Linn-Benton Community College hosts a town hall with Senator Ron Wyden

good morning my name is Lisa Avery and I am the proud president of Lind Benton Community College I try not to stand next to anybody this tall for very long so I'm going to keep it super brief and thank you mayor for being here and for moderating well good morning I'm mayor Alice Johnson second of the city of Albany Oregon and it's an honor to serve my community in that capacity but today is not about me it's about Senator Ron White's 1,9 town hall meeting let's let's give a big round of applause to Senator Ron White is 1090th Town Hall thank you thank you thank you how many of you have never been to one of our town meetings lots of newcom this is part of the Pledge that I made to oregonians uh we were choosing our first in the United States senator in more than 30 years I said if I have honor to be chosen I'm going to throw open the doors of government we're going to have an open to everybody town hall meeting in every County every year let's go get every ounce of mental health counseling that students are hoping to get for our kids this fall this has been a priority of mine uh very personal my brother was schizophrenic let's get that you called yes sir go to it my name is Robert I'm from what's your number sir let write it down I'm from Land I've given up the last seven years of my life my career excuse me last seven months of my life my career my mental health my wellbe to expose what's going on at c m landfill what Republic Services is doing to our community here Mr merley has stepped up and embraced this matter and gone to on they releasing explosive amounts of methan from that dump they are dumping leche water out the back of that dum the community pays more for clean water than that company pays to have their water treated with forever chemicals I am wondering sir as we are your constituents here as this is your state what exactly are you going to do to address the issue that c landfill and what repu service is doing to our community and our environment great point a great one to start with I am with Senator Grassley of Ohio the co-chair of The Whistleblower caucus in the Cent sir sir sir I I'd like excuse me me Senator sir you ask the question give the senator an opportunity to answer the question please take your seat and we'll answer your question and I I will tell you sir yours is a good question and and all over the state we're having problems with these uh questions of pollution of Water Systems I was just in primeville for example where I led the effort to improve the water sampling so we will get on your matter right away we've got staff people here so if you would um what we like to do anybody who comes with a particular account and I consider these water matters very serious number one number two one of the best ways to get at them is by working with whistleblowers I appreciate which is sir I I'm you're you're getting a win so let me just finish this up we'll start right now working with you and following it up okay I thank you sir thank you I look forward to it we'll start right now uh Senator W I listened to your interview yesterday on are calling for an investigation of you're talking about the Clarence Thomas inquiry yes sir I am I believe that no one is above the law and that's a foundational Cornerstone of our democracy I don't have a question for you but I just wanted to say that I appreciate your leadership and view on this important issue and I fully support you in your efforts thank you what we're talking about you you guys are like the senate i yield to my good friend who's going to buy me lunch or something that's 146 yes thank you thank you Senator Wen for doing your forums we really appreciate that uh Town Hall calls and all um the question I have is with the illegal aliens that are coming into this country you know by the millions the number varies by who what you hear 8 million to 10 million and they're getting benefits of free Transportation free health they're getting Medicaid how is that going to affect this they they're stepping ahead of the veterans and they're they don't deserve anything in my opinion they don't deserve to be here they should be you know deported what do you feel about deporting them so I am a very strong supporter of legal immigration obviously in a broken system question is what are you going to do or are you going to do nothing recently a bipartisan group of senators led by a very conservative Republican James inhoff of Oklahoma perhaps the most Conservative Republican in the Senate put together a bipartisan reform package a bipartisan package with many restrictions in the areas you just kicked off am I not mistaken that uh that would have allowed up to two million people uh illegal aliens in a year uh the debate about how many and the like was um not wrapped up but the big issues I mean this was supported by the very conservative people the guards on the border their Union who by the way is not real wild about Joe Biden so there were people who felt very strongly about the numbers and the rules who supported the inhoff amendment that was a big deal in my mind because I wanted to be responsive to what people who weren't political and guards on the border were saying by by the way I think at one point I said Langford excuse me I said inhof but I thought I said Langford it is lford James Lanford the tall guys caucus is well represented um yeah with with all due respect to the president um I've just watched with throwing alarm over the last couple weeks as his mental acuity just increasingly becomes called into question uh he he seems to have a firm grasp of of policy which I'm glad to see um I think that votes well for the rest of his his term uh but I have concerns going forward about the implications for democracy um 2025 Beyond um I know that one Senator has already come forward and and called for him to step aside um I just wonder what your bar is for uh for the president going forward uh what I I just have concerns and I'm I'm surprised that it took four