{"id":6836,"date":"2018-01-17T22:22:13","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T06:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=6836"},"modified":"2018-01-17T22:22:13","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T06:22:13","slug":"senator-ron-wyden-addresses-polk-county-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/senator-ron-wyden-addresses-polk-county-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Ron Wyden addresses Polk County concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Eric J. Frey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sam Dunaway | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

One individual asked the senator what citizens could do if the Over 200 citizens of Polk County gathered on Jan. 13 for a public town hall meeting with U.S. Senator Ron Wyden. Wyden, who has a reputation for listening to the concerns of all Oregonians, holds town hall meetings in each of Oregon\u2019s 26 counties every year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Senator has been representing Oregon first in the U.S. House of Representatives and then in the U.S. Senate for a total of 37 years. He holds a ranking member position on the Finance Committee, the leading Senate Democrat on the Joint Committee on Taxation, and a member of the Selection Committee on Intelligence and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.<\/span><\/p>\n

Polk County citizens were given the opportunity to have their voices heard and questions answered in the course of the afternoon. Many questions were regarding the state of the federal government and proposed policy changes by the Trump administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

Concerns were stated from multiple citizens about the deportation of DACA recipients if the DREAM Act is not passed. Wyden expressed support for the DREAMers, explaining, \u201cYou meet with these students and you just walk away with a near breathtaking judgment that they represent all things that we like young people to be spending their time on: working their heads off to get good marks, helping their families, career interests that will clearly benefit all of us.\u201d Wyden emphasized. \u201cWe are a better and stronger country because of immigration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One citizen asked a question about where the Selection Committee on Intelligence stands on investigating collusion in the 2016 election process. Wyden replied, \u201cOur committee is supposed to tell the story of how the Russians, in effect, undermined our democracy\u2026 A big part of what our committee should be doing is not getting done.\u201d He went on to explain that the investigation is one of his priorities as a ranking member of the committee. \u201cI am committed to staying at this, and I will say here today at Western as I\u2019ve said around the state, I am your guy on the Senate Intelligence Committee and on my watch this investigation is not going to get swept under the rug.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Concerns were expressed about the offshore drilling proposed on the Oregon Coast. \u201cI\u2019ve been part of a group of about 35 senators that have made it clear that we\u2019re going to fight this arbitrary politically hotwired process,\u201d Wyden commented. \u201cIn terms of our land, air, and water, this is really big stakes stuff for Oregon. Once you sell off your treasures to exploiters, you don\u2019t get them back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

y are concerned about issues that affect them. Wyden responded that calling senators is an effective way to have your voice heard. \u201cAlways remember that those contacts, particularly something like a phone call, really make the difference,\u201d Wyden offered. \u201cFinding an issue where you have a particular interest and you can, in effect, educate others\u2026 Political change is not trickle-down. It\u2019s bottoms-up. I really encourage you to be out and talking about what\u2019s important to you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Visit wyden.senate.gov for more information on Sen. Ron Wyden and a schedule of upcoming Town Hall meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sam Dunaway | News Editor One individual asked the senator what citizens could do if the Over 200 citizens of Polk County gathered on Jan. 13 for a public town hall meeting with U.S. Senator Ron Wyden. Wyden, who has a reputation for listening to the concerns of all Oregonians, holds town hall meetings in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":6837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}