In the News
A delegation of congressional leaders followed U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, into Matamoros to witness conditions in the camp of asylum seekers just past the Gateway International Bridge on Friday.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-FL, called the conditions in Matamoros "heinous human rights abuses". Another representative, Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, told reporters that she spoke to a woman from El Salvador whose sick baby was lying on the floor of a tent.
Calling it "inhumane," "morally unjust," "heinous," "disgraceful," a "travesty," "horrific" and "heartbreaking," 17 Democratic members of Congress described with great emotion the "disregard for our fellow brothers and sisters" they say they saw on Friday morning as they toured a squalid migrant refugee camp across from Brownsville, Texas.
One-by-one, members of a congressional delegation described the squalid conditions faced by the asylum-seeking families and children they met in Matamoros, Mexico, where the U.S. has returned thousands of migrants, requiring them to wait for their U.S. immigration court hearings on the Mexican side of the border.
A delegation of congressional members led by Hispanic Caucus chair Joaquin Castro and Rep.
United States Representative Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today introduced a new bill that would establish a grant program for schools to cut cafeteria food waste, with the goals of simultaneously reducing environmental impacts and improving student nutrition.
The School Food Recovery Act is co-sponsored by Representatives Dan Newhouse (R-Washington) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-Oregon); Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) will introduce a companion bill in the Senate.
Over the last year, the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis of the US House of Representatives has received recommendations from young climate leaders, policy specialists, business leaders, and state and local officials at meetings and hearings held in Washington, DC and around the country.
The Oregon Law students submitted their policy reports with recommendations to the House Select Committee during a November 2019 trip to Washington, DC.
Much ink has been spilled over the impeachment of President Donald Trump. It's only the third time a U.S. president has been impeached (Richard Nixon resigned before the House could impeach him), and like the two who came before, the votes were largely along party lines.
Oregon's delegation gave no surprises; in the House, Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici voted to impeach the president, as did her fellow Oregon Democrats Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, and Kurt Schrader. Greg Walden, the lone Republican in Oregon's Congressional delegation voted no on impeachment.
The foundation raising money for the Astoria Library has received $500,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities toward the building's renovation.
Arline LaMear, the foundation's president and a former mayor, thanked consultant Ruth Metz for writing the grant and U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici for voicing support.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to enact new protections against age discrimination in the workplace, approving a bill that supporters say will give older workers the same safeguards other protected groups enjoy.
"I've heard from workers, many in the technology industry, who believe they have been dismissed or denied employment because of their age," Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Beaverton, said on the House floor Wednesday.
The House of Representatives will vote on a resolution that could stop Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' borrower defense rule from going into effect, and supporters of the measure say it's time for legislators to choose a side.
Representative Suzanne Bonamici, a Democrat from Oregon, also criticized DeVos' methodology of calculating relief during a House Education Committee hearing on December 12. She claimed that just because people are earning money doesn't negate the possibility their school defrauded them.