Congressman Peter DeFazio has spent his time in Congress working for Oregonians. As the dean of the Oregon House delegation, he has developed a reputation as an independent, passionate, and effective lawmaker.
In 2019, DeFazio was elected to the powerful position of Chair of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Coast Guard, highways and transit, ports and water resources, railroads, aviation, and economic development. As Chair, and previously as Ranking Member, DeFazio has taken the lead role on several multi-billion-laws that have created jobs, improved transportation options, kept our ports open, ensured clean drinking water, and kept the airline industry accountable.
The science is clear: climate change is already occurring, it is caused by human activity, and it is the greatest existential threat to our planet that we have ever known. The science is clear that if we don't act immediately the destructive effects of climate change will worsen; we are already experiencing increasingly severe weather events like floods, droughts, and wildfires.
DeFazio understands that it’s critical to ensure that government policies aimed at ending global warming do not unintentionally hurt struggling low income, rural communities, or benefit some regions while penalizing others. Combatting climate change can lead to good-paying jobs, improved public health, and a cleaner environment for generations to come—no matter where people live.
In November 2017, thirteen U.S. federal agencies—including the Environmental Protection Agency—jointly published a climate report. The report, the National Climate Assessment, makes clear that every region of the country is already experiencing the detrimental effects of climate change, and it warns that “[f]uture impacts and risks from climate change are directly tied to decisions made in the present.” The report also predicts that, by the end of this century, global warming will damage the U.S. economy even more than the Great Recession did.
21st Century Green Transportation
Transportation is the leading cause of carbon emissions in the U.S. Congressman DeFazio understands that by transforming our transportation system we can affect real and long-term change.
As Chairman of the influential Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, DeFazio passed the INVEST in America Act, also known as the Moving Forward Act, in the House in July 2020. The legislation takes bold steps to build the clean transportation sector of the future by reforming existing programs and launching new initiatives to reduce greenhouse gases.
The INVEST in America Act is our opportunity to replace the outdated systems of the past with smarter, safer, more resilient infrastructure that fits the economy of the future, creates millions of jobs, supports American manufacturing, and restores U.S. competitiveness.
The bill creates key new programs to cut carbon pollution and mitigate the threat of extreme weather; invests in clean fuel infrastructure; provides more zero-emission and clean transportation choices; and harnesses American ingenuity in our fight against climate change. Notably, the bill:
The bottom line is the INVEST in America Act will create millions of family wage jobs, support American manufacturing, and restore U.S. competitiveness. By putting people to work on green, transformative projects in urban, suburban and rural communities across the country, this legislation invests in jobs that can’t be exported.
Rising Sea Levels and Ocean Acidification
Scientific research—most notably a study led by researchers at Oregon State University—has demonstrated that man-made carbon dioxide emissions are rapidly increasing the acidity of our oceans. Approximately one third of human related carbon dioxide emissions are absorbed by our oceans. This increased acidity is threatening our entire ocean food chain and the viability of the valuable Oregon fisheries sector, which the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates includes 6,000 jobs and a total of nearly $700 million in overall economic output annually.
Climate change is already taking its toll. Commercial oyster production on the West Coast alone generates more than $100 million in gross sales annually, with total economic activity topping a quarter billion dollars nationwide. Yet, oyster farmers in Oregon and Washington are worried that they may have to close their operations because increased ocean acidity is preventing oysters from growing at a pace that is commercially cost effective.
DeFazio understands the importance of science-based policy and how the scientific community can make a difference. Climate change is not a hoax and it is far past time for policy makers to work with the scientific community to achieve fact-based solutions.
Of additional concern is rising of sea levels. Sea level rise on our coasts could lead to permanent or episodic flooding of low-lying lands, increased erosion and shoreline change, threatening mariners and our ports, increased damages from coastal storms, and lead to saltwater intrusion of coastal freshwaters and drinking water systems. This could have devastating effects on coastal communities, economies, and cultures. Everything in our natural world is interrelated, which is why it is so important to fight climate change in every way possible.
While the current state of our oceans is perilous, there is good news. Oceans can play a large role in curbing climate change. Oregon State University Distinguished Professor Dr. Lubchenco is a world-renowned environmental scientist who served as the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as well as an inaugural member of President Barack Obama’s Science Team. She is also a member of the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLPSOE), a group of 14 nations working to improve ocean health. HLPSOE released a report in 2019 that found oceans could play a much bigger role in reducing the earth’s carbon footprint. In fact, oceans could reduce up to a fifth of the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emission cuts needed by 2050 to limit the effects of climate change. That reduction would be larger than the annual emissions from all the current coal-fired power plants in the world.
The report named several ways the ocean can help the climate, including decarbonizing domestic and international shipping and transport, which DeFazio is working on as Chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, increasing the protection and restoration of blue carbon ecosystems like mangroves, seagrasses, and estuaries.
DeFazio is a cosponsor of several ocean health bills, including the COAST Research Act, which would address the effects of ocean acidification on our marine ecosystems. This legislation, which passed the House last year, would reauthorize the Ocean Acidification Program of NOAA and expand research efforts to monitor the effects of coastal acidification.
DeFazio is also a cosponsor of the Save Our Seas Act, which reauthorized the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program and includes provisions to work with other countries to support research, development, and investments on systems and materials that reduce the amount of waste that enters the oceans.
Combatting Climate Change with Regenerative Agriculture
Many farmers have been urged to grow single species of crops (known as monoculture), use excess amounts of pesticides and chemical fertilizers that run off into streams and lakes causing harmful algae blooms to stay in business. The result is depleted topsoil that doesn’t hold water or nutrients. It has been starved of organic carbon and the beneficial organisms that depend on healthy soil to live.
Like our oceans, our soil is at risk, and with it the world’s food supply. Soil is a critical stage in the earth’s carbon cycle. Plants draw carbon out of the air and feed it to the organisms in the soil. In return, they provide nutrients plants need, acting as a natural fertilizer.
Yet like our oceans, soil also holds the promise of being a prominent way to combat climate change. Carbon can remain stored in soils for thousands of years. Using regenerative agriculture practices to increase soil health not only helps sequester carbon. Like transitioning to organic farming, it can also help a farmer’s bottom line.
Congressman DeFazio is a leader in promoting environmentally friendly agriculture. He is the author of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, the law that created the national organic labeling standard. At the time, Oregon was leading the nation in establishing uniform organic standards. Oregon was the first state to have an organic labeling law, passed in 1972, that established the legal definition of what could be considered “organic” for marketing purposes. But outside of Oregon, anything could be labeled “organic”. In order for the organic food industry to thrive, DeFazio knew that national standards were needed. Consumers needed to trust that “organic” actually meant something.
DeFazio founded and co-chairs the House Organic Caucus. One area of the caucus’ focus is dedicated to assisting traditional farming operations transition to organic production. The good news is that the organic industry is booming. To keep up, we need more American farmers to transition to organic production, and it makes good economic sense for them to do so. Consumers are willing to buy organic products at a premium. We must ensure the federal government is doing all it can to support organic farmers, producers, and consumers. Every year DeFazio leads funding requests to robustly fund USDA organic programs.
DeFazio is developing legislation to increase research on regenerative agriculture, provide incentives to agriculture producers to transition to farming and ranching practices that will restore our soil, provide healthy food, and sequester hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon.
After more than six months, more than 200,000 deaths, and millions of jobs lost, we are still mired in a massive public health and economic crisis. We are living through one of the biggest challenges our nation has ever faced.
Throughout this crisis, Congressman DeFazio has worked tirelessly to get relief to working families, small businesses, our frontline workers, and to promote a strong, inclusive recovery. While Washington has been mired in gridlock in recent months over another COVID relief package, Rep. DeFazio has and will continue to work to break through the gridlock in order to provide robust relief to working families, small businesses, and frontline workers.
Congressman DeFazio knows the enormous strain COVID-19 has put on Oregon’s working families, which is why he helped to pass legislation to help provide these families with critical lifelines. These policies included:
Small businesses are the backbone of our communities. Recognizing the important role Main Street plays in Southwest Oregon’s economy, DeFazio has consistently supported efforts to get funding to small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Rep. DeFazio supported multiple bills that provided more than $600 billion to the PPP and supports efforts to create a second round of funding, expand eligibility, streamline forgiveness, and ensure appropriate oversight to minimize abuse of the program by large corporations.
As Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Rep. DeFazio was a key negotiator and authored several critical provisions that were enacted, including:
Legislation that Rep. DeFazio supported also invested billions into COVID-19 research, development, containment, and procurement, including billions for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), $3.5 billion for development of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics, and $16 billion for the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) to ensure it can procure needed American made equipment and supplies to prevent supply chain shortages.
Rep. DeFazio also supported provisions that allocated $100 billion to hospitals and healthcare providers in order to cover unreimbursed health care-related expenses to COVID-19.
Millions of Americans are still unemployed. The earlier economic recovery is slowing – and COVID-19 infections and deaths are unfortunately climbing.
Since May, Rep. DeFazio and his colleagues in the House have passed additional relief bills, which contain a variety of essential relief measures to help Americans make ends meet as we work to end the crisis. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans have rejected every one of these bills.
On October 1, 2020, DeFazio voted for and the House passed another relief package, the updated version of the Heroes Act. This bill includes:
Rep. DeFazio knows that putting working people and families first is how we as a country can get back on our feet. He will continue to prioritize their needs as well as the needs of small business owners over the profits of giant corporations in order to build an economy that works for everyone – not just a wealthy few.
Congressman DeFazio has long believed that it is incumbent upon the federal government to invest in our students and schools as states struggle to provide adequate K-12 funding and affordable higher education opportunities. Quality education creates sound building blocks for future generations, yet recent trends indicate American students are falling behind their foreign counterparts in nearly all subjects.
DeFazio Scholarships
DeFazio understands the importance of higher education and he could not have attended college without the assistance of financial aid. This is why he established a scholarship fund for dislocated workers at five community colleges in southwest Oregon. In order to fund these scholarships, DeFazio has consistently refused congressional pay increases and, instead, used them to benefit Oregonians. As of the end of 2019, DeFazio contributed $380,421 of after-tax salary toward 278 scholarships and debt reduction. He counts these scholarships among his proudest accomplishments.
In addition to his scholarships, Congressman DeFazio has been a consistent supporter of federal higher education programs such as Pell grants, federal work study, and student loan forgiveness, which helps make college more affordable.
Higher Education
DeFazio understands the need for the federal government to ensure students have affordable access to a higher education, whether that be a certificate or trade program, community college, or a four-year university.
