WASHINGTON – Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) welcomed news Wednesday that the Department of Veterans Affairs will implement one of the key proposals from the bipartisan Veterans Health Care Staffing Improvement Act, sponsored by Merkley and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), helping to
US Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have urged their colleagues to keep the government’s promise to rural communities in Oregon, 40 other states and Puerto Rico by passing legislation that would provide vital funding for schools, law enforcement and essential road repairs. Since payments through the Secure Rural Schools
A total of 21 Democrat U.S. senators, including Oregon’s Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, sent a letter Wednesday to President-elect Donald Trump to remind him of his campaign promises to reject cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and to ask that he clarify whether he still intends to do so. The
As Donald Trump’s cabinet takes shape, Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, weighs in. He says he’s “deeply concerned” about the choice of Ben Carson to leading Housing and Urban Development. RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: Now that President-elect Donald Trump has nominated some of his choices for cabinet positions, the Senate
Sen. Jeff Merkley, the junior Democrat from Oregon, takes a dim view of his Republican colleagues’ strategy to immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act — but delay the effective date. Republicans don’t want the “the millions hurt by repeal to be hurt before the next election, so they push it beyond
It should be easier to save money for retirement. We can all agree on that, right? But about half of all Americans who work in the private sector do not have access to an employer-based retirement plan like a 401(k). Federal legislation to increase those numbers has not amounted to much.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley released the following statement after the Social Security Administration announced a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) of only .3 percent for 2017. This news follows a COLA of zero for 2016. “With today’s announcement, the Social Security Administration is saying that seniors only need about
We’d think the Social Security Administration would be senior-savvy. It recently revealed it is not. On July 30, Social Security rolled out a new safeguard for users of its “my Social Security” accounts. Those are online accounts for doing things such as reviewing benefits, changing address or changing the location
WASHINGTON – Last week, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., wrote a letter to Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin to address his concerns over a new system that would block online access to benefits for seniors without a text-enabled cellphone. The Social Security Administration announced Monday they will change the policy and
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