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The INDEPENDENT, August 17, 2011
Merkley explains no vote on the debt bill
On August 2, the United
States Senate voted on legisla-
tion to increase the debt ceiling
while imposing deep cuts on
programs important to many
middle class families. Oregon
Senator Jeff Merkley voted
against the bill. He issued the
following statement:
“I have spent the last sever-
al days immersed in the details
of this budget deal, trying to un-
derstand its real-world impact
on Oregon’s middle class and
small businesses. I have a sin-
gle, simple measure to evalu-
ate this proposal: is it going to
create greater opportunities for
prosperity and success for
working Americans? Unfortu-
nately, I have concluded that it
will not, and so I cannot sup-
port it.
“First, this deal will con-
tribute to the gathering storm
threatening to make our current
unemployment crisis even
worse. Our unsustainable defi-
cits are absolutely a long-term
challenge that we must ad-
dress. But millions of Oregoni-
ans and Americans are out of
work right now. And with at
least 5 million foreclosures
looming, with the expiration of
extended unemployment bene-
fits forecast to cost half a mil-
lion jobs next year, with the
payroll tax holiday ending and
costing another estimated
900,000 jobs in 2012, we
should be relentlessly preoccu-
pied with how to create more
jobs. Instead, this package will
add to the job losses, repeating
the mistakes that have caused
prolonged economic slumps in
this country and elsewhere.
“Second, this deal will do
serious damage to the pro-
grams that middle class Amer-
icans depend on. The bulk of
the deficit reduction is piled
onto that small part of the
budget that funds things like
Head Start, college financial
aid, research into clean energy
and medical cures, and safe-
guards against contaminated
food and polluted air and
water. These sorts of pro-
grams, combined, are less
than one-fifth of the budget.
And we are spending the same
amount on them today in a real
dollars, per person basis, as
we did in 2001. Yet these pro-
grams – critical to helping fam-
ilies in tough times, to giving
kids the tools they need to suc-
ceed, and to keeping our
See Merkley on page 22
Governor signs Witt’s bill to shut
down shark fin market in Oregon
The Governor, on August 4,
signed HB 2838, chiefly spon-
sored by Representative Brad
Witt (D-Clatskanie), which out-
laws the marketing of shark fins
in Oregon. Shark fins are an
expensive, in-demand item
used in shark fin soup.
“All too often shark fins are
obtained by means of a barbar-
ic practice commonly referred
to as finning. This involves the
taking of sharks solely for the
purpose of harvesting their fins,
while the rest of the fish is usu-
ally wasted,” said Rep. Witt.
“Worse yet, sharks are often
finned alive, only to die an ago-
nizing death of starvation,
drowning or bleeding.”
Some estimates show that
internationally approximately
73 million sharks are finned
and killed each year. Oregon
fisheries regulations conform to
federal requirements prohibit-
ing the removal of shark fins or
tail at sea. However, there has
been no Oregon law that bans
the possession, sale, trade or
distribution of shark fins in
state. HB 2838 changes that.
In the wake of Oregon action
on this issue, similar legislation
is now being considered in Cal-
ifornia and Canada. Washing-
ton State and Hawaii have en-
acted similar laws.
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