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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, September 7, 2017 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor MARISSA WILLIAMS Regional Advertising Director MARCY ROSENBERG Circulation Manager JANNA HEIMGARTNER Business Office Manager MIKE JENSEN Production Manager OUR VIEW AP Photo/Jackie Johnston In this 2004 file photo, workers use heavy machinery to remove waste in an area near two dormant nuclear reactors on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Wash. Hanford’s waste spread under secrecy Citadel of Secrets is one way of describing Washington, D.C. The dirty little secret about Washington’s secrets is that we all might be better off with fewer of them. Writing Aug. 27 in The New York Times Magazine, Beverly Gage quotes the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who believed that it is easier to keep secrets when you have fewer of them. The biggest shroud of secrecy in the Pacific Northwest lies over the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Because of its extraordinary moment of creation, during World War II, and its mission — to develop material for the unproven concept of an atomic bomb — Hanford’s very existence was a huge secret in the desert of southeast Washington state. There is link between secrecy and the incompetence it hides. Of our government’s secrecy cult, Gage writes “This secrecy was a useful tool, but it became a crutch too — a way for federal employees to cover up mistakes or to inflate their own importance.” As the dark side of nuclear secrecy, Exhibit A is Chernobyl, the Soviet nuclear power plant, which in 1986 had the most disastrous accident in history. The Chernobyl reactor was an old Russian design, without safety features and deep backup. Its accident created a large disaster zone. Months later, The New York Times Magazine published a devastating gallery of photos from that zone. Like Chernobyl, Hanford’s N-Reactor lacked a backup, steel and concrete containment system. It was subsequently shut down. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hanford ceased manufacturing plutonium. That was also the point when Hanford’s veil of secrecy was lifted. Mark Heater of Hanford’s media relations office confirms that in February 1986, the Department of Energy released 19,000 pages of documents relating to Hanford. In that decade, our region became aware that Hanford was a vast and leaking dump of hazardous nuclear waste. One of those underground waste plumes was headed toward the Columbia River. It would be comforting to say that Hanford is a much more open secret these days. But Anna King cautions otherwise. As the Richland-based correspondent of the Northwest News Network, no journalist is consistently closer to Hanford than King. She says: “I don’t know if the shroud of secrecy has come off Hanford. Their whole mission is to not let out information.” An astounding amount of money has been spent on cleaning up and containing Hanford’s poorly stored waste. It is the drawback of nuclear energy writ large. What does a nation do with the waste? Behind a wall of secrecy, the scientists and technicians who ran Hanford for decades gave us a disastrous answer to that question. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. OTHER VIEWS Richardson’s audit alert hits the bullseye The Bend Bulletin T he Oregon Health Authority has had its share of problems this year, not the least of which was an “audit alert” from Secretary of State Dennis Richardson’s office in May. The alert came as state auditors discovered OHA had fallen behind in checking eligibility for Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) clients. The governor stepped in and gave OHA until the end of August to get the job done, and, on the last day of the month, it did so. It was no easy task. The federal government requires that Medicaid eligibility be redetermined each year. In Oregon, with just shy of 1 million Oregon Health Plan recipients, that’s a task that requires either a fleet of people or a computer system that’s up to snuff. OHA had neither. To make matters worse, beginning in 2013 the federal government allowed the state to skip annual continuing eligibility evaluations for several years. The last waiver expired in June 2016, and the state began doing the required checking, though slowly. The problem came to a head in May with Richardson’s audit alert. At the time, nearly 12 months after the waiver expired, more than 80,000 Oregon Health Plan clients remained to be checked. The job was completed Aug. 31, right on time. The state removed more than 54,000 people from the program. The costs add up. Oregon pays some $430 per Oregon Health Plan client per month, and finding the money to do that has become problematic. The health plan is expensive, and its cost will only grow in the years ahead as federal payments for Medicaid decline. Assuring that everyone who is on the Oregon Health Plan is entitled to be there is critical. And had it not been for Secretary of State Richardson and his audit alert, Oregonians might never have become aware of how far away from being able to make that assurance the OHA really was. The state removed more than 54,000 people from the program. The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. After Trump acts, DACA is now Congress’ problem A rkansas Republican Sen. Tom Sessions said the same Tuesday Cotton, who after the departure when he noted, “If we were to keep of Jeff Sessions has emerged as the Obama Administration’s executive the Senate’s leading immigration hawk, amnesty policy, the likeliest outcome is says he would support the legalization that it would be enjoined (by a court).” of all current DACA recipients — That was important because the attorneys general of several nearly 700,000 of them — if Congress states threatened to sue the Trump would at the same time pass measures administration if the president did not to protect Americans workers from the Byron do away with DACA. Trump’s action, effects of that legalization. York announced by Sessions, makes any DACA, which stands for Deferred Comment such lawsuits beside the point. And Action for Childhood Arrivals, was now, it throws the ball straight into created by President Obama’s unilateral Congress’ court. What will it do about those