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Jeff Merkley on Homeland Security
Democratic Jr Senator (OR)
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Invest in working with our allies, not power of military
Jeff is committed to protecting America from those who would do us harm, and to making sure we do so in a way that is consistent with American values and our Constitutional rights. Indeed, Jeff firmly believes that the measure of our strength isn't
just the power of our military, but that the United States is safer and stronger when we honor our fundamental American values like respect for the rule of law and invest in the hard work of working with our allies. In a dangerous world, with global
threats ranging from terrorism to global warming to nuclear weapons proliferation, Jeff understands that we need to be able to work with other nations to confront these challenges together.Having worked as a national security analyst at the Pentagon
and at the Congressional Budget Office, Jeff has a unique understanding of national security policy. In both positions, he was immersed in the national dialogue on responsible management of nuclear weapons.
Source: Vote-USA.org on 2014 Oregon Senate incumbents
, Oct 24, 2014
9/11 justified eliminating Taliban, but not nation-building
After Al Qaeda attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, we rightly sought to bring to justice those who attacked us, to eliminate Al Qaeda's safe havens and training camps in Afghanistan, and to remove the terrorist-allied Taliban government.
With hard work and sacrifice, our troops, intelligence personnel and diplomatic corps have skillfully achieved these objectives, culminating in the death of Osama bin Laden.But over the past 10 years, our mission expanded to include a fourth goal:
nation-building. That is what we are bogged down in now: a prolonged effort to create a strong central government, a national police force and an army,
and civic institutions in a nation that never had any to begin with. Let's not forget that Afghanistan has been a tribal society for millenniums.
Source: 2011 official Senate press release, "Let's Not Linger"
, Jul 4, 2011
Be slow to go to war and be fast to take care of veterans
On Iraq, Merkley noted that he was against the war from the start. “I stood up two months before the war and said we should be sending diplomats into Iraq, not bombs,”
Merkley said. “Be slow to go to war and be fast to take care of our sons and daughters when they come home. We got it exactly backwards from the Bush administration.”
Source: 2008 Oregon Senate Debate reported in Statesman Journal
, Oct 14, 2008
Persuasive evidence & clear objectives before military force
Q: Under what circumstances would you vote to authorize the president to take military action?A: I view military action as an instrument of last resort in international relations. Some of the standards I would seek before approving military force
would be:
- Rigorous examination of claims that there is a direct and substantial threat to America’s national security or the security of allies.
- Rigorous determination that appropriate alternatives--such as unilateral sanctions, multi-national
sanctions, & UN peacekeepers---to military action have been thoroughly explored and evaluated in cost and effectiveness.
- Persuasive evidence that international diplomacy has failed.
- Clearly stated objectives for the military action.
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Persuasive evidence that the type and form of proposed military action fits the level of threat and maximizes the probability of accomplishing the objectives.
Source: Citizens for Global Solutions: 2008 Senate questionnaire
, Sep 9, 2008
End nuclear testing; end nuclear development
Q: Do you oppose the development of new nuclear weapons by the United States or any other nation?A: Yes. My background as a nuclear weapons analyst for Congress in the
1980s give me a sense of confidence and hopefully some credibility in addressing issues involving nuclear weapons.
Due to my experience, depth of knowledge and strong opposition to nuclear proliferation I have already been endorsed by Council for a Livable World.
Q: Do you support U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty?
A: Yes. An end to nuclear testing would help take the steam out of the nuclear arms race, strengthening non-proliferation efforts that ultimately enhance US and global security.
Source: Citizens for Global Solutions: 2008 Senate questionnaire
, Sep 9, 2008
End nuclear testing; end nuclear development
Due to my experience, depth of knowledge and strong opposition to nuclear proliferation I have already been endorsed by Council for a Livable World.Q: Do you support U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty?
A: Yes. An end to nuclear testing would help take the steam out of the nuclear arms race, strengthening non-proliferation efforts that ultimately enhance US and global security.
Source: Citizens for Global Solutions: 2008 Senate questionnaire
, Sep 9, 2008
Honor America’s veterans and take good care of them
There is no greater obligation than for the government that owes its existence to the veterans’ sacrifice to support and care for them when they return from the battlefield. Every American owes a debt of gratitude to our veterans that none of us will eve
be able to fully repay. As a society that has asked so much of our men and women in uniform, we strive to honor them and their service. Under Jeff’s leadership as Speaker, the 2007 legislature renewed its commitment to helping Oregon veterans get the
services they need & improving their quality of life. Among the accomplishments were:- Extending the personal income tax exemption to more national guard members;
- Additional financial aid for veterans pursuing full or part-time study or training;
- Tax incentives for health care providers that participate in TRICARE to provide more facilities for veterans to receive medical care.
Source: 2008 Senate campaign website, www.jeffmerkley.com, “Issues”
, Jun 3, 2008
Extend full VA and other benefits to National Guard members
Extend full VA and other benefits to members of the National Guard who have been deployed overseas. Our National Guardsmen and women are being deployed in unprecedented numbers to support the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan. They deserve the same benefits we extend to our regular soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
Source: 2008 Senate campaign website, www.jeffmerkley.com, “Issues”
, Jun 3, 2008
A tragic shortfall in recent years in veterans’ health care
We have seen a tragic shortfall in recent years in veterans’ health care and support services. Sub-par conditions at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, six-month waiting periods to see a doctor--this is not how America should treat its greatest patriots. We can and must do better.