Rep. DeFazio strongly supports efforts that would allow tens of millions of Americans to refinance their student loans, and supports lowering student loan interest rates to the same low interest rates that big Wall Street banks get. The federal government should be investing in students, not making a profit off of them. DeFazio also supported the Income-based Repayment program, which gives graduates a flexible repayment system to avoid default. Each Congress, DeFazio introduces his own package of higher education legislation, the Helping Individuals Get a Higher Education while Reducing Education Debt (HIGHER ED) Act and the Achieving Independence through Degrees (AID) Act.
The HIGHER ED Act would provide much-needed relief to student loan borrowers overwhelmed by student debt. For example, the HIGHER ED Act would allow borrowers more time to focus on their futures, their families, their trades, and their careers by raising the minimum salary requirements for borrowers to begin making payments on their loans. It would also allow student borrowers to refinance at lower rates, cap monthly payments at 10 percent of one’s discretionary income, and forgive any remaining debt after 20 years.
DeFazio is also a strong supporter of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF), which allows public servants such as military members, teachers, firefighters, police officers, postal workers, and more the opportunity to have the remaining balance of their federal student loans forgiven after 10 years of service. His HIGHER ED Act would improve the PSLF program and allow borrowers to have 50 percent of their debt forgiven after five years of service and all debt after 10. It would also simplify the application and certification process and correct flaws and loopholes that have prevented approximately ninety-nine percent of all public servants who have applied from receiving the loan forgiveness they have earned and been promised.
In addition, DeFazio’s AID Act would reduce barriers to higher education by improving college affordability and accessibility. It would strengthen and improve access to Pell grants, including increasing the maximum Pell Grant award to reflect the average cost of in-state tuition, and it would prevent the Pell Grant from losing its purchasing power over time by indexing it to inflation. It would also expand Pell Grants to cover short-term workforce training programs of at least 150 hours or eight weeks at accredited institutions, in order to create new job opportunities for Oregonians looking to strengthen their position in the labor market. The AID Act would also expand Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility for students, simplify the process for applying for federal student aid, and increase funding for and reform the Federal Work-Study and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant programs to ensure that more funds go to students with the most need.
Career and Technical Education
DeFazio is a staunch supporter of workforce readiness, vocational, and career and technical education (CTE) programs. He believes that robust funding and support for CTE is critical for ensuring that Oregon students are prepared for high-skill, high-wage, high-demand jobs in the 21st century.
DeFazio has strongly supported reauthorization of and improvements to the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act – the primary federal funding source for high schools and colleges to provide career training and occupational skills development programs for students. DeFazio has consistently fought for CTE funding through Perkins grants and other avenues that benefit Oregon students, and every year he joins his colleagues in urging robust funding for Perkins grants.
DeFazio has also proposed legislation to expand Pell Grants to cover short-term workforce training programs of at least 150 hours or eight weeks at accredited institutions, in order to create new job opportunities for Oregonians looking to strengthen their position in the labor market.
Early Childhood Development
Congressman DeFazio has been a strong supporter of increasing federal funding levels and federal resources to Pre-K programs, such as Head Start. Early childhood education, nutrition, health care and family support services are critical for our nation's youth. Often these programs are not just about schooling, they are about meeting the needs of young children and their families.
Moreover, it is clear to DeFazio that wages have remained flat while the cost of childcare has skyrocketed. There is a clear lack of access to affordable, high-quality childcare. That’s why DeFazio has cosponsored legislation to ensure universal, affordable access to childcare for working families across the nation.
K-12 and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
DeFazio has always supported funding for our schools and continues to fight for increased investment in public education. He believes public school decisions should be left to local schools because they know more about the individual needs of their students than the federal government.
DeFazio has long advocated fixing the Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act, commonly referred to as No Child Left Behind. When the federal government imposes mandates on local schools, then the federal government should follow through on promised funding to fulfill those mandates. That’s why DeFazio voted for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which returned power over standardized testing and education plans back to the states, and replaced counterproductive accountability systems with commonsense standards. The ESSA also protected funding for low-income schools and ensured that minority and disadvantaged students were accounted for in measuring student success.
DeFazio has also championed federal funding for school construction and modernization. He is a champion of the Rebuild America’s Schools Act – legislation that would provide robust investment to rebuild and modernize our nation’s crumbling school infrastructure. He supports the inclusion of these funds as part of job creation legislation.
In addition, DeFazio has long advocated for providing robust funding for Title I and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) programs to support Oregon’s highest-need schools and students, including expanding access to special education in public schools. Over the years the federal government has deeply underfunded Title I, and it has never met the promise it made in IDEA to fund 40 percent of the average per pupil expenditure for special education.
DeFazio believes the continued lack of full federal funding for Title I and IDEA is unacceptable and unfair to our public schools, who are already straining from severe budget cuts. Fulfilling the federal government’s funding pledges would go a long way toward freeing up our schools’ budgets so they are able to tackle other important needs, such as enhancing teacher recruitment and pay, reducing class sizes, supporting music and arts classes, and much more. That’s why DeFazio supports legislation to establish a glidepath for Congress to fulfill its promise of fully funding these programs.
Congressman DeFazio is committed to reining in the escalating costs of health care and prescription drugs and ensuring access to affordable, quality health care for all Oregonians and Americans.
The skyrocketing costs of health care in the United States are untenable. In fact, Americans pay more for health care, by far, than any other developed country, yet we have the worst health outcomes compared to these other countries. Nearly 1 in 4 Americans—including insured Americans—skip medicine and medical care because of high costs. Congressman DeFazio believes this is absolutely unacceptable.
The health care system is failing too many people. Too many families are vulnerable to the whims of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, which in DeFazio’s view are more interested in protecting their billions in profits rather than protecting the health care of hard-working Americans, families, and seniors. Seniors are also vulnerable to the same insurance and pharmaceutical industry tactics, and their Medicare coverage continues to be under threat by ideological attacks.
Protecting and Improving the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
The Affordable Care Act dramatically reduced the number of uninsured Oregonians and Americans. Yet ever since its passage, critics have attempted to repeal the ACA without ever providing a suitable replacement. DeFazio has always said the ACA is not perfect, and that there are many aspects of the law that need to be fixed – but he believes the law should be reformed rather than replaced.
DeFazio strongly believes that repealing the ACA would severely disrupt our country’s health care system and threaten the health and well-being of thousands of Oregonians and millions of Americans across the country. For example, if the ACA were repealed:
Expanding Health Care for All
Rep. DeFazio believes that if we want to increase access to affordable health care, lower insurance premiums, and cut prescription drug costs, we need to explore all available options. While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) dramatically reduced the number of uninsured Americans by the millions, Rep. DeFazio has always maintained that the ACA has been in great need of improvement since day one.
In Rep. DeFazio’s view, the ACA bill that became law simply did do enough to help all Oregonians and Americans. Rep. DeFazio believes the original ACA bill that passed the House in 2009 was far superior, with national exchanges and a government not-for-profit option. If the final ACA bill hadn’t been watered down by the Senate, Rep. DeFazio believes that this government-run, not-for-profit health plan would have paved the way for providing more comprehensive coverage at lower cost.
That is why Rep. DeFazio has consistently introduced his own legislation that would establish a government-run not-for-profit plan, expand health care access, and bring down costs.
Rep. DeFazio has been very vocal about reforming the individual mandate. That’s why soon after the ACA was passed, he proposed a bill that would reform the individual mandate by allowing individuals to opt out of this controversial mandate if they accept the full cost of their own healthcare.
Ending Health Insurance Industry Price-Gouging
In 2020, the House of Representatives unanimously passed Rep. DeFazio’s legislation to promote fair competition and rein in the health insurance industry’s price-gouging of consumers. DeFazio’s legislation would repeal an antiquated antitrust exemption which allows insurance companies to conspire with each other to artificially raise health care costs and set market share to increase their profits.
Today, insurance companies still can—and do—price-gouge consumers and reap massive profits on the backs of seniors, working families, and everyday Americans. In 2019, while an estimated 33 million Americans were uninsured, the health insurance industry raked in $35 billion in profits. That’s obscene.
Rep. DeFazio successfully fought to include similar provisions to end the insurance industry’s antitrust exemption in the House-passed ACA bill, but the language was stripped by the Senate. Since then, Rep. DeFazio has continued fighting to put an end to this exemption and finally rein in the health insurance industry’s price-gouging.
As long as this exemption is still on the books, health insurance companies will continue to drive up prices, limit competition, conspire to underpay doctors and hospitals, and overcharge consumers. DeFazio’s legislation will protect consumers and make sure the health insurance industry finally plays by the same rules as virtually every other industry in America.
Lowering Prescription Drug Costs
Rep. DeFazio strongly opposes pharmaceutical companies’ price-gouging of prescription drugs, and throughout his time in Congress he has fought to stop Big Pharma’s price-gouging of Oregonians and Americans.
Skyrocketing prescription drug costs continue to prevent many Oregonians from having the health and financial security they deserve. Despite the fact that billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are spent every year on the development and distribution of prescription drugs, Americans pay more out-of-pocket for prescription drugs than individuals in any other country.
Rep. DeFazio believes Americans should not pay to develop a drug only to see it put on the shelves in the U.S. at a much higher price than other nations. That’s why Rep. DeFazio has introduced legislation to end price-gouging on prescription drugs developed with taxpayer-funded research. Under this legislation, federal agencies would secure affordable pricing agreements for taxpayer-funded prescription drugs.
Medicare Part D and the ‘Donut Hole’
Rep. DeFazio has also long fought to protect seniors from pharmaceutical companies’ price-gouging under the Medicare Part D program, which 155,000 seniors in Oregon’s 4th congressional district rely on for prescription drug benefits.
Rep. DeFazio opposed the House Majority'’s refusal to allow the federal government to negotiate prices for Medicare Part D when the program was created. This omission has allowed drug companies free rein to charge Medicare recipients higher prices – more than anywhere else in the world – resulting in massive handouts of taxpayer dollars to the pharmaceutical industry.
That’s why Rep. DeFazio has consistently supported legislation to authorize the federal government to negotiate prices for all prescription drugs covered by Medicare Part D.
Rep. DeFazio has also long opposed the Medicare Part D coverage gap, or ‘donut hole’, which for years resulted in massive out-of-pocket drug costs for many seniors in Oregon. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) gradually lowered donut hole costs for seniors and finally closed it in 2020. DeFazio opposes efforts to repeal the ACA, which if repealed would re-open the donut hole and once again subject seniors to massive out-of-pocket drug costs.
Protecting Medicare
As a trained gerontologist, Rep. DeFazio has devoted his career to protecting programs and benefits vital to seniors. Throughout his time in Congress, DeFazio has successfully opposed efforts to privatize Medicare, reduce benefits for seniors, and cut Medicare funding.
Medicare was created because many seniors could not afford private health insurance. Health care costs were driving seniors and families into financial ruin, often forcing them into poverty.
