joins the Exchange to discuss the ongoing impact of funding cuts and firing of federal government personnel that adversely impact Oregon's rural regions and tribal lands in the state. Senator Merkley also responds to President Donald Trump's address to the joint session of Congress on March 4, which he attended.
On March 3, a coalition of Oregon leaders signed a letter to the White House.
Senator Ron Wyden below on his website:
Washington, D.C. 鈥� Oregon鈥檚 U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden鈥攁long with U.S. Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Val Hoyle (OR-04), Andrea Salinas (OR-06), Maxine Dexter (OR-03), and Janelle Bynum (OR-05)鈥攋oined over 100 Members of Congress to demand that the Trump Administration stop and reverse its dangerous efforts to fire employees and defund programs that serve Tribes and Tribal members.
The lawmakers directed President Donald Trump, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to 鈥渢ake immediate action to halt, exempt, and reverse the impacts to federal employees and funding serving Indian Country, as those positions and programs are essential for the administration of legally mandated Tribal programs and services.鈥�
Outlining the impact of the Trump administration鈥檚 actions to-date, the lawmakers further wrote, 鈥淵our administration鈥檚 recent executive actions undermine Tribal sovereignty, existing federal law, and the federal-Tribal government-to-government relationship.鈥�
鈥淚n the past month, your administration has taken aim at thousands of federal workers across various government agencies. Reports indicate that this includes more than 2,600 federal employees at the Department of Interior, including more than 100 Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) employees, more than 40 Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) employees, several employees at the Office of Indian Affairs, as well as social workers, firefighters, and police that work on behalf of Indian Country, plus some 950 Indian Health Service (IHS) employees at the Department of Health and Human Services,鈥� the lawmakers continued.
The lawmakers further reminded the President and Secretary Burgum that 鈥淭ribal Nations are sovereign governments with a unique legal and political relationship to the United States. The inherent sovereignty of Tribes is recognized in the U.S. Constitution, in treaties, and across many federal laws and policies, and it has been consistently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.鈥�
鈥淭hese trust and treaty obligations in some cases predate both the establishment of all of the agencies in question as well as the United States itself. Pursuant to those legal obligations, we must adequately fund and staff agencies that provide these essential services and programs, including at BIA, BIE, and IHS,鈥� the lawmakers stressed.
The letter is the latest in a series of actions by the Oregon delegation to sound the alarm on the Trump Administration鈥檚 attacks on Tribal communities, including staffing shortages at the IHS, layoffs at the IHS, and wrongful searches and interrogations of Tribal members by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
