The Homeland Security bill also creates the
Federal technology clearinghouse Wyden proposed in his legislation
to help new anti-terror technologies find their way to appropriate
government agencies.
* Wyden won passage of his proposal to create a national Terrorist
Identification Classification System. The TIC System, incorporated
into the Intelligence Authorization Act and signed into law by the
President, will be a centralized database of known or suspected
terrorists and terrorist groups created with information drawn from
the entire U.S. intelligence community and accessible to Federal,
State and local law enforcement agencies.
* Anti-terrorism legislation passed by the Senate included an
important provision by Wyden, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Sen.
Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), lifting restrictions that prevented federal
attorneys in Oregon from supervising undercover investigations that
help stop terrorism and aid the apprehension and prosecution of
terrorists. Portland Police Chief Mark Kroeker said Wyden and Smith's
efforts "made the difference by finally putting adequate pressure
on the Oregon State Bar to revise its rules so as to allow lawyers
to supervise covert law enforcement activities." Kroeker noted that
Wyden's work enabled the capture in Oregon of six individuals suspected
of seeking to aid al-Qaida in its war against the United States.
* Wyden was a conferee and original co-sponsor of port security
legislation, which aims to protect U.S. ports against terrorist
attacks. Wyden was instrumental in winning funds for fire safety
and Coast Guard protection in Oregon, as well as removing regulatory
proposals and fees that would have hurt Oregon businesses and the
environment.
* Wyden and Smith secured $2 million in new equipment funding
for the 1042nd Air Ambulance Company. This funding will replace
the capabilities of the 939th Air Rescue Wing, which is being moved
to another state. Oregon will continue to have high level search
and rescue operations over the most difficult terrain of the Pacific
Northwest.
STANDING UP FOR OREGON COMMUNITIES: HELPING WORKING FAMILIES
* Wyden continued his efforts to solve water disputes in the Klamath
Basin. He urged patience among lending institutions regarding non-performing
loans that could occur, or have occurred, as a result of the problems
facing the Klamath Basin region. He worked with Smith to include
a $175 million aid package in the Farm Security and Rural Investment
Act of 2002. With the assistance of Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), House
and Senate negotiators agreed to send $50 million of that money
to clean up water supplies in the Basin and bring stability to farms
and the environment there.
* The President signed into law the Klamath Basin Emergency Operation
and Maintenance Refund Act, legislation authored by Wyden, Smith
and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) that compensates the Klamath Basin
irrigation districts approximately $4 million for costs incurred
to maintain canals in the project, despite the fact that the canals
received no water. Even though water was withheld from the irrigation
districts for much of the 2001 planting season, the law had required
local farmers and ranchers to pay for canal operation and maintenance.
* Wyden made great strides on behalf of Oregon fishers seeking
a capacity reduction program for the West Coast groundfish fishery.
A Wyden-Smith initiative created a $50 million buyback program and
was passed by the Senate in June 2002. The House failed to act.
* Wyden and Smith also secured $500,000 in funding to guarantee
Federal loans to fishers and speed the implementation of the buyback
program when it receives full Congressional approval. These funds
represent Federal support of the industry-financed buyback proposal.
* Wyden secured $550,000 in federal assistance to help fund the
Oregon Food Bank's new food distribution warehouse in Portland.
The new, larger, statewide food distribution facility will allow
the Food Bank to collect at least four million more pounds of food
each year.
* In November 2002, Wyden won passage of a resolution promoting
awareness and education about the importance of health care coverage.
The resolution called for the establishment of a National Importance
of Health Care Coverage Month.
STANDING UP FOR OREGON'S ENVIRONMENT: PROTECTING RESOURCES
* Wyden and Smith won passage of the Little Sandy Protection Act,
which expands the Bull Run Watershed Management Unit by nearly 3,000
acres to include the southern portion of the Little Sandy watershed.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) in the House.
To protect water quality and quantity for Bull Run and the Little
Sandy, the new law restricted timber harvesting in the area. It
also authorized $10 million for Clackamas County for watershed restoration
to benefit endangered fish species.
* Wyden successfully stopped the controversial Eagle Creek timber
sale due to concerns that the "salvage rider" sale was not subject
to adequate review and that the planned logging would result in
greater environmental degradation.