Rep. DeFazio is opposed to any plan that brings those days back for current or future retirees, and he believes balancing the budget on the backs of seniors and individuals with most need by cutting Medicare is irresponsible and cruel.
Improving Access to Care for Medicare Recipients
Because of an old Medicare reimbursement formula, Oregon used to be one of over a dozen states where doctors and hospitals received Medicare reimbursements at rates far below the national average, despite delivering better health outcomes. Oregon doctors were increasingly unable to take new Medicare patients because reimbursement rates were so low that they lost money on every patient.
With the leadership of Congressman DeFazio, Congress finally fixed the Medicare geographic disparities formula after decades of trying. Thanks to Congressman DeFazio’s efforts, an agreement was reached to fix the outdated formula and provide a path forward for the future. Because of this effort, Oregon doctors and hospitals received immediate relief for their unfairly low Medicare reimbursement rates, resulting in improved access to heath care for seniors in Southwest Oregon.
fter more than 10 years since the financial crisis and the $700 billion bailout of wealthy financial institutions, which DeFazio proudly voted against, Wall Street is thriving, wages for average Americans are flat, and income inequality in this country is soaring. Add to that the United States’ failed trade policies―which have helped outsource millions of good-paying Americans jobs―and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which provided massive tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy while exploding our national debt, and the last decade has been immensely frustrating and painful for working families.
DeFazio has continually fought for policies that benefit working families and that will build a robust and inclusive middle class. He has continually fought for investment in U.S. infrastructure, reform of our failed trade policies, fix a rigged tax code, and reform of Wall Street.
Investing in Our Infrastructure
As Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, DeFazio introduced his Moving Forward framework to invest $760 billion over five years in the nation’s roads, bridges, transit systems, railways, airports, ports, inland waterways, wastewater and drinking water systems, brownfields, and broadband. This framework is an opportunity to get our existing infrastructure working again and fund new transformative projects that will create an estimated 10 million good-paying jobs, while reducing carbon pollution, dramatically improving safety, and spurring economic activity.
Our country has changed dramatically since the 1950s, yet people and goods are now literally stuck trying to move on transportation networks first developed nearly 70 years ago. It’s past time for transformational investments to make our infrastructure smarter, safer, and resilient to climate change, or else we will keep throwing money at an antiquated system that is only holding us and our economy back.
Fighting Failed Trade Policies
​Congressman DeFazio has been a leader in fighting "free" trade agreements that have led to massive job loss, the withering of the U.S. manufacturing base, soaring trade deficits, and the erosion of U.S. sovereignty, among other problems. He opposed the creation of the World Trade Organization, has voted against every free trade agreement, was a lead opponent of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), has a long history of standing up to Chinese trade abuses, fought against President Obama’s disastrous Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and worked to improve the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA).
As someone who has spent their entire career fighting on behalf of the American worker, Congressman DeFazio knows Congress can and must do more to address the very real frustrations of Americans whose lives have been ruined by trade policies that put corporate profits over working people. He will always do everything he can to ensure that the federal government creates a more level playing field for American workers.
Fixing a Rigged Tax Code
Our nation was long overdue for comprehensive tax reform. Unfortunately, we took a massive step backwards when President Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress rammed through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which was a completely partisan bill.
The TCJA was a huge handout to wealthiest Americans and rich corporations. Despite claims that the corporate tax rate cut would lead to huge job growth and massive investment in research and development, the jobs haven’t materialized, R&D has not spiked, and, instead, corporations have spent more than $1.5 trillion on stock buybacks and dividends since the law was enacted.
Congressman DeFazio has and will continue to do everything in his power to advocate for common-sense tax reform that better supports working Americans.
Ensuring the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share
Each year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) leaves hundreds of billions of dollars in owed tax liabilities on the table. The tax gap—the difference between tax liabilities owed to the IRS and those liabilities that are actually collected—is estimated to be more than $600 billion annually, with the majority of underpayment coming from the wealthy. Unfortunately, the average U.S. household is paying an annual surtax of more than $3,000 to subsidize taxpayers who aren’t paying all that they owe.
That’s why Congressman DeFazio has introduced legislation that will give the IRS the resources it needs to ensure they are collecting taxes owed by the wealthy and rich corporations.
His legislation is designed to promote a fairer U.S. tax system and invest more in policies that will better support working families.
Congressman DeFazio has also previously introduced legislation to discourage multinational corporations from moving abroad by taxing corporate profits on a per-country basis. Republicans promised that their tax plan would bring jobs home to the U.S., but instead it is encouraging multi-billion-dollar corporations to move jobs and ship profits overseas. This legislation would close the loopholes Republicans left open for wealthy businesses and eliminate incentives luring American jobs and American dollars to other countries.
In addition, DeFazio has advocated for taxing capital gains at more appropriate levels, raising the income tax level on millionaires and billionaires, and closing the carried interest loophole.
Raising the Minimum Wage and Fighting for Workers' Rights
Minimum Wage
The federal minimum wage should be a living wage, which is why Rep. DeFazio has advocated for raising the federal minimum wage. In Oregon’s Fourth Congressional District, over 110,000 people earn minimum wage, and in Oregon the number is more than 300,000.
The evidence from Oregon confirms that moderate increases in the minimum wage help low-wage workers, especially former welfare recipients. Economic data shows that the increase in the minimum wage reversed years of declining wages for welfare recipients and other low-wage workers in Oregon, and the decision to raise the minimum wage has not resulted in any significant job losses. In fact, unemployment fell.
Rep. DeFazio cosponsored and voted for Raise the Wage Act which passed the House last July. It would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024 and index the federal minimum wage to the median wage. The legislation would raise wages for more than 40 million American workers.
It is unconscionable that millions of Americans work full-time and live below the poverty level.
Improving Workers Rights
Rep. DeFazio cosponsored and voted for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which passed the House earlier this Congress. This bill would establish penalties on corporations that violate workers’ rights; strengthen workers’ right to strike for basic workplace improvements, including higher wages and better working conditions; allow unions to negotiate agreements with employers that allow unions to collect fair-share fees that cover the costs of representation; and would streamline the National Labor Relation Board’s (NLRB) procedures to secure worker freedom and effectively prevent violations.
Preserving Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers
Last year, the Trump administration’s Department of Agriculture suddenly announced the closure or alteration of all 25 Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers, including 3 in Oregon, without the consultation, notification, or approval of Congress. CCCs are unique and incredibly successful facilities that operate under the Job Corps program with a mandate to help conserve and develop public resources and to respond to natural disasters. The program also helps train thousands of at-risk youth from low-income and rural communities, providing them with cutting-edge vocational training and pathways out of poverty.
In response, Rep. DeFazio authored a strongly bipartisan amendment to prevent the Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center (CCC) program closures. He also helped lead a bipartisan, bicameral letter to the Trump administration urging them to abandon this misguided plan.
As a result of these efforts, the Trump administration reversed course and has been working to improve the Job Corps CCC program.
DeFazio has long advocated for constraint on using our Armed Forces. He is a recognized expert on Congress' constitutional prerogative to declare war and has fought for fiscal responsibility and accountability at the Pentagon so that scare funds can be better spent on the basic needs of our troops, obligations to veterans of past wars, and other domestic priorities.
Taking Back Congress' War Powers
DeFazio is a recognized expert and public watchdog of Congress' constitutional prerogative to declare war. Ultimately, Congress — not the President — has the authority to declare war, as granted by the Constitution. Unfortunately, Congress’s constitutional war powers have steadily eroded over the last five decades.
In DeFazio’s view, despite passage of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 — an attempt by Congress to curb the presidential overreach that occurred during the Vietnam War — it is clear the final legislation was flawed and did not effectively constrain the Executive Branch from sending unauthorized forces into hostilities. Since then, presidents of both parties have continued to unlawfully exert sole authority to commit U.S. forces to armed conflict overseas.
Throughout his time in Congress, DeFazio has criticized presidents of both parties for violating the war powers that Article I of our Constitution grants to Congress. That’s why he’s consistently introduced his War Powers Amendments, legislation which would reform the flawed War Powers Resolution of 1973 and strengthen Congress’s constitutional war powers authorities.
DeFazio’s reforms would require that any president must first consult with Congress and receive congressional authorization before sending U.S. troops into hostilities, prohibit funds from being used for unauthorized military actions, close loopholes to ensure the Executive Branch cannot continue to perform legal gymnastics to avoid congressional authorization, and prevent future endless wars by requiring a sunset clause and exit strategy for any Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF). DeFazio’s legislation would provide the President an exception in the case of an immediate threat to the United States, its troops, or its citizens overseas.
DeFazio believes it’s beyond time for Congress to comprehensively overhaul the legislation which has enabled our nation’s endless wars. He strongly believes the American people deserve to know the full scope of any potential conflict — including an exit strategy — before the U.S. even considers putting our troops in harm’s way in another military campaign in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world.
Stopping Our Endless Wars
Along with his War Powers Amendments, DeFazio has consistently fought against efforts by presidents of both parties to recklessly continue our endless wars and start new ones.
DeFazio has a long and consistent record opposing the war in Iraq. He voted against the original authorization for the war in October 2002 after rejecting the Bush Administration's bogus arguments about weapons of mass destruction and ties to al-Qaeda, which were based on phony intelligence. DeFazio introduced legislation in February 2003 to repeal the congressional authorization of the Iraq war before it started. Since then, DeFazio has consistently supported repeal of the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) in Iraq, which successive administrations of both parties have attempted to use to illegally justify U.S. involvement in unauthorized military conflicts.
DeFazio has been an outspoken critic of the war in Afghanistan. He adamantly opposed the Obama Administration’s escalation of the war and has repeatedly voted in Congress to bring a responsible end to the open-ended conflict. DeFazio has called on the Bush, Obama, and Trump Administrations to provide a clear exit strategy.
For years, DeFazio has supported repeal of the 2001 AUMF, an outdated authorization that presidents have continuously used well beyond its original intent to justify unauthorized military force throughout the world and continue today’s endless wars.
DeFazio has also consistently opposed unauthorized, unilateral military actions by the Executive branch in countries around the world, including Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and more.
Defense Budget Watchdog
Throughout his time in Congress, DeFazio has been one of the most outspoken members of Congress on Pentagon waste, and he has strongly opposed massive spending increases to an already bloated Pentagon budget. For years, Congress has continued to increase the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) budget despite overwhelming evidence of its waste and abuse of taxpayer money.
While DeFazio believes DOD should have the funds it needs to protect our nation and provide well-deserved pay raises and benefits to our troops and veterans, DeFazio opposes the bloated defense spending that grants massive windfalls to defense contractors and provides incentives to recklessly continue our nation’s unauthorized endless wars, make America act as the “world’s policeman,” and increasingly put our troops in harm’s way.
