Jeff Merkley

Senator Wyden and I pushed really hard for funding back in 2009 and 2010 for a lot of money to thin forests.

Can you assure me as to whether these programs have your support?

It is about communities making decisions, and then us lobbying for what those communities say they need.

It is very important that we get it on June 15th

In fiscal year 2022, for the first time in a decade we included Congressionally Directed Spending Projects.

One of the conversations in my home state is about the best strategies for making forests more resilient, more resistant to fire.

Well, I thank you very much for your testimony.

You have heard from us as is the Senate tradition, but we are really here to hear from you.

All right, well that 50 percent sounds a little scary, thinking about the fires that we will be facing in our various states.

I teamed up with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, to save those 24 centers when they were proposed for elimination.

Self-certification wasn't working because they were advertising in California for jobs; in Oregon they were advertising saying you need to speak two languages

If your team in Oregon is running into any significant hurdles, I would just ask that they let me know.

I mean that is a very small fluctuation.

So tribes that are interested in partnering with the Forest Service will, under your leadership, the Forest Service will hold government-to-government meetings with them to try to work out arrangements?

The fact that they are being completely bypassed by the procedures, totally unacceptable, it was a scandal then, it will be a scandal again

The Tuesday edition of the Science Times has in it that the results of an investigation have found that the plastic in the ocean is largely binding with other microorganisms and dropping to the bottom of the ocean, changing the ecosystems…

As Congress now works to advance China-focused legislation, it's crucial that it include tangible steps advocated by this Commission on a bipartisan and bicameral basis.

This retaliation against family for freedom of speech abroad is just--I think about this, and I think, why do we allow any import, any recognition, any validation of the Chinese government given the many, many crimes against humanity that…

It's absolutely horrific and I'm sure very effective in suppressing conversation about China's many assaults on human rights.

When the Chinese government seeks to mislead the world about the treatment of Chinese citizens and the government's critics, the fact-based reporting of the CECC Annual Report shines a light and helps document the truth.

I want to acknowledge that this is our first hearing since the publication of the Commission's annual report on human rights conditions and rule of law developments in China.

Today's hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China entitled 'Growing Constraints on Language and Ethnic Identity in Today's China' will come to order.

I so much applaud the set of goals you just laid out.

I, frankly, think we need the bipartisan focus of this committee on making sure that we are actually delivering the resources to defend democracy at this critical moment.

I think this is such an important area in this global competition between freedom-loving nations and autocracies that I am very concerned about the trends.