As you read this, catastrophic wildfires continue to burn the western United States with no end in sight. More than 8.8 million acres of federal land have burned this summer. The U.S. Forest Service is transferring another $250 million from forest management accounts to battle these fires — a practice known as fire borrowing. This brings the total amount of additional appropriations for wildfires to $700 million for the year — the highest amount since 2002. Yesterday, Congress passed legislation...
Read more
Oregon is fighting our worst fire season in recent memory. To date, over 333,000 acres have burned in our state and over 8 million acres total in the West. More than 1,000 residents have been forced to evacuate from their homes and rangeland is burning up, threatening cattle and ranchers' livelihoods. The Canyon Creek Complex fire alone has burned more than 115 square miles, an area bigger than Eugene, Salem and Medford combined. To date, nearly 2,600 firefighters have been deployed to beat back...
Read more
THE HILL - It is rare that our federal government has an opportunity to both serve people better and save taxpayers money, but the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) provides an opportunity to save taxpayers as much as $300 million dollars and to modernize comprehensive health plans that will better meet consumers’ needs. The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program serves more than eight million federal workers, retirees, and their families, costing taxpayers $45 billion annuall...
Read more
I just returned from Congressman John Lewis' Faith and Politics Pilgrimage to Alabama and was deeply moved by the experience. Fifty years ago, courageous Americans stepped out of their comfort zone and confronted an unjust segregation system that not only debased black America, but white America as well. I was struck by the intimate stories of complacency toward an immoral social norm by white businessmen and the church. I was amazed by the bravery of the black youth that saved a floundering dow...
Read more
By Reps. Kurt Schrader, Peter Defazio and Greg Walden Oregon's rural communities cannot afford another 20 years of gridlock in our federal forests. Without a new path forward, mills will continue to disappear, forest jobs will be outsourced, and counties will be pushed off the budgetary cliff. During a time when it's particularly hard to find common ground in public policy, we think we have achieved a balanced forest health and jobs plan -- in a uniquely Oregon way. As a bipartisan coalition, w...
Read more
Over the past several months, the Super Committee was busy putting together long term debt and deficit packages that included drastic, uninformed reductions to agriculture, nutrition, and conservation programs. Initial debt reduction proposals extracted a disproportionate level of cuts from agriculture related programs to the tune of $30-40 billion with little regard to the policy implications. In addition, the Agriculture Committee was given no credit for stepping up and reducing costs by $6 b...
Read more
Regardless of how you feel about the 2010 elections, it brought two ideas to the forefront that we can all agree on: increased transparency in government and getting our fiscal house in order.
Read more