Since the year 2000, the Department of Defense (DOD) has spent over $13 trillion of taxpayer funds – making it the largest and most expensive department in the federal government. Yet unlike every other federal agency, the DOD has yet to pass a financial audit. To date, the DOD has spectacularly failed full financial audits, which have highlighted numerous examples of waste and abuse of taxpayer money.
DeFazio believes American taxpayers deserve to know where their money is going. He thinks it’s ridiculous to continue providing the DOD with massive spending increases – totaling well over $700 billion each year – when the Pentagon cannot even account for how it spends taxpayer money.
That’s why DeFazio has authored and supported legislation to require every agency within the DOD to finally pass a full financial audit.
DeFazio has also consistently opposed the Pentagon’s Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account, a fiscally irresponsible fund that is not counted in the budget, recklessly adds to our mounting national debt, and has no congressional oversight. DeFazio strongly believes OCO is nothing more than a Pentagon slush fund that gives a blank check to fund endless wars that Congress hasn’t authorized.
The bottom line is that fiscal responsibility and accountability at the Pentagon would allow for funds to be better spent supporting the needs of our troops, meeting our obligations to veterans, and ensuring our legitimate defense needs are prioritized.
Opposing Government Surveillance
DeFazio has a long history of supporting Americans’ right to privacy against government infringement. In 2001, DeFazio was one of only 66 House Members to oppose the USA PATRIOT Act, which he feared gave the federal government too much unchecked power over the rights of law-abiding citizens and lacked effective oversight tools for Congress. Unfortunately, revelations of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) pervasive spying on Americans in subsequent years confirmed DeFazio’s fears.
DeFazio has consistently opposed reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act and related mass surveillance programs – which he believes are unconstitutional – unless and until significant reforms are made to protect the constitutional privacy rights of U.S. citizens. For years, DeFazio has urged congressional leadership under both parties to take up meaningful reform of these government spying programs and allow for sincere, robust debate on how to restore Americans’ constitutional rights to privacy while also protecting our nation’s security.
DeFazio does not believe that obtaining the phone and data records of millions upon millions of Americans without a warrant is relevant to a terrorism investigation. As he’s always said, while we must ensure that law enforcement officials have the tools they need to assess, detect, and prevent future terrorist attacks, he doesn’t believe we have to shred the Constitution and Bill of Rights in order to fight terrorism.
Human Rights and Diplomacy
As a long-time member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, Congressman DeFazio has been a strong voice in support of human rights around the world. DeFazio strongly supports diplomacy and believes the United States should explore every conceivable alternative to resolving our differences with foreign nations before engaging in armed conflict.
DeFazio is a vocal critic of the use of torture and supports the permanent closure of the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This unnecessary prison – estimated to be the most expensive in the world – costs approximately $540 million in taxpayer money each year to house roughly 40 prisoners and has been used as a top recruiting tool by terrorists around the world. DeFazio believes Guantanamo contradicts American values, undermines U.S. diplomatic and military missions, strains our relationship with key allies, and puts American troops and citizens at risk of retaliation.
Congressman DeFazio is committed to the responsible management of our nation's natural resources. DeFazio has worked tirelessly for the economic security and sustainability of rural communities in Oregon, working across the aisle in support of common-sense solutions to promote forest health and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. An avid outdoorsman, DeFazio has been successful in protecting some of Oregon’s most unique natural and ecologically diverse treasures and several of his conservation bills have become law. DeFazio knows that investing in proper forest management that provides good jobs in rural communities and permanently protecting old growth, salmon habit, and our natural wonders are not and should not be mutually exclusive.
Protecting Natural Treasures for Generations to Come
DeFazio is a long-time champion of protecting Oregon’s most unique and spectacular places for the enjoyment of current and future generations.  Over his time in Congress, he has helped protect hundreds of thousands of acres in the state of Oregon.
His latest successes came in 2019, when three of DeFazio’s bills were included in one of the most bipartisan comprehensive public lands protection bills in the last decade were signed into law. These bills protect some of the most beautiful, pristine, and ecologically diverse areas in Oregon. These areas include: 30,500 acres of Devil’s Staircase, a remote, unspoiled area in the Coast Range, segments of the Chetco River, which provides clean drinking water to thousands of citizens in Southwest Oregon and contains critical salmon habitat; and 100,000 acres of the Steamboat Creek Watershed of Umpqua National Forest vital to salmon and steelhead survival.
One of his proudest achievements is expanding the Oregon Caves National Monument. The expansion, which was proposed and supported by NPS more than 75 years ago, ensures that the caves and surrounding watershed are adequately protected from water contamination and pollution from grazing. Management by the Park Service also emphasizes wildfire prevention and forest restoration. 
DeFazio’s leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives was also crucial to securing protections for Mt. Hood, the Cascade-Siskiyous, Elk River, and the Copper Salmon area. Working across the aisle, DeFazio joined with Rep. Greg Walden to enact the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area.
DeFazio’s conservation priorities extend outside of Oregon’s borders. Before he became Chair of the Transportation Committee, he was Ranking Member on the House Natural Resources Committee. While there, one of his focuses was mining reform. He authored a bill to update the 1872 mining law to ensure mining companies paid their fair share of royalties when mining on public lands and made sure those companies, not taxpayers, paid clean-up costs.
DeFazio is a long-time opponent of the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay Watershed, which would be the largest open pit mine in the North America. As Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair, he held two investigative hearings as to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of the mine. His work was noticed: In August 2020, President Trump ended his support of the mine, and killed its approval.
Investing in Rural Communities
Congressman DeFazio knows our forests have been mismanaged for decades, and that our district has some of the most productive public timberlands in the entire world. DeFazio’s work in Congress is focused on policies that seek a middle ground, common sense approach to national forest policy. He believes that having a healthy timber industry, good paying jobs in rural communities, and permanent protection for our old growth, wildlife habitat and support for our recreation industry are not and should not be mutually exclusive.
Oregon has been experiencing increasingly destructive wildland fire seasons. The devastating 2020 fire season is one of the worst in Oregon’s Fourth Congressional District. The Holiday Farm, Archie Creek, and Slater fires destroyed hundreds of residences and dozens of businesses. Communities suffered for days with air quality that was the worst in the world. The loss of harvestable timber and wildlife habitat was immense. Sadly, the fires were also deadly.
DeFazio’s work in Congress is focused on quickly suppressing wildfires when they occur and supporting policies that prevent them from starting in the first place. There are many reasons forest fires are burning more severely than in the past, and poor forest management and climate change are main causes. Mismanagement of our forests has left them unnaturally dense, dying from disease and drought, and prone to catastrophic fire. This is only exacerbated by climate change, as it creates warmer, drier conditions, increases drought and lengthens wildfire seasons.
Increased Funding for Forest Management
DeFazio knows that we need the resources and investments to properly manage our public lands. The United States Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are tasked with managing and protecting millions of acres in the District. There are laws on the books that provide tools to improve forest health – but the agencies lack the funding to use those tools successfully.
DeFazio strongly supports increased budgets for land management agencies. More funding is needed to improve forest health, such as performing fuel reduction treatments, and completing forest projects, repairing forest roads, and quickly suppressing wildfires when they occur, by focusing on robust initial attack. More resources and personnel are needed to successfully execute their multi-use management missions.
In 2017 the USFS reported there were over 1.8 million acres of treatment projects in Oregon that were “shovel ready,” meaning all environmental analysis has been completed. Yet acres remain fire-prone because the USFS doesn’t have the funds to complete them. Instead of harvesting timber and reducing the risk of fire, those acres remain a spark away from becoming devastating forest fires.
To help expedite forest health projects, in 2015, DeFazio led the House in passage of the bipartisan Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA). HFRA expedites the review process for hazardous fuel reduction and forest restoration projects on federal forest lands, with an emphasis on federal lands close to at-risk communities or significant infrastructure. Hazardous fuel reduction projects are intended to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire by removing or modifying the availability of vegetation (trees, grass, etc.) that fuel wildfires. HFRA is authorized to treat 20 million acres at high risk of wildfire. HFRA has never come close to being fully funded, leaving communities at risk. Every year DeFazio requests increased funding for this and other fire protection programs.
Funding for O&C Counties
There are 18 Western Oregon counties that contain O&C lands governed by the statutorily-unique O&C Grants Lands Act of 1937 (O&C Act) – no other state contains O&C lands. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the O&C Act uses a timber harvest payment formula that provides increased funding to O&C counties. Every year DeFazio leads the Oregon delegation in urging robust funding of the BLM O&C Grant Lands account. DeFazio has been successful over the years securing funding. In Fiscal Year 2020, he was successful in increasing funding by approximately twelve percent, allowing BLM to meet its Western Oregon timber targets.
Secure Rural Schools Act
DeFazio consistently works to help Oregon’s rural, timber dependent counties. One of DeFazio’s proudest accomplishments is his work in 2000 to break the legislative gridlock surrounding to passage of the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) Act. SRS consistently provides timber-dependent counties with more funds that would be paid using the old county-payment formula. SRS is a lifeline to Oregon counties, providing tens of millions of dollars for Oregon schools, roads, and public safety. Because of DeFazio’s work, Oregon counties receive more SRS payments than any other state. The SRS program has come close to expiring several times since its implementation. Working across the aisle, DeFazio has successfully led efforts to ensure it continues.
Banning Raw Log Exports
Early in his congressional career DeFazio proposed legislation to ban the export of raw logs from federal lands, ensuring the logs are milled in the U.S. The bill remains law of the land, saving jobs that would have gone overseas.
Americans and businesses around the country depend on a reliable Postal Service. This is especially true for rural areas and seniors, who count on six-day service and door-to-door service for their mail and prescription medications.
Congressman DeFazio has long history of pushing back against proposed cuts to the USPS and working to improve this essential service.
In 2006, Congress passed a law to require the USPS to prefund 75 years worth of retiree health benefits in the span of ten years—a cost of approximately $110 billion. Although the money is intended to be set aside for future Post Office retirees, the funds are instead being diverted to help pay down the national debt.
No other private enterprise or federal agency is required to prefund retiree health benefits on a comparable timetable. The mandate is responsible for all of USPS’s financial losses since 2013.
Congressman DeFazio introduced the USPS Fairness Act to provide the United States Postal Service (USPS) with much-needed financial relief by eliminating the pre-funding mandate. By eliminating the prefunding mandate, the USPS would instead be able to invest in its operations while maintaining its annual commitment to current and future retirees, like every other federal agency.
On February 5, 2020, the House of Representatives decisively passed the USPS Fairness Act by a vote of 309 to 106, with 87 Republicans voting in favor of the bill.
While the legislation is still awaiting action in the Republican-controlled Senate, the Senate bill is cosponsored by 4 Republicans and 4 Democrats.