* Citing significant fire safety concerns for southern Oregon,
Wyden, Smith and Walden convinced the U.S. Forest Service (USFS)
to halt the proposed closure of the Medford Air Tanker Base for
the 2002 fire season. The base was slated for closure at the end
of the 2001 fire season, with operations to be consolidated into
the existing air tanker base at Klamath Falls. It will now remain
open as a reload base.
* Wyden and Smith won passage of legislation allowing the National
Park Service to expand the Fort Clatsop memorial, including land
for a trail leading from Fort Clatsop to the Coast. Rep. David Wu
(D-Ore.) sponsored the House legislation. The trail represents the
last stretch of Lewis and Clark's transcontinental journey and will
be preserved for the bicentennial of the expedition beginning this
year.
* Wyden and Smith won passage of legislation authorizing feasibility
studies for fish passage at the Chiloquin Dam on the Sprague River.
The legislation was then incorporated into the farm bill, and the
bill was sponsored on the House side by Rep. Walden. Improving fish
passage at the Chiloquin Dam is an environmentally sound restoration
project supported by all stakeholders in the Klamath Basin.
* Wyden and Smith won approval of bipartisan legislation to enable
the Bureau of Reclamation to study water management on four Snake
River tributaries in northeastern Oregon. These new feasibility
studies on the Malheur, Owyhee, Powder and Burnt River basins will
help local watershed councils conserve their own resources for the
future.
* Wyden won passage of legislation providing funds for carbon
sequestration projects in forests, helping to slow global warming
by reducing carbon in the air and improving forest management. The
Wyden initiative was included in the farm bill.
* Wyden and Smith won enactment of legislation that sanctions,
in federal law, an agreement by which the Warm Springs Indian Tribes
and Portland General Electric will seek a joint federal power license
for the Pelton/Round Butte Hydroelectric Project on the Deschutes
River.
* The Senate approved Smith and Wyden's "Wallowa Lake Dam Rehabilitation
and Water Management Act," authorizing the Secretary of the Interior
to participate in the rehabilitation of the Wallowa Lake Dam and
in the Wallowa Valley Water Management Plan. Local stakeholders
developed the two rehabilitation projects with the participation
of numerous state and federal agencies and the support of the Nez
Perce Tribe.
* Wyden won passage of an amendment restricting the rights of
foreign investors in the U.S. to no greater than those enjoyed by
U.S. investors themselves – keeping foreign investors who sue state
and local governments over environmental laws from getting larger
monetary awards than American businesses. The Wyden amendment became
part of the Bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority Act of 2002, enacted
into law on August 6, 2002.
* In July 2001, 24 nuclear waste storage tanks once at risk of
exploding were stabilized and taken off a watch list created by
Wyden. The "Wyden Watch List" was established in 1990 through an
amendment requiring the U.S. Department of Energy to catalogue dangerous
underground radioactive waste tanks at Hanford and to improve the
tanks' condition.
STANDING UP FOR OREGON VOTERS: HONORING OREGON'S CHOICES
* In a vigorous Senate floor fight, Wyden won protections for
Oregon's successful vote-by-mail system in federal election reform
legislation. The Help America Vote Act of 2002, signed into law
in October, includes a Wyden provision giving those who register
by mail additional options to verify their identities, thereby deterring
fraud without placing restrictive "photo ID" requirements on first-time
voters in Oregon.
* Wyden won inclusion of his "Stand by Your Ad" legislation in
the historic McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation
passed by Congress and signed into law by the President. Wyden's
provision targets attack ads by requiring federal candidates to
take personal responsibility for references made to an opponent
in radio or television advertising in order to qualify for the lowest
usage rate available for commercial time.
* Legislation written by Wyden, Smith and DeFazio and signed into
law by the President will name the new federal courthouse planned
for Eugene, the Wayne Lyman Morse United States Courthouse. Morse
was Wyden's political mentor, and Wyden now hold's Morse's seat
in the U.S. Senate.
* Wyden filed an amicus brief with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
in opposition to efforts by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft
to overturn the state's Death with Dignity Act. Oregon's U.S. Reps.
Darlene Hooley, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio and David Wu joined
him on the brief. In the brief, Wyden and the Democratic House members
maintained that Ashcroft is "impermissibly interfering with the
states' traditional power to regulate medicine" and argued that
Ashcroft's action has no basis in law under the Controlled Substances
Act (CSA).
