Jeff Merkley

Is that the case? I will just ask both of you. Is that the case?

States remain our Nation's frontline environmental implementers and enforcers.

I wanted to echo the concerns about PILT that my colleague from Montana put forward.

We would like to have a buffer in that world. Is that something you could consider examining and supporting?

I appreciate that a great deal.

It is simply a situation where when we do exceed the account and have to shut down other programs, then even the removing the dead and dying trees, well, the prevention side gets robbed to pay the fire suppression side.

Our mills really are depending on the public trees because the private trees are being exported to Japan and to China.

We have a water mold pathogen in Oregon, referred to as Sudden Oak Death, and it is a huge threat to our nursery industry.

The Tribe also had its--so its land was condemned in 1973 and turned into a national forest and then in 1986 the Tribe was restored.

Indian education is a particular concern. We spend more money per student by far than the national average and yet the results continue to lag behind.

The threat to both the timber industry and the nursery stock industry is massive.

This program is zeroed out in the President's budget, which was quite a shock.

Franklin Roosevelt said that the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, but whether we do enough for those who have little.

Does that meet the test of strengthening the ladder of opportunity? Just yes or no.

I would like your help in taking that on.

My concern is in being in competition with a diminishing supply of resources, these programs will be damaged.

Is that not the type of win-win we should actually be doubling down on in this contentious world?

We should be trying to wipe it out right now rather than risking it spreading across the Nation.

I encourage an alternative strategy, which is that we actually fund capital improvement and maintenance.

I want to echo Senator Daines' comments on secure rural schools.

Would you like to repropose a Pell program that does keep pace with inflation, so that it covers the same percent for working families?

Another thing that increases the amount of debt is the Pell Grant proposal you put forward does not keep pace, because you freeze it for that time period, does not keep pace with the inflation in public schools.

Wouldn't it be better for a student to do Work Study in order to reduce the amount of debt that they have, but you cut in half the Federal Work Study program?

You say that you want to reduce the burden of debt, but you have established a new program that is actually the same program.

I think that is important for the public to know, that, today, the Secretary of Education before this committee refused to affirm that she would put forward a program that would ban discrimination based on LGBTQ status of students or would…