Our congressional delegation’s highlights for the week have less to do with legislation, and more to do with how they’re responding to current events. What has been especially illuminating is their take on happenings that haven’t necessarily made the biggest headlines.
So, what have Rep. Val Hoyle and Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden been doing and stewing about this week… Let’s start with a piece of legislation that we both support, and laughed at, all at the same time.
Yes, we’ll be dropping some editorialization into your news salad, but we’ll clearly label that section of this week’s report, so just like in a restaurant, you can pick around the bits that aren’t to your taste.
The Deliver for Democracy Act…
First, without any of our own opinion we’ll literally give you the press release version. On Tuesday, Merkley and Wyden joined Vermont Senator Peter Welch and South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds to reintroduce the bipartisan, bicameral Deliver for Democracy Act.
This legislation would incentivize reliable service from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and limit excessive rate increases. In recent years, the USPS has raised rates for periodicals under the guise of increased efficiency and improved service, but the changes have not addressed persistent postal delays.
“Local papers are the backbones of our communities—they shine a light on the issues, large and small, that affect the daily lives of folks in Oregon and across the country. We must do all we can to protect local journalism—especially now,” said Merkley. “The bipartisan Deliver for Democracy Act is a critical piece of the puzzle of keeping local journalism alive by addressing the persistent local delivery delays that plague community news outlets and insisting on adequate service from USPS before any rate increases.”
“You can’t know what is going on in your backyard if you don’t have the information on hand. Local journalism is the lifeblood that helps protect American democracy, combat misinformation, and empower communities small or large,” said Wyden. “The Deliver for Democracy Act ensures that USPS makes deliveries on time so local journalism doesn’t become history. As the son of a journalist and as an elected official who holds townhalls each year in each of Oregon’s 36 counties, I won’t stop fighting to help local journalism deliver news coverage right to your doorstep.”
The Deliver for Democracy Act is led in the House by U.S. Representatives Robert Aderholt (R-AL-04) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO-05).
The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 established an inflation-based cap to annual price increases for all market-dominant postal products, including periodicals. In January 2021, the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) finalized regulations that established three additional forms of rate authority, including one for non-compensatory classes of mail such as periodicals and package services. Under those regulations, USPS is provided an additional two percentage points of rate authority for any class or product of mail where costs exceed revenue. Since then, USPS has maximally exercised that authority and raised periodical postage rates by over 40 percent.
Despite such significant rate increases, however, the Postal Service has routinely failed to meet periodicals’ basic needs and achieve the 95 percent on-time delivery performance standard outlined in Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-year plan. As a result, local news outlets, which must already navigate other existential challenges, are simultaneously subject to high distribution costs and poor service.
The Deliver for Democracy Act would:
- Require USPS to either achieve at least a 95 percent on-time delivery rate for periodicals or an improvement of at least 2 percentage points to unlock its 2 percent surcharge authority for that class of mail;
- Direct the USPS to annually report to the PRC on its progress in including on-time delivery data for newspapers in its periodical service performance measurement; and
- Instruct the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study and submit a report to Congress on options for alternate USPS pricing schemes to improve the financial position of periodicals.
The Deliver for Democracy Act is endorsed by the National Newspaper Association and News/Media Alliance.
Click here to learn more about the Deliver for Democracy Act.
Read the full text of the bill.
And now, we will editorialize a moment…
Hey Jeff, howdy Ron – you know we kinda love you guys, but hey, this legislation is a bit of a laugh-riot. Sort of seeks to solve a problem for if it was 30 years ago. Don’t get us wrong, we strongly support the bill, but we also think it’ll help newspaper-folk just about as much as dropping a sprig of lettuce into a steady diet of Doritos and Kit Kat bars.
What we news-folk need is to be able to buy more local reporters. Market distortions have gutted outlets that are both news gathering and local, and frankly y’all in Washington share some culpability vis-à-vis an abdication of the internet to a bunch of tech bros.
We doubt this was intentional, or we hope it wasn’t. Nonetheless, never in human history have so few people controlled so much of what everyone does or doesn’t see. The folks that have that control are so few that we could handily fit them into our local Benton-Corvallis Library Meeting Room and have space leftover.
Y’all need to get a grip of this. Maybe, treat it like a bipartisan emergency. The GOP should be courtable, they may have brought the bros to heel for the moment, but surely, they know they’re about as loyal as a rabid dog. When the political pendulum swings, so will they.