For years, Congress has needed to enact comprehensive postal reform, and for years Congress has failed. Congressman DeFazio, however, has continued to push for comprehensive reform that will sustain the postal service, advert unnecessary closures that hurt rural communities, and save American jobs.
In 2013, Congressman DeFazio introduced HR 630, Postal Service Protection Act. This bipartisan legislation would:
This bill would also create an entrepreneurial commission composed of successful business innovators, representatives of labor, and small businesses that would provide recommendations on how the Postal Service can generate new revenue to succeed in the 21st century.
As a trained gerontologist and member of the Expand Social Security Caucus, DeFazio has devoted his career to protecting and expanding programs and benefits vital to seniors. It has always been and continues to be his highest priority to protect Social Security.
Social Security continues to provide the majority of income for most seniors in the United States, and it provides financial security to millions of disabled workers and children. While the average benefit is slightly more than $18,000 a year, Social Security continues to lift millions of seniors, children, and disabled individuals out of poverty.
Congressman DeFazio has consistently supported efforts to protect and expand Social Security benefits for seniors and restore the long-term solvency of the program. DeFazio has long opposed privatizing Social Security, which could divert Social Security revenues to risky Wall Street accounts, and he has consistently opposed efforts to cut Social Security. DeFazio believes we have an unsustainable national debt that must be dealt with, but he will not stand for balancing the budget on the backs of seniors. He is also opposed to raising the retirement age or reducing benefits.
The Social Security Trust Fund has paid every benefit check that has gone out, and projections estimate it will continue to pay 100 percent of benefits through 2034 if no action is taken. Under current law, if the Social Security trust fund runs short, it will only pay 75 percent of current benefits. Thus, if Congress does nothing to address a future shortfall, the program will automatically impose benefit cuts.
DeFazio has a common-sense and fiscally responsible plan to protect Social Security and expand its benefits. He has introduced legislation, the Social Security Expansion Act, to help seniors and other beneficiaries by expanding benefits, reforming the current cost-of-living formula, and ensuring that full Social Security benefits will be available to future generations.
DeFazio's plan would preserve the Social Security Trust Fund by closing a tax loophole so the wealthiest 1.8 percent of Americans finally pay the same rate into Social Security as everyone else. This would ensure the solvency of Social Security for over 50 years while protecting average American workers – or 98.2 percent of Americans – from any tax increases.
The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is calculated using an outdated formula based on the cost of consumer products like laptop computers and iPads, as opposed to consumer goods most often purchased by seniors like prescription drugs, housing, food, and other basics. Skyrocketing health care costs are continuing to rise faster than the rate of inflation, and seniors suffer from those increased costs more than younger Americans. In DeFazio’s view, using such a poorly designed COLA formula defies all common sense.
To address this problem in the short-term, DeFazio would change the COLA formula to one that truly matches increases in seniors’ actual expenses.
Despite the success of Social Security, it is clear that too many seniors and other beneficiaries are still struggling to get by. DeFazio believes that we must expand Social Security so that everyone in America can retire with the respect that they have earned and deserve after a lifetime of hard work. That’s why in addition to reforming the COLA formula, DeFazio’s plan would expand Social Security Benefits across-the-board. As a result, Social Security retirement benefits for low-income workers would go up by about $1,300 a year.
DeFazio’s plan would also help low-income workers stay out of poverty by updating the outdated Special Minimum Benefit formula so that more individuals can qualify. In addition, DeFazio’s plan would restore student benefits up to age 22 for children of disabled or deceased workers. Restoring this program, which was eliminated in 1983, would help educate children of deceased or disabled parents who are full-time students in a college or vocational school.
Ensuring the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share
Each year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) leaves hundreds of billions of dollars in owed tax liabilities on the table. The tax gap—the difference between tax liabilities owed to the IRS and those liabilities that are actually collected—is estimated to be more than $600 billion annually, with the majority of underpayment coming from the wealthy. Unfortunately, the average U.S. household is paying an annual surtax of more than $3,000 to subsidize taxpayers who aren’t paying all that they owe.
That’s why Congressman DeFazio has introduced legislation that will give the IRS the resources it needs to ensure they are collecting taxes owed by the wealthy and rich corporations. This legislation would promote a fairer tax system and collect revenue that is legitimately owed that could go towards deficit reduction and invest in policies that will better support working families.
Throughout his time in Congress, DeFazio has been one of the most outspoken members of Congress on Pentagon waste and abuse of taxpayer funding. While DeFazio believes DOD should have the funds it needs to protect our nation and provide well-deserved pay raises and benefits to our troops and veterans, DeFazio opposes our current bloated defense spending
Since the year 2000, the Department of Defense (DOD) has spent over $13 trillion of taxpayer funds—making it the largest and most expensive department in the federal government. Yet unlike every other federal agency, the DOD has yet to pass a financial audit. To date, the DOD has spectacularly failed full financial audits, which have highlighted numerous examples of waste and abuse of taxpayer money.
DeFazio believes American taxpayers deserve to know where their money is going. That’s why DeFazio has authored and supported legislation to require every agency within the DOD to finally pass a full financial audit.
The bottom line is that fiscal responsibility and accountability at the Pentagon would allow for funds to be better spent supporting the needs of our troops, meeting our obligations to veterans, and ensuring our legitimate defense needs are prioritized.
Eliminating Waste and Unnecessary Programs
There is no reason to spend billions of dollars per year on antiquated Cold War-era weapons systems the Pentagon does not want. DeFazio has routinely supported efforts to eliminate wasteful and unnecessary programs while ensuring that the U.S. military has what it needs to defend our country from its adversaries.
The Federal Reserve (Fed) was created in 1912 to safeguard our financial system, protect consumers and oversee the regulation of banks. Over the last 25 years, however, the Fed has seemed more concerned with protecting Wall Street and its own secrecy rather than the American public and the nation’s financial well-being. Throughout DeFazio's time in Congress, he has fought for an independent audit of the Fed to ensure transparency, and he was an early cosponsor of former Rep. Ron Paul’s Federal Reserve Transparency Act. He has cosponsored other bills to rein in the Fed.
In 2008, Wall Street gambled with our economy, lost big, and then asked taxpayers for a bailout—which DeFazio voted against. Today, the CEOs in charge of the same banks that nearly destroyed the economy remain on the Fed’s Board of Directors and are charged with regulating their own industry. This outrageous conflict of interest jeopardizes the health of our financial system. DeFazio has introduced legislation to eliminate this gross conflict of interest and prohibit banks that receive money from the Fed from stacking these boards with their own employees. He will continue to fight to make the Fed transparent and accountable to the American people.
Congressman DeFazio has also previously introduced legislation to discourage multinational corporations from moving abroad by taxing corporate profits on a per-country basis. Republicans promised that their tax plan would bring jobs home to the U.S., but instead it is encouraging multi-billion-dollar corporations to move jobs and ship profits overseas. DeFazio’s legislation would close the loopholes Republicans left open for wealthy businesses and eliminate incentives luring American jobs and American dollars to other countries.
Congressman DeFazio has been a leader in fighting "free" trade agreements that have led to massive job loss, the withering of the U.S. manufacturing base, soaring trade deficits, and the erosion of U.S. sovereignty, among other problems. He has voted against every free trade agreement, was a lead opponent of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), fought against President Obama’s disastrous Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), worked to improve the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA).
As someone who has spent their entire career fighting on behalf of the American worker, Congressman DeFazio knows Congress can and must do more to address the very real frustrations of Americans whose lives have been devastated by trade policies that put corporate profits over working people. He will always fight to ensure there is a level playing field for American workers.
World Trade Organization (WTO)
Congressman DeFazio was a strong opponent of the WTO and opposed the U.S. joining the WTO.
Since its establishment in 1995, but even more so since China joined in 2001, the WTO’s ban on Buy American and other domestic procurement preferences, its protections for foreign investors, and its lack of rules against currency manipulations and other forms of unfair trade practices have promoted the outsourcing of American production capacity and decimated well-paying jobs.
Since the WTO’s creation, the U.S. has lost roughly five million manufacturing jobs, sixty thousand U.S. factories have shuttered, and the U.S. goods and services trade deficit has exploded.
That’s why Congressman DeFazio has introduced legislation to withdraw the U.S. from the WTO. Despite House leadership blocking his efforts, Congressman DeFazio is committed to robust debate over the WTO’s impact on U.S. jobs.
NAFTA and USMCA
Congressman DeFazio voted against NAFTA. Economic advisers to President Clinton predicted that if the U.S. passed NAFTA, the U.S. would enjoy trade surpluses between $9-$12 billion and create thousands of new jobs. DeFazio knew that would not happen. The reality was the loss of an estimated one million family-wage jobs in the U.S.
Congressman DeFazio supported President Trump’s promise to deliver a dramatically improved NAFTA or withdraw from the agreement altogether. However, the original version of the USMCA that the Trump administration delivered to Congress was nothing more than a continuation of NAFTA’s same failed policies.
After months of extensive negotiations between House Democrats and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), important improvements were made to the USMCA on a number of issues, including improvements Congressman DeFazio helped secure.
While the USMCA is an improvement from NAFTA, DeFazio voted against the USMCA because the agreement failed working Americans who have been left behind by NAFTA’s failed policies. Americans need a truly transformative deal that will stop the hemorrhaging of U.S. jobs and support American workers while safeguarding the environment and protecting consumers. Despite his opposition, the USMCA is now in effect, and DeFazio will work to sure the terms of the agreement are fully enforced and that any and all flaws are appropriately addressed should the USMCA be renegotiated.
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
DeFazio supported President Trump’s withdrawal from the TTP. If enacted, it would have led to massive U.S. job losses, undermined U.S. sovereignty, and rewarded countries that have lax environmental, food safety, and labor laws. In fact, the ultimate goal of this agreement was to get China to join. An FTA with China would spell the end of our domestic manufacturing sector.
Congressman DeFazio will continue to fight for fair trade policies that benefit American workers, protects consumers and the environment, and increases U.S. GDP.
DeFazio has a long history of standing up to Chinese trade abuses. He ardently opposed China’s admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and fought against granting them most-favored-nation status, which they continually use to file arbitrary complaints against the U.S. when we attempt to enforce our own trade laws.
For years, DeFazio has urged both Democratic and Republican administrations to hold the Chinese government accountable for its abusive and unfair practices, and year after year, Republican and Democratic administrations have shirked their responsibilities. China’s discriminatory trade and industrial policies and U.S. failure to confront these policies have led to millions of U.S. jobs lost, gutted communities across our nation, cost U.S. innovators billions each year, facilitated deplorable human rights conditions in China, and have helped finance China’s massive military build-up.