decision to shield from deportation and grant 700,000 soon-to-be-former DACA recipients? work permits to people who were brought That is where the negotiating comes in. illegally to the United States as children. Will Senate Democrats, not to mention On Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions Republicans who favored the Gang of announced that the Trump administration Eight comprehensive is rescinding DACA, immigration reform bill, effective six months from actually vote for the now. That leaves it up to Congress to decide the RAISE Act — which some next step for the nation’s have already said they so-called Dreamers. oppose — in exchange for “We ought to take legal status for Dreamers? care of them,” Cotton It’s not at all clear. Would said in a recent telephone they agree to extending conversation, noting that E-verify? Also unclear. DACA recipients arrived So far, most of the in this country illegally, Republican lawmakers “through no fault of their who have spoken out about —Tom Cotton, own.” DACA are supporters U.S. Senator, (R.-Ark.) “In any legislative fix, of comprehensive I would like to see them immigration reform — receive a green card,” Cotton said. At the same Sens. Lindsey Graham, Thom Tillis, and Jeff time, he continued, “We ought to recognize Flake, as well as Reps. Mike Coffman and that giving them legal status has two problems. Carlos Curbello. And, of course, Speaker Paul First, it creates a whole new class of people Ryan, who has called on the president not to who will then be eligible for a green card and end DACA, even though Ryan once described citizenship — namely, the extended family the program as “blatantly unconstitutional.” members of those who will receive legal status But the vast majority of Republican who can, through chain migration, get legal lawmakers have not been heard from. Most status themselves.” are united in their belief that President Obama “Second,” Cotton said, “it will encourage overstepped his authority by instituting more illegal immigration.” DACA. They believe the action would not The first problem can be fixed by passing survive court scrutiny. They believe they the RAISE Act, Cotton said — the bill Cotton have to do something to accommodate has sponsored with fellow GOP Sen. David current DACA recipients while not making Perdue that would strictly limit chain migration the overall immigration problem worse. And as well as re-balance current immigration after Trump’s action, it seems unlikely they policy in favor of skilled immigrants. would revive and codify the program without The second problem could be addressed by also enacting some significant reform of the extending E-verify across the country, which immigration system. Cotton called “the best way to reduce more DACA, Cotton said, is “a mess of President illegal immigration.” Obama’s making.” But now it’s up to Cotton has conferred with President Republicans to clean up that mess. “We should Trump and with White House staff on the find a way to give (DACA recipients) legal best way to move beyond DACA. Cotton status,” Cotton concluded, “but we also have said the president’s instincts are that DACA, to mitigate the inevitable consequences of that imposed by Obama with no action from action.” Congress in what many Republicans felt was ■ an unconstitutional overreach, would not have Byron York is chief political correspondent been defensible in court. for The Washington Examiner. “We ought to take care of (Dream- ers... they arrived here) through no fault of their own.” OTHER VIEWS Collaborative has been good for forest, local economy By BRUCE DAUCSAVAGE Ochoco and Malheur Lumber Companies O choco Lumber Company was founded in 1927 to work the vast ponderosa pine forests of the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon. In 1983 Ochoco Lumber owner John Shelk formed Malheur Lumber Company in John Day. Today, Malheur Lumber Company draws our raw product primarily from the Malheur National Forest in Grant and Harney counties. Sourcing raw product for our mills has not always been easy. Tightening timber supplies forced us to consider closing, and we knew that if we wanted to remain in the timber business we would need to do things differently and to work with people with diverse points of view. That’s why Malheur Lumber Company has been a member of the Blue Mountains Forest Partners since its founding in 2006. Our company believed then, and is even more committed now, that collaboration among timber interests, the conservation community, local residents, elected government officials and the Forest Service — which manages about 72 percent of the land base in Grant and Harney counties — was our only option if we wanted to survive into the future. Thankfully these other stakeholders held a similar view, even though our opinions of a “healthy forest” or “responsible forest management” may have differed at the outset. Working together, unemployment numbers in Grant and Harney counties have dropped from 14 percent and 11.7 percent respectively to 7.7 percent and 5.5 percent. Malheur Lumber Ccompany has been able to maintain our operations, increase employ- ment and are moving forward with investments in our facility to more efficiently process raw logs coming from our stewardship projects. We have helped develop and implement a 10-year stewardship contract that represents 86 percent of the private employment — and all existing wood manufacturing infrastructure — within Grant and Harney counties. Ongoing research is telling us that the Malheur National Forest is already more resilient to future wild- fire and the effects of climate change as a result of our restoration work. There are currently 27 collaboratives operating in Oregon to encourage restoration of public lands. The aim is to facilitate compro- mise and consensus. Contrary to the perspec- tive of someone who has never attended a partners meeting (“Forest collaboratives need to welcome all input,” East Oregonian, Aug. 25) in our experience, the partners regularly solicit the views of all stakeholders who seek to productively and respectfully advance forest restoration and community well-being on the Malheur National Forest. That’s the “Oregon way,” and it works. ■ Bruce Daucsavage of Bend is president of Ochoco and Malheur Lumber Companies headquartered in Prineville and John Day.