Jeff Merkley

The counties are hurting greatly.

I really celebrate this type of partnership between the goal of conservation and the practices of local ranchers.

Our whole goal in Oregon is to avoid a listing.

That creates an enormous inefficiency and failure to pursue many of the goals that we have laid out in the budget.

Should we not succeed in doing it, it could be a catastrophe in many, many ways, for all of the stakeholders.

I appreciate the administration putting forward the AUMF. I think it is our responsibility under our Constitution to wrestle with it.

I would like to see us put a timeframe on 2001, despite, as you point out, that there is an enduring threat.

We have to understand that all our lives, the danger, the uncertainty, the need for alertness, for effort, that discipline will be upon us.

Thank you. And I will mention in my last few seconds here that the pilot project in Talent Irrigation District with Bear Creek, the funding is much appreciated.

I just want to make sure that the economy of our Oregon coast doesn't shut down, as it has come close to a number of times when dredging was not funded.

I just wanted to draw it to your attention and say, in this first year of implementation of this agreement, after decades of fighting over the water, how important it will be for us to make sure that it happens in a timely and competent…

I look forward to hearing their testimony and exploring ways that we can maximize the effectiveness of their good work on the ground.

Your plan allows partnerships to occur between States as another form of flexibility?

Currently, we are on a path where our carbon pollution has gone up to 400 ppm, up from about 270 ppm for the industrial revolution.

Thank you for bringing forward a plan that encourages each State to find the most cost effective, flexible way of taking on carbon dioxide.

We are all going to suffer if the planet continues on its warming pace?

Part of the conversation we are having, as initiated by the Chair, was how the U.S. changes operate in the context of a global challenge.

Certainly we have benefited, if you will, from utilizing fossil fuels on a scale much larger than individual citizens in China or India.

We are having substantial droughts, three of the worst ever droughts in the Klamath Basin in just the last decade and a half.

That commitment came out of a dialog with China about the need for all the nations of the world to proceed to take on this issue?

I thank you for putting forward a plan that helps put the United States in the leadership role of working with the nations of the world to take on this devastating challenge.

This is something having a huge impact on our economy, on our rural way of life, on our fishing, our farming and our forests right now.

These rules become part of an examination process that just is a burden and misappropriately applied.

I think you have gotten to the core of the type of feedback loop that is so important.

Wealthy Americans should not pay the same marginal tax rate that working Americans pay.