DeFazio has long pushed for American leaders to effectively stand up to China in order to secure substantive, enforceable, and permanent structural reforms. This includes utilizing the full range of tools at our disposal to negotiate a comprehensive trade deal that goes beyond merely recalibrating the massive trade imbalance with China to create security for American jobs, our public health, and long-term economic prosperity. Any trade deal with China must address the predatory tactics at the heart of our trade issues, including the theft of U.S. intellectual property and trade secrets, the coercion of companies to engage in the transfer of technology, massive Chinese government subsidies to their emerging industries, flooding global markets with cheap imports, and more.
Buy American
DeFazio has worked tirelessly throughout his career to ensure the U.S. maintains robust Buy American standards.
He authored legislation H.R. 3684, to amend the Buy American Act to include services. This legislation prohibits a foreign construction firm from bidding on federally financed projects when that firm's government prohibits foreign firms from competing in its own markets.  The bill was included in the 1987 Omnibus Trade Bill, H.R.4848, which was signed into law on August 23, 1988.
More recently, the House passed Congressman DeFazio’s bill – H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act. DeFazio worked in a bipartisan manner to include strong Buy American provisions, and, as a result, the bill which passed the House includes some of the strongest Buy American provisions ever passed.
Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im)
DeFazio has long fought for a national manufacturing strategy to advance U.S. interests, and fairly compete with China and other countries with lax labor standards, which both Republican and Democratic administrations have shirked their responsibility to do so.
While some have called for elimination of the Export-Import Bank, we must first dramatically reform our failed free trade policies before we can eliminate the Export-Import Bank, which helps to protect American workers from those same failed trade policies.
Early termination of this program would threaten the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers - particularly small and medium-sized manufacturers that support working Americans and their families with good-paying, middle-class jobs. Closure of this bank would send more American jobs overseas as nearly 90 percent of Export-Import Bank transactions directly support U.S. small business.
Since 2014, Oregon’s Fourth Congressional District has received $244 million in total export value from the EXIM.
The Ex-Im Bank operates at no cost to the taxpayer, and since 1992, Ex-IM has generated $9.6 billion in revenues for U.S. taxpayers above what the Bank has received. As the official export credit agency of the United States, the U.S. Export-Import Bank assists in financing U.S. exports from thousands of American companies and helps our exporters compete against sales financed by foreign export credit agencies.
Simply put, until foreign nations – like China – stop subsidizing their exports to the U.S., DeFazio won’t back down on our efforts to boost U.S. exports.
Raw Log Export Ban
Early in his congressional career, when Oregon was suffering from a recession, DeFazio proposed legislation, which was signed into law, to ban the export of raw logs from federal lands. The ban remains in place and has saved thousands of family-wage jobs.
Chapter 19
Included in the original NAFTA, Chapter 19 allows foreign tribunals to overrule U.S. trade protections against heavily subsidized foreign imports. This has hurt a number of U.S. industries, including the softwood lumber industry. Oregon is the largest producer of softwood lumber.
DeFazio has long called for the elimination of this unconstitutional chapter and was disappointed that the Trump administration abandoned its original position to eliminate chapter 19 in the USMCA.
Emergency Trade Deficit Commission Act
DeFazio authored legislation, which became law in 1998, to establish an Emergency Commission to End the Trade Deficit. The law established a panel to examine the failures of U.S. trade policy and suggest policy changes. The Commission split on ideological lines and issued its final report in November 2000.
Since then the trade deficit has swelled to record highs, as U.S. manufacturing has waned. DeFazio reintroduced the legislation and in July of 2010 it passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Mexican Trucks
As the Chair of the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, DeFazio has been the most outspoken member of Congress in opposition to the Administration’s Mexican truck program. DeFazio led multiple successful congressional efforts to block the pilot program across multiple administrations.
Congressman DeFazio is proud to have secured provisions in the USMCA that will better enable the U.S. to safeguard our roads. The deal includes language that allows the United States to restrict domestic long-haul services by Mexican trucks in the event of material harm to U.S. trucking suppliers, operators, and drivers. This restriction provides teeth to protect the U.S. trucking industry from unfair trade practices by Mexican motor carriers, and provides for consideration of impacts on driver wages and working conditions, to avoid a race to the bottom in trucking.
In 2018, Congressman DeFazio was elected by his peers to serve as Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. A member of the Committee since 1987, DeFazio previously served as Chairman or Ranking Member of four of the six subcommittees: Aviation, Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, Highways and Transit, and Water Resources and Environment.
Over his career, DeFazio has established a reputation as a national leader on transportation issues. He believes the United States must invest in a robust, multimodal transportation system if it is to remain in league with competitor nations around the world. Yet the U.S. is seriously lagging behind. According to the Federal Highway Administration over 337,502 bridges—over 50% of all bridges in the U.S.—are not in good condition. Similarly, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) found that “one out of every five miles of highway pavement is in poor condition and our roads have a significant and increasing backlog of rehabilitation needs.” Across the country, trucks are rerouted due to weight restrictions on bridges, and Americans waste time and money on gasoline idling in traffic.
Highways & Transit
MOVING AMERICA FORWARD
In July of 2020, the House of Representatives passed DeFazio’s comprehensive transportation legislation that invests more than $1.5 trillion in our nation’s roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports and harbors, schools, housing, broadband, drinking and wastewater systems, postal service, clean energy sector, health care infrastructure, and more.
DeFazio’s bill moves our country away from decades-old transportation planning models and programs, and is key to creating millions of American jobs, supporting U.S. manufacturing, combatting the climate crisis, and addressing long-standing disparities in communities around the country.
Highlights of the Moving Forward Act for southwest Oregon include:
Stopping Sexual Assault in Transportation (H.R. 5139)
In October of 2020, the House unanimously adopted Chairman DeFazio’s H.R. 5139, the Stop Sexual Assault and Harassment in Transportation Act. The bill would require transportation providers—including passenger airlines, transit agencies, cruise ship operators, taxis and ridesharing companies—to establish formal policies, training, and reporting structures to effectively respond to sexual assault and harassment incidents.
FAST Act (Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, Public Law 114-94)
In the 114th Congress, DeFazio led efforts to increase investment in surface transportation as a lead drafter and negotiator of the FAST Act (Public Law 114-94), a five-year surface transportation reauthorization act that provided $281 billion in guaranteed funding for highways, highway safety, and transit infrastructure, and authorized and made improvements to Amtrak and DOT's hazardous materials safety program.
MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century, Public Law 112-141)
In 2012, as the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, DeFazio helped negotiate a 27-month federal highway and transit spending bill called MAP-21. Under the bill, DeFazio secured $1.1 billion for Oregon's roads, bridges, highways, and transit systems.
DeFazio worked to ensure the formula he negotiated seven years earlier in the previous major transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU, remained in MAP-21. This allowed Oregon to remain a net-beneficiary and receive more dollars to fix its roads, bridges, and highways than it sends to Washington, D.C., through the gas tax.
MAP-21 also contained a temporary extension of county payments for Oregon counties, as well as one year of lower interest rates for college students who take out Stafford student loans; these rates were set to increase from 3.4% to 6.8%.
SAFETEA-LU (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, Public Law 109-59)
In 2005, DeFazio served as the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit where he helped negotiate a five-year federal highway and transit spending bill called SAFETEA-LU. Under the bill DeFazio secured a total of $2.7 billion for Oregon.
Of those funds, DeFazio was able to boost the amount of highway formula funds Oregon received by $510 million over the previous bill for a total of $2.21 billion. He also secured $297.2 million in transit formula funding, and another $200 million to repair Oregon's bridges—$160 million was used for the reconstruction of crumbling bridges along I-5 and $40 million was used for reconstruction of bridges across Oregon.
Ports, Harbors and Waterways
Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund
Oregon’s coastal harbors are heavily used by recreational boaters and commercial fishermen, and are mainstays for communities struggling to maintain their fisheries. Maintaining navigation channels at these ports, and port infrastructure, is vital for the economy of the region and the safety of the boating public.
Without regular removal of sand and silt through dredging, the shallow channels that make up the entrances to ports swiftly deteriorate and become dangerous, even impossible, to navigate. Impassable channels leave coastal communities without the commercial shipping, fishing, recreational boating, and even Coast Guard operations that their economic livelihoods depend upon.
Throughout his tenure, DeFazio has fought successfully to secured federal funds to dredge small ports along Oregon’s south coast.
In March 2020, DeFazio successfully negotiated to include language in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that created a discretionary cap adjustment allowing for the full-utilization of the annual collections to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund in the future. This change would enable the investment of approximately $25 billion over the next decade from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and help ensure the funds collected are used for their intended purpose of dredging federal harbors to their constructed widths and depths.
WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ACT (WRDA)
In July 2020, the House passed DeFazio’s legislation, the Water Resources Development Act of 2020 (WRDA). The bill fulfilled Chairman DeFazio’s longstanding effort to not only fully utilize the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund through the budget cap adjustment included in the CARES Act, but also to tap the nearly $10 billion in already collected fees sitting in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to dredge harbors, repair jetties, and maintain navigation channels. In addition, the bill:
Aviation
Boeing MAX 737 Investigation
In 2019, after two Boeing 737 MAX crashes just months apart killed 346 people, including eight Americans, Chair DeFazio initiated the most comprehensive oversight investigation in the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s history. The Committee held five oversight hearings, reviewed hundreds of thousands of pages of internal documents from Boeing, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and others, and conducted dozens of interviews with Boeing employees, FAA officials and whistleblowers. The findings from this comprehensive investigation led DeFazio to introduce H.R 8408, the Aircraft Certification Reform and Accountability Act, a bipartisan bill to reform the FAA’s aircraft certification process, ensure the safety of U.S.-manufactured aircraft, and address conflicts of interest between manufacturers and their safety regulator.
Rail
DeFazio is well-regarded as an advocate for freight and passenger rail systems and has consistently supported increased funding and investments in passenger rail services. He has also consistently supported increased funding for Amtrak and believes it will never live up to its full potential if it's consistently underfunded. DeFazio’s infrastructure legislation, if enacted, would make historic investments in Amtrak in order to build out a robust, national network, provide more reliable service, and address the massive backlog of maintenance needs.
In Oregon, DeFazio helped secure a $3.6 million grant to improve the on-time performance and reliability of the Amtrak Cascades service. DeFazio also led efforts to provide emergency supplemental funding to Amtrak during the COVID-19 pandemic to preserve passenger rail service in Oregon. As Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, DeFazio invited Eugene’s State Representative Nancy Nathanson to testify on the need for increased Amtrak services and rail improvements to address slipping on-time performance (click to watch Rep. Nathanson’s testimony). Previously, DeFazio has supported grants to renovate the Albany and Eugene train stations and invest in new train sets for the Amtrak Cascades service.
