Jeff Merkley

On May 25, 2017, Senator Merkley introduced S. 1285, the Oregon Tribal Economic Development Act.

I would encourage you to follow up with the members of the subcommittee on ideas that you have that we should consider.

I think a lot of work has to be done. I am glad the UPR exists on paper.

Instead of having the countries that are really striving to elevate human rights, we have an incentive for those who are not striving to elevate human rights be members.

I think it is interesting, as you all have noted, that being elected is sometimes used as a defense that, 'Oh, our human rights cannot be that bad. We were elected to the Human Rights Council.'

I think we are pretty good at winning--so long as we confirm our Assistant Secretaries and Ambassadors and give them a budget.

I would happily see the U.S. lose on occasion if we could actually get at this core issue of countries who really do not have a good faith commitment to the institution filling some of the seats.

Making the link that Ambassador Haley has made between human rights and international peace and security.

The countries that oppose the U.S. in New York and Geneva continue to do that without any real penalty.

So this concept that the U.S. should at least explore it or perhaps make a motion, carry a vote, carry a discussion, would all of you support the United States putting that up?

The Human Rights Council seems to work better, however, when America leads.

Promoting human rights is a longstanding bipartisan pillar of American foreign policy, essential not only to our foreign policy, but to who we are as Americans.

The EPA is looking at the question of changing the automobile efficiency standards and also possibly taking away the waiver for the California standards. Would that take us in the wrong direction in terms of ozone production?

Is that also reducing the amount of ozone being generated?

The existing trends do not drive us toward the goal being laid out by the EPA?

Are we seeing a reduction in the ozone generated?

It was, I believe, May 20th when President Trump met with King Salman in Saudi Arabia, and they have what was reported to be very friendly conversations.

The public-private partnerships didn't work in a lot of situations, and sometimes were more expensive.

If we don't stay on the cutting edge of innovation, it makes it much harder for our products to be sold around the world.

I think for those of us who have seen the dumping of foreign steel in our market and the impact it has had on domestic production and the importance of steel in our national security, certainly there is a lot of support for making sure we…

Sometimes that involves tolling that takes a tremendous amount more of our working Americans' pockets than if we just finance something directly.

The President has said we will have two simple rules on the massive rebuilding effort: Buy America and Hire American.

I would really encourage that.

Shouldn't we spend every dollar that comes in on maintenance of our water infrastructure?

Thank you so much for coming out from Oregon to share this perspective. I really do appreciate the small port set aside, the 10 percent set aside, that has been so important to Oregon's coastal economy.