October 21, 2021 3:20 a.m.

Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley announced on Wednesday that he has secured vital investments in the annual spending bill for the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that will help make Oregon’s forests more resilient, support rural communities, protect public lands, bolster improvement programs for tribes and more.

Merkley chairs this subcommittee which funds the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service. A release said the bill is the basis for negotiations with the House, as Congress works to fund the government for fiscal year 2022.

Merkley said, “for too long, programs protecting public lands, public health and the environment and supporting tribal communities have been operating on fumes – as Oregonians know all too well”. Merkley said the legislation will make unprecedented improvements to “…address climate chaos, respond to and prevent climate-driven wildfires, protect natural places and wildlife, restore the rightful place of science, and rebuild capacity at federal agencies”. He said the bill makes transformative change in Indian Country by boosting funding for tribal health care by a full 25 percent and for the first time ever, providing budget certainty for Indian Health Service.

The release said the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations bill includes funding to support wildfire management, following another year of unprecedented blazes, as well as providing funding to support efforts to address the water crisis in the Klamath Basin.