Restoration of the Coos Bay Rail Line
The Coos Bay Rail Line was embargoed by the Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad (CORP), a subsidiary of Fortress/RailAmerica, in September 2007. The embargo resulted in the loss of hundreds of jobs and negatively impacted businesses in Southwest Oregon. Once CORP embargoed the Coos Bay Rail Line, DeFazio worked tirelessly with the Port of Coos Bay, and state, and local shippers to get the line reopened.
In 2008, DeFazio testified before the Surface Transportation Board and requested they approve the Port's application to force the sale of the line to the Port from CORP. In March 2009, DeFazio secured $8 million in federal funds to help the Port buy the rail line.
Later, DeFazio requested the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) award $13.5 million in competitive grant funds to finish repairs on the Coos Bay Rail Line. The DOT fast-tracked the response and obligated the funding to the Port.
In 2011, DeFazio secured another $2.5 million in federal funds for the rehabilitation and repair of the Coos Bay Rail Line. These funds will help the Port of Coos Bay purchase additional railroad ties so trains operating on the line can run at faster speeds.
In 2020, DeFazio secured an additional $9.9 million from the Department of Transportation for repairs to the Rail Line. The 2020 grant marks more than $40 million DeFazio has secured for the Coos Bay Rail Line in the last five years, including a $20 million grant in 2018 and an $11 million grant in 2016.
Congressman DeFazio firmly believes the federal government is obligated to properly care for the men and women who serve in our nation’s Armed Forces. Throughout his time in Congress, he has fought to ensure that the United States makes good on that promise. In recent years Congress has passed long overdue structural changes as well as funding increases for the VA, and Congressman DeFazio has insisted that these changes translate into better service for Oregon veterans.
Part of Congressman DeFazio’s commitment to Oregon veterans is one-on-one assistance with their benefits. Congressman DeFazio has two full-time staff members in his Eugene district office devoted to helping veterans navigate the VA system. He urges veterans to call his Eugene office at 1-800-944-9603 if they need assistance.
Congressman DeFazio served in the United States Air Force Reserve from June 1967 until his honorable discharge with the rank of 2nd Lt. on March 30, 1971.
In 2017, Congressman DeFazio pushed for a VA Central Office investigation into patient safety and mismanagement at the Roseburg and Eugene VA healthcare clinics in response to dozens of messages from RVAHCS employees expressing concerns about working conditions, substandard patient care, and retaliatory management practices. The investigation resulted in the replacement of the entire RVAHCS senior leadership team as well as changes to regional and national protocols that resulted in the improvement of care to veterans across the country.
Earlier in the decade when service cuts were proposed at the Roseburg VA Medical Center, Congressman DeFazio stood up and demanded that no changes be made without the input of local veterans. Congressman DeFazio understands that VA bureaucrats do not always know what is best for Oregon veterans, and has worked to make sure that veterans in Southwest Oregon have a say in the healthcare they receive. 
More recently, he has led efforts to urge the Secretary of the VA and the Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to be better partners in the effort to recruit and retain quality healthcare workers for the Roseburg VA, where staffing shortfalls forced the Roseburg Emergency Department to convert to an Urgent Care facility.
Congressman DeFazio was instrumental in securing $80 million in funding for a new veterans clinic in the Eugene and Springfield area after it became apparent the existing clinic was too small to adequately serve the growing veteran population. The VA Health Center in Eugene opened in January 2016.
Congressman DeFazio also played a key role in securing funding for VA clinics in North Bend and Brookings.  This has helped to ensure that veterans on the Oregon coast are able to access basic medical services that they need without having to travel to Roseburg or Portland. However, this has not solved all of the issues for veterans living outside of urban areas.
That’s why Congressman DeFazio fought tirelessly to give veterans greater flexibility to choose where they receive care. In 2014, Congress passed – with Rep. DeFazio’s support – a major overhaul to allow veterans this flexibility. When it became clear that this change was too bureaucratic and didn’t deliver the appropriate changes, Congressman DeFazio worked across party lines to help secure passage of the VA MISSION Act. This legislation has dramatically changed the way veterans can access care in their communities, while continuing to support the VA’s internal health care system.
Congressman DeFazio will continually be monitoring the VA to ensure its acting in the best interests of all veterans, no matter where they reside.
Congressman DeFazio has been honored to present dozens of World War II veterans in Southwestern Oregon with the Bronze Star medals they earned during their service to this country. All U.S. Army veterans who received either the Combat Infantry Badge (CIB) or Combat Medic Badge (CMB) during the war are eligible for the Bronze Star medal for meritorious combat service.
Many veterans of all eras are not aware that they are eligible for the honors they earned.  Whether it is a campaign medal from Korea, or a Purple Heart earned in Afghanistan, the Congressman’s staff can help veterans or their family members initiate a request as well as help locate the official documents required to prove medal eligibility. Please call Congressman DeFazio’s Eugene office at 541-465-6732 or 1-800-944-9603 for information and/or assistance.
Congressman DeFazio was incredibly proud to vote for the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act to finally deliver benefits to veterans afflicted by Agent Orange. The bill was signed into law last year, and since then, hundreds-of-thousands of veterans have started getting the benefits they deserve.
Tens-of-thousands of veterans suffering from Agent Orange diseases not currently recognized by the VA still need to be able to access these benefits. That’s why Congressman DeFazio is a cosponsor of legislation to add diseases to the VA’s presumptive list and is pushing to include these changes in a year end package.
Unfortunately, too many veterans from the wars in the Middle East are suffering from serious medical complications linked to burn pits. Burn pits were used near American military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan to dispose of waste, chemicals, and trash.
The Congressman has also cosponsored legislation that would ensure veterans who were exposed to burn pits near American military bases and suffer from serious medical complications are eligible to enroll in Priority Group 6.
Working for Disabled Veterans
The last thing that a disabled veteran should be forced to deal with is a bureaucratic battle between the Pentagon and the VA regarding their pay. Congressman DeFazio has cosponsored legislation that would finally allow all disabled veterans to receive both their VA and Department of Defense (DoD) retirement pay.
Currently, veterans who receive DoD retirement pay and less than 50 percent VA Service-connected disability compensation are not eligible for both payments under the concurrent receipt laws. New legislation would allow veterans to receive both types of benefits. It would also eliminate phasing in requirements of concurrent receipt, which stalls veterans from the benefits that they’ve already earned. 
Military Surviving Spouses
Congressman DeFazio cosponsored the Military Surviving Spouses Equity Act, which became law, to ensure veterans who elected to use a portion of their retirement pay for a survivors benefit annuity account, or “Survivor Benefit Plan,” would ensure financial security for their loved ones if they pass away. Before this law even if a veteran elected a Survivor Benefit Plan passes away under certain VA qualifying criteria, current laws disqualify them from receiving the full DoD and VA compensation they have been promised. This is unacceptable. This law ensures that military spouses receive the money set aside by the veteran and the full benefits they were promised by repealing this bureaucratic rule.
Improving Mental Health Benefits
Congressman DeFazio has long fought for improved mental health resources for our nation’s veterans. Over the years, he has supported various legislation to help veterans suffering from conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and traumatic brain injury. He supported the COMBAT PTSD Act which establishes military service in a combat zone as the standard for a presumptive stressor for the incurrence of PTSD and was pleased that the VA adopted similar standards. This lowered the bureaucracy that prevented many veterans from receiving compensation and care for PTSD.
Congressman DeFazio also supports legislation that would extend those same benefits to veterans who have PTSD as a result of military sexual trauma.
For decades, the VA has struggled to seamlessly share veterans’ patient records, placing an unfair burden on our veterans and their families to produce medical records. In order to improve veteran patient care and support, Congressman DeFazio has supported legislation that authorized robust funding to develop and implement the VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization Initiative. Veteran Integrated Service Network (VISN) 20, which oversees the Roseburg VA Healthcare System (RVAHCS), has been selected as the first region to manage deployment of the new EHR system.
Given the more than 78 billion records that the VA must coordinate as part of the EHRM initiative, the VA has said that full implementation will be staggered over the next ten years, in order to integrate every possible efficiency into the system.
Federal budgets are about priorities and tough choices. In the late 1990s, President Clinton and a Republican-led Congress balanced a budget from 1998 to 2001 because they compromised on both spending cuts and increased taxes. If Congress is going to balance the budget ever again, the ideologically driven politics need to give way to reasoned decision and thought. Unfortunately, Republicans continue to promote budgets that cut investments in transportation and education, and shifts massive health care costs onto seniors, while protecting many special interest tax loopholes and subsidies. Congress could balance the budget by making strategic cuts, ending wasteful subsidies, and ensuring that large corporations and the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share of taxes.
Balanced Budget Amendment
In 1995, DeFazio was one of only a few Democrats to vote for a balanced budget amendment. He supported such drastic action because his colleagues were not willing to make tough decisions. While the balanced budget amendment passed in the House, it failed by one vote in the Senate. Had it passed in 1995, we would not be in the fiscal mess we are in today.
DeFazio has introduced his own bipartisan balanced budget amendment over the years. DeFazio's proposal requires any significant military action that is not a congressionally-declared war to be included in the budget rathan than declared emergency spending as in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan. This would force each year's budget to be honestly calculated.
DeFazio continues to support a bipartisan balanced budget amendment offered by Rep. Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia. It is the same bill that passed in 1995. In 2011 the House took a vote on the bill. Unfortunately, Democratic leadership and special interest groups launched a massive campaign to oppose the bill. In the end only 25 Democrats supported the balanced budget amendment and it failed to garner the necessary 2/3rds vote to pass.
Audit the Pentagon
Since 1990, the Department of Defense has spent more than $13 trillion. Despite the fact that the Pentagon is the largest and most expensive department in the federal government, it has never passed a financial audit. In fact, the Pentagon is exempt from a federal law that requires all federal agencies to complete annual audits. DeFazio consistently cosponsors legislation to repeal this policy. During consideration of the 2011 Defense spending bill, DeFazio offered and passed an amendment to end the special exemption, requiring the Pentagon to publicly disclose how it spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars each year.
Audit the Fed
The Federal Reserve (Fed) was created in 1912 to safeguard our financial system, protect consumers and oversee the regulation of banks. Over the last 20 years, however, the Fed has seemed more concerned with protecting its own secrecy and Wall Street than the American public. Throughout DeFazio's time in Congress, he has fought for an independent audit of the Fed to ensure transparency, and he was an early cosponsor of Rep. Ron Paul’s Federal Reserve Transparency Act. He has cosponsored other bills to rein in the Fed.
