Before a packed auditorium at Philomath High School, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Val Hoyle vowed Saturday to fight initiatives from the Trump administration about federal grants and loans, immigration, climate change and more — and urged attendees to fight as well.
Merkley, the Democrat who is Oregon’s junior senator, offered this advice to the 500 or so people who crammed into the school’s auditorium and lined an adjacent hall: “First of all, after you’ve spent a few days curled up in a fetal position, get off of it — as all of you have done — and raise your voices and make them heard, through calls to your representatives like us, through letters, through organizing in your local community circles, showing up at town halls, be it at the city level, the county level, the state Legislature, because people have to be heard.”
Adden Hoyle, the Democrat who represents Oregon’s 4th Congressional District, which includes Philomath: “It’s easy to get overwhelmed. It’s easy to get paralyzed. It’s easy to get frozen. But we can’t.” And she noted that an outcry from Democrats and Republicans alike helped to force the administration to back down last week over a freeze on federal grants and loans.
Merkley and Hoyle said the administration’s actions during its first two weeks — particularly a freeze on federal grants and loans that was announced Monday and then lifted Tuesday — have shocked constituents.
In a brief interview with the Philomath News before the town hall, Merkley said a common thread runs through the administration’s actions, and that President Donald Trump made it clear in his inaugural address: “It really sent a signal about the imperial presidency,” one that’s focused on stripping away congressional duties such as the power of the purse and amassing power in the executive branch. “Everything that’s unfolding is exactly in line with that,” he said.
Merkley added: “It’s important to ask our Republican colleagues, ‘How are you going to feel about an imperial presidency if it’s a Democrat in the Oval Office?’ … This is the reason our country has worked for close to 250 years, because of the separation of powers and the checks and balances. It was to avoid having a ruler who decides everything, because then you have government by and for the powerful rather than by and for the people.”
Merkley, whose party is in the minority in both houses of Congress, said he thought it was possible some congressional Republicans might push back against Trump’s “wholly unqualified” nominations for Cabinet positions. He said Tulsi Gabbard, nominated to be the director of national intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominated for the Department of Health and Human Services, might be vulnerable.
Hoyle said many of the people who voted for Trump in her district did so because of worries about the economy and inflation. But the administration has not done anything to address the cost-of-living issue, she said, and added that tariffs levied against Canada, Mexico and other countries will result in “massive” increases in consumer goods.
“I think the biggest concern … is that they’re trying to overlook Congress’ authority to have the power of the purse and just move forward and freeze grants for people they don’t like and states they don’t like and reward states that do,” she said. … “They’ve made it clear that they’re going to politicize and weaponize those grants” on behalf of their agenda.
In her district, she said, Oregon State University and the University of Oregon receive millions of dollars each year in federal research grants. And federal grants also go to law enforcement agencies in the district.
Those topics and others came up in the hourlong town hall meeting Saturday.
Merkley and Hoyle condemned administration efforts to deport immigrants without permanent legal status.
“This mantra (that immigrants are) murderers and rapists is wrong,” Merkley said. “It’s designed to uncap a bottle of hate, and we are going to put the cap back on that bottle.” He urged compassion and empathy for immigrants who have been frightened by the administration’s actions.
The two lamented the administration’s actions on climate change, such as pulling out of the Paris Agreement and ordering federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service to scrub references to global warming from their websites.
Merkley called climate change “the biggest challenge humanity faces on this planet, and we are failing democracy.” He said part of the reason behind the failure is the influence of big money in politics.
Added Hoyle: “The gas and oil industry got the best administration that they could buy. And let’s be clear, they bought it.”
But even as the federal government abandons climate-change initiatives, Merkley urged attendees to get active on the local and state levels. “Everyone can do something to have a climate plan,” he said. “The answer to this is not that complicated. It’s electrifying everything with renewable energy.”
On another topic, Hoyle condemned what she called an effort to “gut the federal workforce” through firings and mass emails to employees offering them options to resign. “Our federal employees are under attack right now, and it is with intent and with malice to intimidate federal workers,” she said, adding that she’s been in contact with the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents more than 750,000 federal workers. She said the administration is illegally ignoring collectively bargained contracts.
Merkley questioned the legality of the recent firing of federal government inspectors general and said the matter would be resolved in the courts.
Merkley took time at the start of the town hall to praise the work of the Philomath Community Gleaners, which is part of Philomath Community Services and collects food that otherwise would go to waste and distributes it to community members. He gave organization members a U.S. flag that has flown over the Capitol.