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STATE BlueMountainEagle.com Oregon legislator suggests dropping voting age to 16 By Paris Achen Oregon Capital Bureau Christine Bynum, 17, can be charged and sentenced as an adult, drive on interstates with adults, work and pay income tax, but she can’t vote. Bynum, daughter of state Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Happy Valley, went to the Capitol on Feb. 18 to urge legis- lators to change that. “If I can be tried as an adult, why can’t I vote like an adult?” said Bynum, who attends La Salle High School in Milwaukie, during a press conference Monday at the Capitol. “I pay income tax like an adult. I drive like an adult. I can be charged and sen- tenced as an adult. Why is something so important such as voting limited to people who are our present and not our future?” State Sen. Shemia Fagan, D-Port- land, has proposed legislation to place a measure on the Oregon ballot in November 2020 to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote. It could make Oregon the first state to open up voting to people younger than 18, Fagan said. The proposal piggybacks on a national movement, Vote 16 USA, which campaigns for lowering the vot- ing age to 16. No states have decreased the voting age to 16, but places such as Takoma Park, Maryland, and Berkeley, Cali- fornia, have allowed 16- and 17-year- olds to participate in certain local elections. Fagan said she sponsored the legis- lation because, while she was canvass- ing for election, she encountered vot- ers who said they wanted to decrease the voting age. That wasn’t long after 17 students died in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day 2018. The shooting sparked a movement by students, who can’t vote, for gun policy reform. “After the horrific shooting, the nation … watched as that generation stood up to the most powerful people in the world to say enough is enough,” Fagan said. In 2017, Oregon legislators passed a law that allowed those at least 16 to pre-register to vote. The law was intended to reinforce information the teens learn in civics classes in Oregon schools. Wednesday, February 27, 2019 A9 Walden questions Trump’s border wall emergency By Jayati Ramakrishnan and Phil Wright EO Media Group U.S. Rep. Greg Walden’s town hall meeting Feb. 18 in Boardman was his first public appearance in the area since being re-elected to Oregon’s Congressional District 2. By noon he was in Pendleton for a speaking appearance with the Pendleton Rotary Club. During the two events he touched on immigration, energy, the government shutdown and more. Wall emergency The Republican congress- man talked about the recent tur- moil in Washington, D.C., as President Donald Trump shut down the government for 35 days over funding for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Walden said he broke with his party on some aspects of the shutdown, saying he felt employees at agen- cies, such as the Forest Service and Department of Agriculture, shouldn’t be suffering over a bor- der security issue. He said he was pleased to see a deal to avoid another shut- down and fund the federal gov- ernment that included money for 55 miles of new border wall but also money for humanitarian aid on the border, more border agents and to help handle the increase in a years-long backlog of asylum seekers. Audience members asked Walden how he would vote if Congress tried to stop Trump in his declaration of a national emergency over the border wall. He said he was against execu- tive overreach and did not like it when President Barack Obama made that kind of end around Congress. “If what Trump is doing exceeds the authority Con- gress has given him, I’ll have a big problem with it,” he told the Rotary audience. The other problem, he pointed out, is the precedent this sets. What happens, Walden asked, when the next president uses executive power to declare an emergency? “I wish he hadn’t done it, quite frankly,” Walden said. EO Media Group/Kathy Aney "Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, speaks about former Port of Morrow Director Gary Neal on Feb. 18 at a town hall in Boardman before giving him an honorary plaque. Still, Walden stopped short of saying for certain he would oppose Trump, and Walden called the Trump administra- tion’s policy of separating chil- dren from their parents at the bor- der “a real mistake,” but said he too supports securing the south- ern border. “We see people coming for a better life, but we also see peo- ple coming across for human trafficking, drug trafficking,” he said. But he said border control had always been a bipartisan issue, and cited the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which authorized about 700 miles of fence along the southern border. He said several Democrats, including Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and then-Con- gresswoman Darlene Hooley, voted for that bill. Walden also said the country needs an immi- gration system that provides for workforce needs and a path to citizenship. Changing climate Walden also talked about his goals for forest management and reducing forest fires in Oregon. An audience member in Boardman, Steve Murray, noted in response to the recently pro- posed Green New Deal, Walden had said Republicans have better ideas on climate change. “But on the Energy and Com- merce Committee, you didn’t hold any hearings on climate change,” said Murray, who had traveled from The Dalles to hear Walden. “The biggest reason we’re having forest fires isn’t forest management — it’s cli- mate change. Something needs to happen.” Walden said he agreed some- thing needed to happen, but said he focused more on expand- ing the energy grid to use more renewable energy. “Climate change is real,” he said, and the question is what to do about it. He said he comes down on the side of innovation to provide the answers. He pointed to the recently announced Wheat- ridge project, which will be built in Morrow County to combine large-scale wind, solar and bat- tery storage power. “This is the kind of innovation I’m for,” he said. “If we don’t have the right capacity, we can’t put renewable energy into it.” And the U.S. has a responsi- bility to tackle climate change. “It should be us,” he said. “We helped create this mess, we should help clean it up.” He also said while he thinks climate change is a factor in for- est fires, he focused on forest management. “Shouldn’t we try to reduce the fuel load to cut those cata- strophic fires?” he said. Bob Haechrel, also from The Dalles, said he had called Walden’s office, wanting to understand if there were parts of the Green New Deal on which he felt he could work with Democrats. “To your point on the Green New Deal, it’s a resolution, not actually implemented legisla- tion,” Walden said. “Clearly, there are things we can work together on.” But he said he was against some components of the pro- posed resolution. “If the goal is to put down the cattle industry in 10 years, I’m not for that,” he said. “If the goal is to put us all on high-speed rail, I don’t think that will work very well. I don’t want the fed- eral government taking over that much,” he said. Debt and pot The national debt reaching $22 trillion is a concern, Walden said, but the real problem are programs, such as Medicare and paying the interest on the debt as opposed to defense spending. As Americans, he said, “we’re going to have to have a pretty serious conversation” about the federal government not funding as many programs. And Walden is changing his tune on marijuana. A pro- pane dealer in southern Ore- gon said the government needs to change something, Walden said, because his clients pay in stacks of cash. Walden said he is not “quite there” in legalizing cannabis, but maybe the federal government could manage it like alcohol. But items, such as marijuana gummy bears, smack of the tobacco industry’s Joe Camel methods to lure younger users, he said, and if the feds did treat marijuana like booze, states are not going to receive federal help with treatment programs. Walden will return to Uma- tilla County for a town hall at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center, Hermiston, on March 15 at 4 p.m. 1188’s Spring Crab & Craft Friday - Saturday, March 22nd & 23rd Fresh crab from Astoria caught the day prior to serving and flown in – tickets for crab need to be purchased in advance Tickets on sale now at the pub. They can also be purchased over the phone at 541-575-1188. We will have live music throughout the day, please watch our Facebook page for more information. Brut 26 IPA • Craft beer, wine and spirit tastings available throughout the day through a variety of vendors. • There will be a new beer release, and new wine selections. • We will have a separate menu available for those that do not like crab with a variety of items and prices. Check our Facebook page regularly where we will add details over the next couple weeks. 99483