In 2008, Wall Street gambled with our economy, lost big, and then asked taxpayers for a bailout. Today, the CEOs in charge of the same banks that nearly destroyed the economy remain on the Fed’s Board of Directors and are charged with regulating their own industry. This outrageous conflict of interest jeopardizes the health of our financial system. DeFazio has introduced legislation to eliminate this gross conflict of interest and prohibit banks that receive money from the Fed from stacking these boards with their own employees. He will continue to fight to make the Fed transparent and accountable to the American people.
1993 Budget Act
During the Clinton years, Congressman DeFazio supported a budget plan that eliminated the deficit and balanced the budget by 1999 and again in 2000. During those same years the U.S. actually paid down the debt for the first time since 1969.
Ending Tax Loopholes for Profitable Corporations
Some of America's most profitable companies pay no federal income tax. For example, between 2008 and 2012, General Electric and Verizon paid no federal income tax. Exxon reportedly avoided paying any income taxes on their record $30 billion profits in 2009. Ending tax loopholes for profitable corporations would generate $50 billion a year.
In addition, ending subsidies to big agriculture conglomerates would save more than $20 billion a year.
Eliminating Waste and Unnecessary Programs
There is no reason to spend billions of dollars per year on antiquated Cold War-era weapons systems the Pentagon does not want. The U.S. must also reassess our continued involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and other Cold War commitments to nations such as Germany and Japan.
Dear Oregonian and Interested Parties:
Oregon’s rural communities cannot afford another 20 years of gridlock in our federal forests. Without a new path forward, mills will continue to disappear, forest jobs will be outsourced, counties will be pushed off the budgetary cliff, forest health will continue to decline, and irreplaceable old growth will be one court decision away from liquidation.
During a time when it’s particularly hard to find common ground in public policy, Rep. Greg Walden, Rep. Kurt Schrader, and I have achieved a balanced forest health and jobs plan — in a uniquely Oregon way. After years of hard work and negotiation, we crafted the bipartisan “O&C Trust, Conservation, and Jobs Act” (OCTCJA) and passed our plan on a bipartisan basis out of the U.S. House of Representatives. The plan is now pending in the U.S. Senate.
What does the OCTCJA do?
The OCTCJA includes 2.8 million acres of forestland in Western Oregon. These lands, known as the Oregon and California Railroad Grant Lands (or O&C lands) are statutorily, geographically, and biologically unique. By law, the O&C lands are required to be logged on a sustainable basis for the benefit of 18 Western Oregon counties.
Under the OCTCJA, 55 percent of the 2.8 million acres would be managed for conservation purposes. This acreage would include the last remaining mature and old growth forests, scenic streams and rivers, riparian zones to protect water quality, wilderness, parks, monuments, and other developed recreation areas.
Approximately 45 percent of the 2.8 million acres would be managed for sustainable timber production by a public trust under strict guidelines. This acreage would include young forest stands that have previously been managed.
Revenues generated by the O&C Trust Lands would be used to support basic government services in Western Oregon, including keeping violent criminals in jail, sheriffs on our roads, and more teachers in the classroom. All land would remain in federal ownership and the Trust would be required to pay the U.S. Treasury $10 million per year for the privilege of managing these public lands.
The OCTCJA is a realistic solution for failing rural communities, struggling local economies, and environmental treasures, such ancient forests in Oregon, that could be liquidated by the decision of an unpredictable federal judge.
The O&C Trust, Conservation, and Jobs Act at a glance:
Creates Jobs for Oregonians and Revitalizes Local Economies
-Creates thousands of new private sector jobs in Oregon’s rural communities, according to the Oregon Forests Resources Institute;
-Continues the prohibition on exporting unprocessed logs from Federal lands to make sure Oregon logs are milled here at home, not in China;
-Allows for permanent timber production primarily on lands that have been previously harvested, ensuring a sustainable level of timber and forest products from federal lands to maintain and create jobs in the local timber industry;
-Geographically disperses timber production on the O&C Trust lands and mandates long and short timber rotation ages to meet the needs and capabilities of mills throughout western Oregon.
Brings Financial Stability to Rural Oregon Counties
-Provides forested counties in western Oregon with a sustainable and more predictable level of revenues in perpetuity to support essential county services like law enforcement, healthcare, schools, and transportation; the plan would mean close to $1,000,000,000 for Oregon over the next 10 years;
- Reduces counties’ dependence on uncertain federal support payments in favor of a long-term solution that allows them to return to the tradition of self-reliance that embodies the best traditions of our state.
Protects Oregon Treasures
- Protects 90,000 acres of Oregon forests as wilderness – including expansion of the existing Rogue River wilderness and new wilderness to protect Devil’s Staircase in the Oregon Coast Range;
-Adds 130 miles of Oregon rivers to the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and protects 300,000+ acres as riparian reserves to safeguard our drinking water supplies; the plan also devotes five percent of net Trust revenues to riparian protection on neighboring private lands in Western Oregon.
-Transfer more than 1,200,000 acres of mature and old growth forests from the Bureau of Land Management to the Forest Service and provides the first ever legislative protection for old growth on O&C Lands;
-Maintains federal ownership of the land and details strict management guidelines for Trust lands to ensure sustained yield, to prevent against overcutting, and to protect clean water and terrestrial and aquatic values;
-Limits application of herbicides and requires a public process for the development of an integrated Pest Management Plan.
Oregon has been experiencing increasingly destructive wildland fire seasons. The devastating 2020 fire season is one of the worst in Oregon’s Fourth Congressional District. The Holiday Farm, Archie Creek, and Slater fires destroyed hundreds of residences and dozens of businesses. Sadly, they were also deadly. DeFazio’s work in Congress is focused on suppressing wildfires when they occur and supporting policies that prevent them from starting in the first place.
There are many reasons forest fires are burning more severely than in the past, and poor forest management and climate change are main causes. Mismanagement of our forests has left them unnaturally dense, dying from disease and drought, and prone to catastrophic fire. This is only exacerbated by climate change, as it creates warmer, drier conditions, increases drought and lengthens wildfire seasons.
Standing up for Southwest Oregon:
As Chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, DeFazio has played a leading role in ensuring the full force of the federal government is brought to bear in responding to and recovering from wildfires. After the fires that swept through the state in September 2020, DeFazio personally called the White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and got the state’s emergency declaration approved less than two hours later. While the fires were still smoldering, DeFazio personally toured the damage caused by the Holiday Farm Fire with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Regional Administrator Mike O’Hare and later led Oregon’s congressional delegation in hosting FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor on a statewide tour to meet with local officials and fire victims to help improve and better coordinate the federal response.
DeFazio led efforts to ensure FEMA provided direct assistance to wildfire survivors, helping connect more than 9,000 Oregonians with FEMA’s individual assistance programs to provide temporary housing, cash for emergency needs, and assistance repairing some fire damage to properties. In less than two months, Oregonians received more than $20 million in direct federal assistance. DeFazio also secured federal investments to rebuild roads, public buildings, parks, utility lines, and water supplies after the fires damaged many communities statewide.
Ensuring Federal Support for Wildfire Recovery
DeFazio was a lead author of provisions in the 2018 Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA, P.L. 115-254) to provide additional federal resources to prevent and respond to wildfire disasters. As a result of DeFazio’s work, states that face wildfires will receive assistance both to respond to the fire immediately and, at the same time, qualify for additional investments to reduce the risk of fire damage in the future. In the same law, DeFazio included language to ensure that damaged or destroyed infrastructure is repaired or replaced to withstand future disasters, such as hardening critical infrastructure like powerlines, substations, police and fires stations, and schools. DeFazio also made sure that FEMA could provide greater amounts of financial assistance to individuals impacted by all disasters, including wildfires. This will unfortunately be critical as so many Oregonians rebuild from this year’s catastrophic fires.
More recently, DeFazio’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed his legislation to increase the federal cost share of disaster response in 2020 from 75% to 90%. This could save the State of Oregon and local governments as much as $150 million in responding to the 2020 wildfire season. A vote on the House floor is expected soon on DeFazio’s legislation.
Fire Borrowing
Until September 2019, the USFS had to “fire borrow.” In recent years, the USFS had repeatedly exhausted its fire suppression funding before the fire season ended. Once the USFS had exhausted its budget for fire suppression, it was forced to borrow money from its fire prevention and forest management budget. That meant that the very accounts that were intended for forest management – including hazardous fuels reduction - were raided to fight wildfires.
Working across the aisle, DeFazio led efforts to fix the fire borrowing insanity and helped pass a law that designated wildfires as disasters, just like tornadoes and hurricanes. Now once the USFS has exhausted its fire suppression budget, any additional funding needed would come from the federal emergency disaster relief fund.
Increasing Funding for Forest Management
The United States Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are tasked with managing and protecting millions of acres in the District. There are laws on the books that provide tools to improve forest health – but the agencies lack the funding to use those tools successfully.
DeFazio strongly supports increased budgets for land management agencies. More funding is needed to perform fuel reduction, suppress wildfire, complete forest projects, and personnel to execute their multi-use management missions. For example, in 2017 the Forest Service reported that there are over 1.8 million acres in Oregon of treatment projects that were “shovel ready,” meaning all environmental analysis has been completed. Yet acres remain fire-prone because the USFS doesn’t have the funds to complete them.
In 2015, DeFazio led the House in passage of the bipartisan Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA). HFRA expedites the review process for hazardous fuel reduction and forest restoration projects on federal forest lands, with an emphasis on federal lands close to at-risk communities or significant infrastructure. Hazardous fuel reduction projects are intended to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire by removing or modifying the availability of vegetation (trees, grass, etc.) that fuel wildfires. HFRA has never been fully funded, leaving communities at risk. DeFazio consistently requests higher funding for this and other fire protection programs.
He has also supported the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), or drones, for wildfire suppression. In the 2016 FAA Extension Act, DeFazio inserted a provision that requires the FAA, as well as the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior, to expedite the safe use of drones to support firefighting operations. This provision successfully became law.
Improving Wildfire Resilience in Communities
2020’s devastating wildfire season has shown yet again that wildfires don’t stop burning where public lands end. Whole communities across Oregon were destroyed, just as other western states have experienced in recent years.
DeFazio has been a consistent supporter of improving a community’s ability to withstand wildfires. In 2015, working across the aisle, DeFazio led the House passage of the bipartisan Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA). HFRA expedites the review process for hazardous fuel reduction and forest restoration projects on federal forest lands, with an emphasis on federal lands close to at-risk communities or significant infrastructure. Hazardous fuel reduction projects are intended to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire by removing or modifying the availability of vegetation (trees, grass, etc.) that fuel wildfires. 
HFRA authorized to expedited treatment of up to 20 million acres of hazards fuels. Yet HFRA has never been funded at the level of need, and many fire-prone areas remain at increased risk. DeFazio consistently requests higher funding for this and other fire protection programs.