STANDING UP FOR OREGON CONSUMERS: MAKING MARKETS FAIR
* Wyden won passage of his "Internet Tax Non-Discrimination Act,"
extending the moratorium on discriminatory and multiple taxes levied
against Internet commerce. The legislation was signed into law by
President Bush on November 28, 2001.
* Wyden stood up for energy consumers with an amendment creating
a Federal advocate to protect their interests. The Senate passed
the amendment in March 2002, even as the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) investigated whether energy trader Enron artificially
inflated wholesale electricity prices on the West Coast. Although
the energy bill stalled in the conference process, Wyden's proposal
garnered bipartisan support in the Senate.
* A report released by Wyden in summer 2001 revealed internal
oil company documents raising serious questions about anti-competitive
and anti-consumer practices among the nation's leading oil companies.
Wyden's report, "The Oil Industry, Gas Supply, and Refinery Capacity:
More Than Meets the Eye," showed that oil companies may have acted
since the mid-1990's to suppress refinery capacity and control gasoline
supply to drive up prices and boost profits.
* Wyden and Senator Burns won Commerce Committee approval of the
CAN SPAM Act of 2001, designed to slow the flow of unsolicited commercial
e-mail to Internet users and to give consumers more control. The
bill aimed to prohibit senders of unsolicited mail from using misleading
header information and otherwise disguising the source of their
messages, and to require the inclusion of a return address that
consumers can use to demand to stop receiving a sender's unsolicited
messages.
STANDING UP FOR OREGON'S ECONOMY: PAVING PATHS TO PROSPERITY
* Wyden and Smith secured $500,000 to protect commerce along the
Columbia River. The federal funds will support the Columbia River
Aquatic Nuisance Species Initiative (CRANSI), an innovative project
to study and combat the effect of invasive species released in vessels'
ballast water, which often destroy native habitats and could inhibit
maritime commerce along the Columbia.
* In the final hours of its 2002 session, Congress approved legislation
authored by Wyden and Smith giving Prineville a paved route to U.S.
Highway 20. The measure gives Crook and Deschutes counties the right-of-way
to West Butte Road in exchange for transferring the right-of-way
to the George Millican Road to the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau
of Land Management (BLM).
* Wyden and Smith secured more than $63 million in Federal dollars
to fund construction of the Interstate Metropolitan Area Express
(I-MAX) Yellow Line, a 5.8 mile extension between the Rose Quarter
Transit Center and the Portland Expo Center.
* A provision by Wyden, Smith and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.)
was passed as part of the Senate-passed energy bill to increase
the borrowing authority of the Bonneville Power Administration by
$1.3 billion. More borrowing authority would let BPA construct projects
critical to reliable transmission, integrate and upgrade generation
facilities, and increase conservation efforts. The energy bill died
in the House-Senate conference.
STANDING UP FOR OREGON CHILDREN: STRENGTHENING EDUCATION
* Wyden won passage of his "Rural Education Development Initiative"
to aid schools that are small, rural, or in impoverished areas of
rural Oregon and the rest of the country. That legislation, as well
as Wyden proposals to increase funding for teacher development and
bilingual education, was included in the No Child Left Behind Act
of 2001.
* Wyden won passage of his "Student Education Enrichment Demonstration
(SEED) Act" to help states design high-quality summer academic programs
for students who cannot meet state achievement standards. Wyden's
legislation was incorporated into the No Child Left Behind Act of
2001.
* Wyden won passage of legislation commissioning a 10-year study
to assess the differences in the careers of science faculty members
of different genders. As Chair of the Subcommittee on Science, Technology
and Space, Wyden issued a call for equal opportunity for women and
girls in science, math, technology and engineering education. His
proposal for the 10-year review of university practices in this
regard was incorporated into the reauthorization of the National
Science Foundation.
STANDING UP FOR OREGON'S FUTURE: SUPPORTING TECHNOLOGY
* Wyden's Cyber Security Research and Development Act of 2002
was passed by Congress and then signed into law by the President.
The legislation establishes and authorizes funding for cyber security
programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National
Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) to support education
and research efforts nationwide.
* Wyden won unanimous Commerce Committee approval of bipartisan
legislation to promote nanotechnology research and development in
the United States. The bill funds and coordinates accelerated nanotechnology
research in the United States to let scientists working on the atomic
and molecular scales continue to make rapid advances in numerous
areas including health care, manufacturing, and agriculture.