Consumer Protection

In a report that elicited calls for congressional action, the New York TimesrevealedWednesday that "senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency disregarded the advice of their own scientists and lawyers in April when the agency issued a rule that restricted but did not ban asbestos."

Growing up in Astoria, Oregon, Ann Samuelson remembers her father as a man who worked hard. By day, Stan Grimberg built up his union plumbing business. By night, he took his gillnetting boat out on the Columbia River, earning enough to buy her a horse and provide the family with a good life.

Oregon Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley and Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici met at a Bethany fire station March 21 to talk about the continuing dangers of asbestos with an invited panel of Oregon labor leaders. The two are reintroducing a bill that would ban the manufacturing, processing, use, and distribution of asbestos, which is a known human carcinogen with no safe level of exposure.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told a Congressional committee on Tuesday that President Trump's accelerated timeline to put humans back on the Moon is within the space agency's capabilities, and that a revved-up lunar mission will improve the odds of American astronauts reaching Mars by 2033. For that to happen, however, Bridenstine said Congress will have to provide some extra funding—the exact amount of which NASA is still trying to figure out.

Oregon lawmakers are pushing for a nationwide ban of asbestos - a known carcinogen that kills thousands of people in America every year.

Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici and Senator Jeff Merkley inroduced a new act -- that would ban asbestos entirely in the U.S.

The lawmakers met with community members in Portland Thursday to discuss the issue.

Rep. Bonamici tells KATU News that part of the struggle in banning asbestos is fighting the companies that make money selling it.