Senator holds his 21st town hall of the year in Dayville, weighs in on ‘“Signalgate,’ school funding, more

DAYVILLE — The Trump administration and the effects of its policies largely dominated conversation Sunday, April 6, during Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley’s town hall at the Dayville Community Hall.

The event was Merkley’s 21st of the year so far and 597th overall. The town hall in Dayville was slated to be Merkley’s 600th before a change in the U.S. Senate voting schedule forced the cancellation of three other town halls in Central Oregon.

National security, education, the future of forestry jobs and health care were just some of the topics the audience raised in the almost full Dayville Community Hall during the course of the hour-long question-and-answer session.

Grant County Commissioner John Rowell acted as the master of ceremonies, drawing tickets to choose audience members to ask questions.

Problems with policy

The first question posed to Merkley was about the “Signalgate” scandal that saw numerous national high-level security leaders message one another in a group chat on the Signal messaging service about imminent attacks on the Houthis in Yemen. Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of Atlantic Magazine, was added to the group chat, spurring national security concerns.

Expressing a concern for national security, the questioner asked Merkley what could be done.

Merkley responded with his experiences with operational security during the Cold War, calling the scandal “amateur hour.” Merkley said the man at the center of the scandal, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, is unqualified to be in the post he is in.

Merkley also expressed support for Ukraine and its traditional values in opposition to Russia’s values. Merkley mentioned concerns that a waiver in support for Ukraine could embolden further escalation from China toward Taiwan.

Another questioner asked if forestry jobs still were a compelling option given federal cuts. Merkley said yes, emphatically, while noting this is a “bad moment.”

“We will get past this phase…the pendulum will swing back and we’ll have to fill a lot of positions,” he said.

Larry Glaze, the superintendent of Dayville schools, as well as retired Seneca Elementary  teacher Adele Cerney, raised concerns about cuts to school funding. Merkley recalled a time during his youth when his father told him that we are fortunate to have public schools in America.

“That only works when we have reasonable class sizes,” Merkley said.

Merkley said not sustaining our public schools means lost opportunities for the next generation of Americans. It also can lead to a class of elites who have all the opportunities in the world and a class of everyone else, ruining his father’s vision for public schools in America.

“My dad’s vision of ‘here in America you can do anything because we have our public school system’ starts falling apart,” he said.

Glaze said he’d never seen things this chaotic during his 50 years in education and expressed concern over the federal government shutting down its Department of Education — asking what would be done to protect the Title I program, special education, Pell grants and school lunch programs.

Merkley said he would normally tell Glaze the way the law works and not to worry but he can’t do that because the administration is not following protocol for reorganizing agencies. Despite that, Merkley said he thinks Republicans and Democrats in Oregon will be unified in saying “hell no” to removing Title I from schools.

Funding and due process concerns

A grant management specialist with the U.S. Forest Service highlighted the halting of money flowing into rural communities and the effects of little communication with leadership. She said she’s worked with numerous administrations in the past and the tone of the Trump administration is that of a bully.

Merkley responded that he was seeing a lot of bipartisan pressure to make things right.

Audience members also asked about due process, with one questioner expressing concern over deportations that have occurred without due process.

Merkley said a due process goes hand-in-hand with freedom.

“We cannot lose our republic,” he said while emphasizing that rules have to be followed.

A Dayville High School student posed the final question to Merkley, asking about a transgender athlete who won a pair of state titles in the 6A classification after previously competing as a male.

Merkley said the decision about letting transgender athletes compete in sports is left up to the states while highlighting the struggles of trans youth.

“Our transgender youth are on a journey that is the most difficult for our youth,” he said.

Shifting dynamic

Merkley said he’s seen promising signs when asked what Democrats in Washington are doing to push back against developments that are concerning. Merkley stressed that pushing back shouldn’t be simply Democrats against Republicans.

Merkley highlighted his opposition to the appointment of Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Personnel Management. Despite him being relatively unknown, Merkley said he is one of the more dangerous cabinet nominees the administration had put forth.

Merkley pointed to comments Vought made in which he expressed a desire to see government workers experience trauma as the motivation for his opposition.

Merkley said his GOP colleagues are feeling the pressure, and court rulings telling the administration to act legally have had some impact.

The pressure Merkley referenced comes in the form of Elon Musk, head of the federal Department of Government Efficiency, who funded primaries against those who don’t fall in line. Another source of pressure is the fear some of his colleagues in the GOP have for the safety of their families.

“That’s new and it’s not good,” Merkley said.