NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, August 18, 2021
A3
Bentz: ‘Democracy is not easy’
Representative
discusses
immigration,
drought,
infrastructure
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
‘Democracy is not easy’
Diane Clingman told Bentz
that there is something new
almost daily where people will
lose another right or freedom.
She asked if he could sug-
gest an avenue where people
could actually be heard and
get somewhere.
She said about Senate Bill
774, which Gov. Kate Brown
signed earlier in the week sus-
pending essential skills testing
for high school graduation for
the next three years, that high
school students no longer have
to “read, write or do math” to
graduate.
The essential skills grad-
uation requirement was sus-
pended during the pandemic
to assist students who had
a year of distance learning.
However, the bill’s proponents
took it beyond the pandemic.
The bill received push-
back from state GOP lawmak-
ers in both chambers of the
Legislature.
“People are so angry and
so upset,” she said. “You don’t
get much done in that mode.”
While he did not want to
state “truisms,” he said that
democracy is not easy.
He told Clingman that the
Bentz family trait is that he
and his brothers think they are
smarter and know more than
everyone else. But, he said,
it’s not always true.
“When you get to Con-
gress, it’s fi lled with people
like me,” he said. “Everybody
is sure they’re right.”
He said there are 435 mem-
bers in the House of Represen-
tatives, and to “move the nee-
dle” takes getting over 200
other members on his side.
He told her that the “dan-
ger” for him during the town
halls was avoiding get-
ting mad because it gets him
nowhere. Instead, he said the
challenge is to identify com-
mon themes and identify that
they are never going to get the
“whole loaf,” only a part of it,
and that no matter what some-
body is going to be upset.
“That’s democracy,” he
said. “But the great thing for
us is we have systems that
work. And if they don’t, we go
fi x them.”
He said working within the
systems is how they can ulti-
mately achieve change with-
out falling into lawlessness
and anarchy, as he said has
been seen in Portland.
He said he appreciated her
and the other constituents who
turned out for the town hall
because they are interested in
politics.
“Thank goodness,” he said.
“But it’s not easy.”
Immigration
Bentz showed the audience
a picture of undocumented
immigrants at the Texas-Mex-
ico border. He said he toured
the area two weeks ago.
He said the immigrants
from 80 diff erent countries
pay the Mexican Cartel around
$4,000 to take them over the
border, crossing the Rio Grand
River. He said, when the car-
tels bring a boatload of over,
they bring drugs in as well.
When a heavily armed border
patrol gunboat comes along,
they throw the kids in the
river. The agents, he said, fi sh
the kids out of the water, and
the cartels with the drugs end
up getting away.
Bentz said President Joe
Biden’s administration is
responsible for the current sit-
uation at the border. Under the
previous remain-in-Mexico
policy, he said, undocumented
immigrants who arrived at
the border and asked for asy-
lum were given paperwork
and taken back to Mexico and
told to wait. It could take three
years to get a hearing, he said.
The Biden administration
fl ipped the policy, according
to Bentz. Now, he said, peo-
ple from Central America are
told to bring their birth certif-
icates in plastic bags and give
their age when they get to the
border.
Bentz said parents and
those under 18 are allowed to
come into the U.S., given asy-
lum paperwork and told they
will be contacted for a hear-
ing. In the meantime, he said,
they get the opportunity to
work as though they have a
green card and can access spe-
cifi c safety net programs.
Bentz said, while he
believes the U.S. needs to
tighten up the border, one of
the biggest reasons people are
illegally crossing the border is
that they are in danger of being
killed by the lawlessness in
their respective countries.
According to Bentz, by
the end of Biden’s fi rst term,
he said about 4 million people
would be in the U.S. waiting
for an asylum hearing.
Bentz said the odds are
“extraordinarily low” that they
would get sent back to their
respective countries.
“I hope I’m wrong, but I
don’t think I am,” he said.
So, instead, Bentz said the
“focus” becomes about how
those already in the country
become productive members
of society.