Anyhow, getting back to your legislation – we get what you’re trying to do. With many newspapers nationwide shifting their home delivery onto the post office, this legislation matters. Per mile, dwindling circulation and increased costs have driven publishers to outsource to mail carriers that are already out there delivering the mail – makes sense.
On the other hand, what’s being delivered as a local newspaper nowadays is too often more cartoons, crosswords and nationally syndicated commentary than actual news for the townies. And too often, the little bits of local reporting that remain concentrate on petty city hall conflicts and controversies because they’re interesting, regardless of whether they’re important or not. And why – because that’s a type of journalism that doesn’t cost much.
Tasking a reporter to deep dive City financial decisions or environmental practices is expensive – and add to that the editorship and artwork required to get the audience interested too. This is the journalism that is missing, and it’s expensive.
The marketplace once existed that would support that work, and there are things you could do legislatively to restore that market. You can put an ad sales tax on the largest internet platforms as a means of refunding a press that has been demonstrably squashed under the foot of monopolistic tech bro practices that would have made the oil barons of yore blush.
That would be a good starter.
But even more importantly, given most people now get their information and ideas online – even that playing field. It was once envisioned as a space for ever germinating data and thought, but it’s become a walled garden – its algorithms written to produce more heat than light, but most importantly, to keep the audience from jumping the damn walls.
And who benefits from that – we’d refer you back to that small imaginary gaggle at our local library meeting room for the answer.
So yes, please fix the freaking snail-mail problem – newspaper folks and their readers will absolutely thank you. And then after that, we implore you, for the love of all that is holy, please work across the aisle on the underlying issues impacting search, social media, and then our dog in the fight, a reset of the media market, generally. The playing field should be reset so that small outlets can sustain themselves.
We local folk are not the reporters inciting the national hellstorms – we’re just wanting to send someone to the damn dump to see if the neighbors are right about water runoff from the facility.
We now return to your regularly scheduled reporting….
Electric shockface: On Monday, Hoyle, Wyden and Merkley, along with Oregon’s U.S. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Andrea Salinas, Janelle Bynum, and Maxine Dexter burned off a press release saying they are they are calling on the Trump administration to pay heed to concerns raised by Bonneville Power Administration workers that major and illegal job cuts at the agency will destabilize the power grid in Oregon and throughout the Pacific Northwest.
“The weight of this destabilization will bear down on the entire region, most heavily in rural areas that rely on public utilities purchasing BPA power,” the Oregon lawmakers wrote in their letter to Donald Trump. “Your administration’s directives to simultaneously buy out workers and freeze hiring has resulted in the resignation of approximately 200 employees, the rescinding of 90 new job offers, and the looming layoff of up to 400 probationary employees. We recognize that the Department of Energy has recently granted BPA’s request to reinstate 89 probationary employees. Although this action provides some needed stability, it does not fully mitigate the substantial risks introduced by prior workforce reductions.”
“Employees on the ground are already warning that these actions will make it nearly impossible to strengthen and expand the grid as needed,” the lawmakers wrote of the Trump job cuts. “Instead, BPA will be forced into “damage control” mode, struggling just to “keep the lights on.” This is not speculation; it is the reality voiced by those who operate our energy infrastructure every day.”
The letter from the seven Oregon Democrats follows a letter last month from Wyden and Merkley that raised similar concerns about how the deep job cuts at BPA threaten the reliability of the electrical grid that serves millions of families and businesses in the Pacific Northwest.
“If the administration’s goal is truly to ensure reliable, secure, and affordable energy, then why are you actively dismantling the most effective and self-sustaining power system in the country,” they wrote. “Mr. President, the energy security of the Pacific Northwest — and the rural communities that depend on BPA’s services — cannot be treated as an afterthought. The decisions your administration has made in haste will have lasting consequences for millions of Americans. We urge you to reconsider these damaging cuts before we face an energy crisis of your making.”
The entire letter is here.
Education cut backlash: On Thursday, Hoyle sounded the alarm after President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order gutting the Department of Education.