or five questions you might not want to clap if you don't like the answer um we decided sir almost 1,00 Town meetings ago I'm almost there that we had to keep these official Town meetings where we are using Congressional staff Congressional employees your employees out of the debate about elections and who's going to get in and out of all rest I understand the enormous interest in exactly the topic you're talking about you serve that every elected official certainly every member of Congress tell you where they stand and what I'm going to do because this is my first of four meetings is making an offer that at the end of the meeting on my way out well I'm happy to um tell you what I think and it is a extremely important issue and I don't want anybody to think that there is some kind of plot or something to not say something quite the opposite I i' be very interested in talking about hear your thoughts we just I I don't want to run the risk of setting a precedent for all the rest of the Town meetings and then suddenly becomes like a party central committee meeting okay great thank you for being here and your patience he is so cute it ought to be illegal he almost came dressed up in a Spider-Man costume but my husband weed it out the door may know okay uh all right so the World War II era Child Care Program it was the the first and only federally administrated administrated Child Care Program for All Families regardless of their income so I believe childcare is an important piece of infrastructure for communities for business owners and for families to truly Thrive here at lynen Benton counties I do know that we are missing about a little over 200 child care spots for children and it has actually just gotten worse last week I was just notified that all of the after school programming that happens at all the Albany schools has actually been closed so we're going to have to figure out something for our my 8-year-old um and it's also quite expensive for example my sweetheart here is about $1,200 a month which is fair you know test okay uh but Child Care is needed for many Working Families uh do you know if there are any future plans to implement Something Like This World War II era Child Care Program if not would you support one well you couldn't be more timely with um you're raising this topic last week on Wednesday the finance committee had a full hearing on child care to take stock of where we are and in fact U Dr Pratt who's here in the valley in specializes in child care was our witness so one of your neighbors was there now let's start with a couple of Basics if you're a democrat in public life you usually don't use the word supply side economics I am a supply Sider on Child Care folks we need more Supply period end of discussion we need increased Supply that's what we were talking about um in terms of where we go from here one of the pieces of legislation I introduced would specifically go for a targeted effort to increase the pay of child care workers I think this is also part of a supply side agenda because if you're thinking about building more child care facilities you want to know am I going to be able to get the workers because right now we got a big shortage so I'm targeting right in with some supply side economics given a break to getting more child care workers one two we have been able to get an expansion of the Child Care Program to the states and that's under the jurisdiction of the finance committee where I'm the chair I'd be happy to have you get involved with us after where we left the meeting I think I can bring more value out of the Child Care Program for the states where we have gotten expansion that's where we're going with the increase in the salaries and I did that specifically because Advocates like yourself said hey we're never going anywhere if we don't get more workers who are qualified and the system hasn't worked for them they say I'm going to make you know more at Target I'm going to make more at Fred Meyer I'm going to make and we want to give him a chance to have career so we'll invite you to get involved with us and those efforts really launched last Wednesday less than a week ago great than hi Peter Greenberg uh two questions one if the first one doesn't count can you discuss the 2025 agenda from the Heritage Foundation would just turn back the clock in terms of core American values I'm stunned that a group that calls themselves conservative wants to expand the state in the way they you know wish to and micromanage you know the federal bureaucracy to try to get a bunch of ideological trophies and uh I think it is a very appropriate issue for citizens to be debating right now I'm going leave it at that this question I'm going to uh speak on behalf of my seven-year-old who's too shy to speak but we appreciate us all four of us getting tickets and the representation you're giving children so thank you for that your your daughter asking her question are you asking it is I'm going to ask is officially not a scandal go ahead okay um she she noticed within the first 15 minutes mom how come any women haven't asked questions and so I said why don't we ask how uh Senator widen is supporting women especially women of color non-binary folks trans folks especially in your line of work um yielding your power as a straight white male uh in your line of work um so that women and other marginalized folks uh can have a voice let me give you a few examples there's a very good program called stem in the schools science technology engineering and math I've been one of the Ring leaders to make sure that women are getting a lot of those opportunities I also feel that one of the biggest issues of our time is Women's Healthcare how old are you sweetheart seven seven well my parent my uh wife and I are older parents but I have a daughter who's 11 a little bit older than you and I always tell her I want you sweetheart named Scarlet about the same height as you you're tall I want you to be able to make your own decisions about what kind of Health Care you want not the government