Press Releases

Merkley: Forest Service Dangerously Unprepared for Wildfire Season

Washington, D.C. – Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-OR) issued the following statement after a hearing with U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz on the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request for the agency: “Forest Service Chief Schultz’s testimony only underscored the immense, serious challenges facing communities

Merkley, Pingree: EPA’s Reckless Gutting of Environmental Justice Programs Harms Communities

Washington, D.C. – Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and House Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Chellie Pingree (ME-01) denounced plans by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin to eliminate all of the agency’s offices and positions related to environmental justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Merkley and Colleagues to EPA Administrator Zeldin: Agency Must Reverse Unlawful Termination of Grants for Clean Air and Water

New documents reveal 400 grantees are being illegally targeted for termination and expose EPA’s willful violation of congressional appropriations law, contractual agreements, and multiple court orders Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley—a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee—joined all his Democratic colleagues on

Cassidy, Merkley Introduce Bill to Stop Overpayments in the Medicare Advantage Program

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced the No Unreasonable Payments, Coding, or Diagnoses for the Elderly (No UPCODE) Act to improve the way Medicare Advantage plans assess patients’ health risks and reduce overpayments for care. The No UPCODE Act will save taxpayers billions by eliminating incentives to overcharge

Merkley, Collins, McClain, Mullin Reintroduce Bipartisan Legislation to Wipe Out Non-Flushable Products from Our Wastewater Infrastructure

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Susan Collins (R-ME), U.S. Representatives Lisa McClain (R-MI) and Kevin Mullin (D-CA) today reintroduced the bipartisan Wastewater Infrastructure Pollution Prevention and Environmental Safety (WIPPES) Act, a bill to address health, ecosystem, and wastewater infrastructure concerns caused by the flushing of non-flushable

en_USEnglish