After the announcement of the Executive Order, Rep. Hoyle released the following statement:
“It seems there are no victims too small or too powerless for this administration to undercut in their quest to axe the programs working families rely on—and paid for. Let’s be clear: shuttering a federal agency requires an act of Congress and this action is a clear overreach from the Executive branch. This Executive Order runs roughshod over the Constitution and the clear separation of powers that it demands. If this unlawful attempt is upheld, it would significantly undermine, disrupt, or even cut altogether critical services like special education programs for disabled students, training programs for new teachers, and student loan support.”
“Every single day it becomes clearer that the cruelty of these actions is the point. As someone with a learning disability, I relied on these services, I have fought for these services, and I know these services play a key role in providing pathways to family wage jobs and the independence and success that comes with that. I will stand with students, teachers, administrators, and our unions in opposing and fighting back against this Order.”
Here, according to Hoyle, is what’s in the Executive Order:
- Authorizes Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to immediately take “all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education”;
- Instructs Secretary McMahon to return existing authorities of the Department of Education to the states and local communities; and
- Mandates that Secretary McMahon remove any initiatives that support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) or promote “gender ideology”. The Order does not define DEI or “gender ideology” any further.
Legislation to restore VA staff: On Monday, Wyden and Jeff Merkley said they have joined Senate colleagues in introducing comprehensive legislation that would protect veterans, military spouses and VA employees in Oregon and nationwide indiscriminately targeted in the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) cuts at VA and across the federal government.
“Veterans and the benefits they earned with their service to our country are under indiscriminate and unjust attack by Trump, Musk and their flunkies at DOGE,” Wyden said. “The Putting Veterans First Act would ensure these unduly fired employees are returned to work and ensure that service for veterans is not interrupted for one day longer.”
“There is no making sense of the Trump Administration’s cruel, reckless plans to fire over 80,000 VA employees, many of them veterans themselves. Our veterans and military families deserve the full measure of our appreciation, not this stunning betrayal by President Trump,” Merkley said. “All my colleagues should support this bill to reinstate and protect these heroes from Trump and Republicans’ illegal and reckless cuts.”
Veterans make up 30 percent of the federal workforce, with about 640,000 veterans working in federal agencies. For decades, administrations of both parties have made hiring veterans and military spouses to work in the federal government a priority—including Donald Trump’s previous administration. Just this week, an internal memo leaked the Trump administration’s plans to cut more than 80,000 VA employees, which would include at least 20,000 veterans, who make up 25 percent of VA’s workforce.
The Putting Veterans First Act would do the following:
- Reinstate and protect members of the veteran and military community indiscriminately fired by DOGE working as federal employees
- Protect the quality of VA care, benefits and employment
- Increase transparency and oversight of VA staffing, claims backlog and wait times data
- Protect veterans’ private data from DOGE and unelected billionaires
- Determine the financial impact of DOGE’s reckless cancellation of contracts at VA
- Provide critical mental health care for former and current civil servants
- Provide employment assistance for members of the Veteran and military community fired from the federal government in Trump’s mass terminations
The legislation was led by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
A summary of the legislation is here.
Help for TSA staffers: Merkley and Wyden joined their colleagues to introduce bipartisan, bicameral legislation to ensure that over 65,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees—including frontline Transportation Security Officers (TSOs)—are afforded the same worker rights, protections, and pay system afforded to most other federal workers.
The Rights for the TSA Workforce Act comes on the heels of the Trump Administration’s move to cancel TSA workers’ current collective bargaining agreement this month.
“TSA workers work tirelessly to keep us safe when we fly, but right now, the TSA is hellbent on gutting the very few protections this frontline workforce has,” said Merkley. “From rolling back these workers’ collective bargaining agreement to paving the way to automating their jobs through facial recognition technology, the TSA needs to be reined in, and this bipartisan bill is a simple way to support and improve the rights of these critical workers.”
“TSA staff are Americans’ frontline workforce ensuring we are safe in the air and in our airports,” said Wyden. “Protecting the rights of these vital workers is paramount to our nation’s security. The only logical thing for any member of Congress who flies, or has constituents who fly, is to support this legislation that would allow TSA professionals to focus on what really matters: Americans’ personal safety and security when traveling.”
U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and U.S. Representative Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) led the Rights for the TSA Workforce Act, which would provide TSA employees full federal employee collective bargaining rights, access to an independent third party for dispute resolution, and compensation under the General Services wage system. The Rights for the TSA Workforce Act is co-sponsored by 27 U.S. Senators and 61 U.S. Representatives, including both Democrats and Republicans in the House.
