Ron Wyden: “To wrap up briefly, Senator Smith has stated it well. I am very honored to represent Oregon in the Senate. I have been…”

“To wrap up briefly, Senator Smith has stated it well. I am very honored to represent Oregon in the Senate. I have been able to get into a host of issues that I think are important, particularly as a member of the Finance Committee, to fix health care and fix the out-of-whack American tax system. I serve on the Intelligence Committee. But Senator Smith and I have said this is our most important issue for our State for this session because, without this funding, there is a real question about whether these local communities can hang on. They simply have no other options. You are not going to be able to go to a small resource-dependent community in eastern Oregon and set up a biotechnology company in the next few weeks. It is not going to happen. I support those kinds of industries and economic development, as does my colleague. It has been a big part of our bipartisan agenda. But we are talking about survival for these rural communities. This will be our top priority for this session.”