June 1, 2023 4:00 a.m.

Two Oregon federal representatives whose districts each include parts of Douglas County reacted to the House passage of the debt limit bill on Wednesday.

The measure was approved by a 314 to 117 margin.

Democratic Representative Val Hoyle called the legislation “a debt limit scheme” and issued a statement: Hoyle said, “Tonight I voted against the House Republicans debt limit bill that screws over working people. We should be passing a clean bill to pay for what we’ve already bought, exactly as Republicans supported under Reagan and Trump”.

Hoyle said the bill guts environmental protections, greenlights a fossil fuel pipeline, strips essential government programs and “…takes food from the mouths of the most vulnerable members of our society”. Hoyle said, “I refuse to support a precedent of letting Congressional Republicans threaten to tank the U.S. economy by failing to support a clean bill”.

Republican Congressman Cliff Bentz voted in favor of the legislation and said, “This bill H.R. 3746, the “Fiscal Responsibility Act” is the result of Speaker McCarthy forcing President Biden to the bargaining table, where our team was able to negotiate a truly meaningful deal, giving me – and the entire House of Representatives – the opportunity to vote for the largest spending cut in U.S. history”.

Bentz said, “We blocked new taxes proposed by President Biden, capped discretionary spending at a 1% increase per year, reformed NEPA for the first time in 40 years, rescinded billions in COVID money, adjusted welfare requirements to incentivize individuals to seek employment, restarted $5 billion a month in student loan payments, protected Veterans, and maintained defense spending”.

The debt limit bill now moves to the U.S. Senate.