Media

Anger against the pharmaceutical industry is growing. A Gallup poll published in September put the industry at the bottom of the heap among 25 sectors rated annually on their popularity. Nearly 60 percent of respondents said they had a negative view of the industry. People liked government more, with 52 percent seeing bureaucracies in a negative light.

A group of 165 Democrats, led by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), wrote a letter last week to DeVos citing concerns with ne hiring at the Office of Federal Student Aid and what they said was a failure to hire enough employees in the Office for Civil Rights. "The Department's refusal to adequately staff OCR is inexcusable, especially when compared with its rapid, unrestrained hiring at FSA," they wrote.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Columbia River In-Lieu and Treaty Fishing Access Sites Improvement Act, sending it to the president's desk to be signed into law.

Bonamici said she was grateful that the House passed the legislation to address historical injustices and honor the fishing treaty rights of four Columbia River Tribes.

There were audible sighs of relief in Oregon's business community after congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump reached an agreement on a new trade pact replacing NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Blumenauer and fellow Oregon Democratic Rep. Suzanne Bonamici both said the agreement contains a number of improvements that helped bring on board Democrats, who have been skeptical of free-trade deals.

U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, whose district covers much of northwest Oregon including parts of Portland, was one of several Democratic members of the House Education Committee to press Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on the agency's decision to restrict debt relief for former students of shuttered for-profit colleges.