From a policy standpoint,
Bentz said, people should be
turned away to prevent the
spread of COVID-19. Right
now, he said that is not the
case in Mexico, but people
are being turned away at the
Canadian border.
He said Mexico needs to
tighten its southern border.
“There are so many other
things that are wrong with
what is currently happening,”
Bentz said.
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Bentz said the situation in
the region is “grim” and that
it’s getting hotter, the sum-
mers are lasting longer and
that anything water-related is
a “big deal.”
Bentz said he is on the
Natural Resources Commit-
tee and is the ranking Repub-
lican of the Water, Oceans
and Wildlife Subcommittee,
which allows him to “speak
freely” to the Democrat chair,
California Congressman Jared
Huff man.
Huff man, Bentz said,
granted a hearing in the sub-
committee on a bill that he and
Northern California Congress-
man Doug LaMalfa brought
to the subcommittee to help
the ranchers and tribes in the
Klamath area.
He said the bill’s price tag
of about $160 million would
cover just a fraction of what
the community stands to lose
due to the drought.
Huff man granting the hear-
ing is a “great big deal,” Bentz
said.
“The Democrats don’t have
to listen to him (LaMalfa) or
any of our ideas,” Bentz said,
“but they are going to, and this
gives us a chance.”
Additionally, Bentz said
the Republicans have a good
chance of taking back power
in the House in the 2022
midterm elections. If the
GOP were to gain the major-
ity, Bentz would be likely to
become the next chairman of
the subcommittee.
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz fi elds a question Thursday during his fi rst town hall in Grant County as a repre-
sentative at the Mt. Vernon Community Center.
Infrastructure bill
Bentz said he would be
going back to Washington
D.C. to cast a vote on the infra-
structure bill in the House.
In a 69-30 bipartisan
vote on Aug. 10, the Sen-
ate approved the $1.1 tril-
lion infrastructure bill to
rebuild the country’s roads,
bridges and fund broadband
initiatives.
According to Bentz, the
legislation faces an uphill
climb in the House as
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has
said she would not vote on it
unless the Senate votes on a
$3.5 trillion social policy bill
in the fall.
He said the Senate tried to
separate the $1.1 trillion infra-
structure piece from the $3.5
trillion portions, but Pelosi, he
said, would not allow it.
He said that portions of the
$3.5 trillion piece impact the
$1.1 trillion infrastructure bill.
He said the $1.1 trillion
infrastructure bill would
be “highly unlikely” to get
through the House even if
it was not linked to the $3.5
trillion bill. For his part,
Bentz said there are points
of the infrastructure pack-
age that he likes, including
the broadband initiatives and
bridges.
He said, even after getting
Oregon’s $5.3 billion trans-
portation bill — for which he
was one of the principal archi-
tects of in the Legislature —
the state is still “criminally
lax” in maintaining its bridges.
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S256955-1
Drought
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Gary Miller, left, and another constituent talk with U.S. Rep. Cliff
Bentz, R-Oregon, Thursday ahead of a town hall meeting at the
Mt. Vernon Community Center.
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U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz
touched on immigration,
drought, the infrastructure bill
and the diffi culties of a democ-
racy Thursday at the Mt. Ver-
non Community Center in his
fi rst town hall in Grant County
since taking offi ce.
Bentz told the audience that
Democrats make it easy to get
angry and upset. But, he said,
the GOP has a “good chance”
of taking back the House in
2022 and, instead of spending
the hour talking about what
they are mad about, he said
he would rather talk about
what they want to see should
the Republicans take back the
power in the House.
“We’re going to be ready
to act in the fi rst week we take
power,” he said. “So I want to
have these bills ready to go.”
Through the Healthy, Happy Smiles program, schools also have the opportunity to
participate in a hands-on dental health learning lab through Eastern Oregon Healthy
Living Alliance. The lab features age-appropriate educational material on brushing,
flossing, fluoride, orthodontics, tooth anatomy, oral safety, tobacco’s effect on the
mouth, sugary foods and drinks, and dental careers.