“The Transportation Security Administration is in crisis. DHS’s reckless decision to rescind TSA workers’ collective bargaining agreement is blatant union-busting. If allowed to stand, it will silence 47,000 frontline officers who protect millions daily, clearing a path for Project 2025’s dangerous privatization scheme, prioritizing profits over national security and reviving the failed, profit-driven model from before the terrorist attacks of September 11. The Rights for the TSA Workforce Act, introduced by Representative Bennie Thompson and Senator Brian Schatz, is essential to restoring dignity, protecting workers’ rights, and ensuring aviation security isn’t outsourced to the lowest bidder. Congress must pass this bill immediately,” said American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President Everett Kelley.
Merkley has been an outspoken and longtime leader in sounding the alarm on TSA’s use of facial recognition technology. He led a bipartisan group of Senators in a letter urging U.S. Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to launch an investigation into the TSA’s use of facial recognition technology. Previously, he introduced the Traveler Privacy Protection Act to restrict the use of facial recognition technology by the TSA at airports across the United States. Merkley also documented his own experience “opting-out” of this optional program, traveling from D.C. to Portland.
Chips and standards: On Thursday, Hoyle, Wyden and Merkley joined in an effort led by Rep. Andrea Salinas (OR-06) to protect manufacturing – and quite specifically, the benefits of the CHIPS Act. Oregon Reps. Dexter, Bonamici and Bynum also joined.
In a letter to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, expressing concern about the Trump Administration’s decision to fire dozens of workers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST provides guidance, training, and assistance to American manufacturers to help them grow and stay competitive on the global stage.
“We write with deep concern regarding reports of significant ongoing and planned layoffs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST plays a critical role supporting Oregon businesses and workers. Widespread and indiscriminate terminations of hard-working public servants at the agency would undermine our domestic manufacturing industrial base and threaten technological innovation that drives future economic progress,” wrote the members.
Oregon manufacturers contribute nearly $40 billion to our state’s economic output and support over 175,000 good paying jobs in a wide variety of industries, including wood products, aerospace components, and microelectronics. NIST-supported programs like the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) help drive innovation and deliver critical resources that local businesses need to succeed. In their letter, the members stress how mass layoffs will undermine NIST’s work and jeopardize manufacturing in Oregon and across America.
“President Trump has consistently promised Americans that he will support domestic manufacturing – and the good jobs that come with it,” the lawmakers continued.
“That is why it is so concerning to see that, instead of doubling down on what works, the President is attacking the federal programs manufacturers rely on, calling to repeal the CHIPS and Science Act, and imposing punishing tariffs that will harm American businesses while making everyday goods more expensive for consumers.”
Read the full letter below or click here.
A try for saving dollars and lives: On Friday, Merkley joined Reps. Mark Pocan (WI-02) and Robin Kelly (IL-02), and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to lead a bicameral letter with 97 of their colleagues to President Trump urging him to maintain CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention.
If the Division is shuttered, the United States can expect to see thousands of new cases of HIV, billions of dollars of government spending on lifetime HIV-related healthcare, and unnecessary deaths nationwide from this preventable condition. In his first Administration, President Trump declared an ambitious and commendable goal of ending the HIV epidemic in the United States, and over the last eight years, the US has reduced HIV incidence.
“On February 5, 2019, you declared a commendable and ambitious goal of ending the HIV epidemic (EHE) in the United States,” the Members wrote. “One of the pillars of your initiative, as shown on CDC’s website, is prevention. It is imperative that you uphold this commitment. As CDC has currently identified, we must prevent new HIV transmissions through proven interventions, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), if we are to achieve a 90 percent reduction in new infections by 2030.”
“Prevention provides a large return on investment for the federal government – adjusted for inflation, a lifetime of medical costs for a person with HIV can be over $500,000,” the Members continued. “Losing the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention would be an enormous loss to HIV providers.”
“As Members who serve the public, it is our duty to not only protect Americans from avoidable disease and early death, but to also avoid unnecessarily spending billions in taxpayer dollars down the line when HIV rates eventually skyrocket due to this potential action,” the Members concluded. “Just last week, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution, which continues funding levels from Fiscal Year 2024, that appropriated funding to CDC for carrying out HIV/AIDS programs. Accordingly, we expect CDC will continue to carry out those programs.”
A full copy of the letter can be found here.
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