Some of the toughest questions posed to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, during his Friday, Jan. 20 visit to Oregon City, were from high school students just coming of age to vote.
Among the questions from Oregon City High School students at Wyden’s town hall — his 1,038th since the Democrat was elected to the Senate 27 years ago — were about prospective federal aid for housing and homelessness, and recent federal incentives for carbon-free energy and less use of oil, gas and coal.
The meeting attracted 200 people to the McLoughlin Auditorium at Clackamas Community College, which substituted for the originally planned location at the high school.
Kesler Schneider, student council president and a volunteer at a day shelter in Oregon City, asked about federal responsibilities for reducing the number of unhoused people.
Wyden said Congress has helped in several ways:
- Approving more money for housing vouchers for low-income households.
- Maintaining a tax credit, created in 1986, for developers to build subsidized housing. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which writes tax legislation, he seeks to expand similar credits to construction of workforce housing.
- Providing more money for mental health treatment and other “wraparound” services that benefit unhoused people. Oregon is the first state that can tap federal Medicaid money for mobile crisis intervention teams, such as Portland Street Response and White Bird Clinic’s CAHOOTS in Eugene, that can respond as an alternative to police.
Housing and homelessness are top priorities of new Gov. Tina Kotek and the 2023 Oregon Legislature.
Schneider said afterward he thought Wyden’s response was too general, but that a staffer followed up with an offer to provide more detail about how federal funding dovetails with state and local efforts.
“I feel that they can’t be too precise in their answers, because they have to get the votes,” he said. “But I am happy that it is going to the right staff.”
'Long way to go'
Gavin Fuller, who’s also involved in student government, asked about congressional action to deal with climate change.
Wyden said he was not totally successful in reducing more than 40 current tax breaks — mainly for fossil-fuel development — into just three incentives for renewable energy, transportation fuels and energy efficiency and conservation. But in the legislation Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed last summer — without Republican votes — Wyden said it establishes the principle that greater reductions in carbon emissions that produce heat-trapping greenhouse gases will result in greater tax savings for individuals and businesses.
“It turns a system that was broken down into one that we can build on,” he said. “I can tell you that a lot of people say it’s high time to throw those (old breaks) into the garbage can. We’ve got a long way to go. But this is the beginning.”
The legislation provides roughly $370 billion over 10 years in tax breaks and other incentives — the largest single commitment by the federal government to mitigate the effects of climate change. But it’s just half of the $700 billion Congress approved for military spending this year — a bill Wyden opposed.
Kaileigha Engeldinger, who is not part of student government, said she would have asked a question about how Congress might protect a woman’s decision to obtain an abortion now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it is not protected under the Constitution. But she said she also listened to Wyden’s response because of her concern for the environment.
“It is coming closer, definitely,” she said afterward. “But we have a way to go, and in keeping our land green as well.”
I-205 tolling
Not all the tough questions came from students.
Dan Fowler, a real estate developer and former Oregon City mayor, sought support for a move by opponents to insist on a full environmental impact statement before the Oregon Transportation Commission and Oregon Department of Transportation proceed with tolling on Interstates 5 and 205 in the metro area. ODOT, which is taking public comments, was directed by 2017 state legislation to devise ways to relieve traffic congestion in the metro area.
“We love our communities,” Fowler said. “I believe that tolling is going to have unintended consequences with the diversion of traffic.”
An environmental impact statement is required under a 1970 federal law for proposed actions that might have significant effects on the environment. Such reports are usually done for public works projects, proposed permits and other federal actions. Oregon has no comparable state law.
Wyden has said previously he, too, has doubts about “traditional tolling.”
“Under traditional tolling, you have something that is inherently regressive,” he said. “It hits the working person and small business a lot harder than big corporations that are responsible for most of the wear and tear on roads and bridges.”
The question is likely to draw even greater attention in 2025, when the George Abernethy Bridge that carries I-205 across the Willamette River and links West Linn with Oregon City is retrofitted and widened. The bridge, which dates back to 1970, will be strengthened to withstand a severe earthquake off the Oregon Coast — and a third travel lane will be added. Additional widening is envisioned in the six-mile stretch between Stafford Road and the bridge.
Wyden, however, did not reject all tolls. He did not mention it, but a new bridge across the Columbia River linking Portland and Vancouver — replacing the Interstate Bridge spans built in 1917 and 1958 — will require both tolling and big contributions from both Oregon and Washington. Its estimated price tag is now around $5 billion.
“We know we have to have big league infrastructure if we want a big-league quality of life,” he said.
In response to a question from current Oregon City Mayor Denyse McGriff, Wyden pledged federal help for a project to redevelop part of a former landfill near downtown for housing and commercial development. Advocates say it will be needed once a new courthouse is completed on the Red Soils campus of Clackamas County and circuit court employees and visitors leave the 1937 courthouse, which is on an unstable site vulnerable to a major earthquake.
Drug prices
Wyden did rebut one accusation that he was influenced by campaign contributions from drugmakers. In addition to the tax code, the Finance Committee has wide authority over such federal health programs as Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
As part of the same Inflation Reduction Act passed last summer, Wyden said subsidies for individual health insurance premiums were continued under the Affordable Care Act. In addition, he said, the federal government finally regained authority to negotiate some drug prices under Medicare — Republican congressional majorities took it away in 2003 — out-of-pocket costs were capped at $35 monthly for Medicare recipients, and drugmakers pay penalties to Medicare if their price increases exceed inflation.
Wyden was re-elected easily to a fifth full six-year term Nov. 8. Although businesses cannot contribute directly to federal candidates, their political action committees often do so — not to influence a specific vote, which is illegal, but to get a candidate’s attention if that person is elected.
Wyden said that given what was in the legislation, he doubted he got much money from pharmaceutical interests.
“If there is an opponent of Big Pharma being required to negotiate (drug prices), that person must be in a witness protection program,” he said as his audience laughed. “Big Pharma spent millions of dollars on advertising and political action committees. I led the fight and we beat them last summer. We are just getting started.”