Jeff Merkley

The reason the Republican establishment in the Senate is opposing this is because that their power stems from a corrupted voting process, from the gerrymandering, from the dark money, from the voter suppression, and they want to maintain…

I would like to highlight for my colleagues, and others, that the hearing record will be open until two weeks after the arrival of the President's fiscal year 2022 budget request, so that everyone will get a chance to review it.

And it is hard for me to imagine Indian Health Services issuing a contract that did not specify that the masks had to come from a certified supplier to make sure that they actually met--met standards.

I would be very curious, which ones create the most effective per cost?

I would like to see a dialogue that leads to a comprehensive plan, because right now it's: the water system goes down, emergency repairs, people are out of water for a couple months, it is repaired, then it breaks down immediately again.

Thank you very much. I wanted to turn to water infrastructure.

I cannot see any reason for that. And I will ask for a follow up showing what those recommendations were and how you have implemented them.

It is transparency is so important in these situations.

I know both of us have significant Native American communities in our respective States, and we are--have a collective sense of wanting to make sure that the--our government honors its responsibilities in a whole series of fields related…

This should never happen. If it happened in the way it was reported, it is an abuse of the public trust.

Thank you very much, Senator Murkowski. And we will be looking forward to the responses.

I look forward to the--of reading over the details of that, and understanding for every million dollars we invest in plan A, how much would it affect recruitment versus a million dollars in plan B?

I think loan repayment, we have to do a little bit more analysis on that, but I definitely think that is our most effective tool at this time.

We have such a high responsibility to protect our children.

I am going to press this issue, because I am not yet satisfied that there are reasons not to release the report if sensitive information has to be redacted, that can be done.

Broadband and water infrastructure are absolutely essential and desperately need to be improved, expanded, provided in Indian Country.

Thank you very much.

Native communities have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Native Americans and Alaska Natives are hospitalized due to COVID-19 complications at a rate four times higher than non-Hispanic, White individuals.

Native COVID mortality rates are twice as high as non-Native populations.

I would like to get details on these strategies.

How much of that is driven by higher infection rates? And how much is driven by higher risk factors, like diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and so forth that reflected a broader set of health challenges?

Thank you for committing to work to address the ongoing needs of Oregon and other western states that are struggling to recover from the damage of the 2020 wildfire season.

I believe the scale of natural disasters in Oregon and other western states demands additional resources that can only be delivered through disaster supplemental legislation.

We just see the homeless epidemic just--you can come visit Portland and I invite you all to do so and other cities in my State and it's a graphic display of the challenge we face.