Source: 2008 Senate campaign website, www.jeffmerkley.com, “Issues”
, Jun 3, 2008
Allow disabled veterans to collect their full retirement pay
Immediately enacting concurrent receipt benefits allowing disabled veterans to collect their full retirement pay when they leave service.
The current plan will not be fully phased-in until 2014.
Source: 2008 Senate campaign website, www.jeffmerkley.com, “Issues”
, Jun 3, 2008
Increase funding for mental health services to veterans
Increase funding for mental health services to veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. An estimated one-third of those veterans suffer mental health problems. Proper screening and treatment for
Traumatic Brain Injury for returning veterans. The signature injury of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is TBI, and an estimated 300,000 veterans may return home suffering form it.
Source: 2008 Senate campaign website, www.jeffmerkley.com, “Issues”
, Jun 3, 2008
Expand educational opportunities for veterans
Expanded educational opportunities for veterans who have fulfilled their service commitment to our country. Following World War II, the GI Bill helped hundreds of thousands of veterans pay for a college education.
We need a new GI Bill for the 21st Century (H.R. 2385) to help the veterans of our recent conflicts get a college education or job training.
Source: 2008 Senate campaign website, www.jeffmerkley.com, “Issues”
, Jun 3, 2008
Create a GI Bill for the 21st Century
Help for veterans of our recent conflicts to get a college education or job training must be increased. Jeff will work to create a GI Bill for the 21st Century that helps our men and women in uniform returning from
Iraq and Afghanistan go to school. Following World War II and every subsequent war, the GI Bill helped hundreds of thousands of veterans pay for a college education.
Source: 2008 Senate campaign website, www.jeffmerkley.com, “Issues”
, Jun 3, 2008
Voted NO on extending the PATRIOT Act's roving wiretaps.
Congressional Summary: A bill to extend expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 relating to access to business records, individual terrorists as agents of foreign powers, and roving wiretaps until December 8, 2011. Proponent's Argument for voting Yes:
[Rep. Smith, R-TX]: America is safe today not because terrorists and spies have given up their goal to destroy our freedoms and our way of life. We are safe today because the men and women of our Armed Forces, our intelligence community, and our law enforcement agencies work every single day to protect us. And Congress must ensure that they are equipped with the resources they need to counteract continuing terrorist threats. On Feb. 28, three important provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act will expire. These provisions give investigators in national security cases the authority to conduct "roving"
wiretaps, to seek certain business records, and to gather intelligence on lone terrorists who are not affiliated with a known terrorist group. The Patriot Act works. It has proved effective in preventing terrorist attacks and protecting Americans. To let these provisions expire would leave every American less safe.
Opponent's Argument for voting No:
[Rep. Conyers, D-MI]: Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows a secret FISA court to authorize our government to collect business records or anything else, requiring that a person or business produce virtually any type record. We didn't think that that was right then. We don't think it's right now. This provision is contrary to traditional notions of search and seizure which require the government to show reasonable suspicion or probable cause before undertaking an investigation that infringes upon a person's privacy. And so I urge a "no" vote on the extension of these expiring provisions.
Status: Passed 86-12
Reference: FISA Sunsets Extension Act;
Bill H.514
; vote number 11-SV019
on Feb 17, 2011
Repeal Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell, and reinstate discharged gays.
Merkley signed HR1283&S3065
Repeals current Department of Defense policy [popularly known as "Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell"] concerning homosexuality in the Armed Forces. Prohibits the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard, from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation against any member of the Armed Forces or any person seeking to become a member. Authorizes the re-accession into the Armed Forces of otherwise qualified individuals previously separated for homosexuality, bisexuality, or homosexual conduct.
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require the furnishing of dependent benefits in violation of section 7 of title 1, United States Code (relating to the definitions of 'marriage' and 'spouse' and referred to as the 'Defense of Marriage Act').
Source: Military Readiness Enhancement Act 10-HR1283 on Mar 3, 2010
Led effort to address disposing of nuclear materials.
Merkley wrote Letter from Congress on nuclear material security
Press Release from Sen. Merkley's officeCiting the dangers to US national security posed by terrorists and rogue states seeking nuclear weapons, a bipartisan group of 26 senators sent a letter last week to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), calling on the President to support increased funding in the FY2016 budget to more rapidly secure and permanently dispose of nuclear and radiological materials. The letter comes in response to the President's proposals in recent years to decrease funding for nuclear material security and nonproliferation programs.
The senators indicated that unsecured nuclear material poses unacceptably high risks to the safety of Americans and argued that the rate at which nuclear and radiological materials are secured and permanently disposed of must be accelerated. The senators expressed concern that cutting funds would slow what has been a successful process of elimination and reduction of highly enriched uranium
(HEU) and separated plutonium in the international community. In just the last five years, nuclear security and non-proliferation programs have proven successful in eliminating HEU and separated plutonium from 13 countries, including Ukraine.
"Reducing budgets for agencies and programs that help keep nuclear and radiological materials out of the hands of terrorists is out of sync with the high priority that the President has rightly placed on nuclear and radiological material security and signals a major retreat in the effort to lock down these materials at an accelerated rate," the senators wrote. "The recent spate of terrorism in Iraq, Pakistan, and Kenya is a harrowing reminder of the importance of ensuring that terrorist groups and rogue states cannot get their hands on the world's most dangerous weapons and materials."
In the past two fiscal years, Congress has enacted $280 million additional dollars to the President's proposed funding for core non-proliferation activities.
Source: Merkley/Feinstein letter to OMB 14_Lt_HS on Aug 18, 2014
End bulk data collection under USA PATRIOT Act.
Merkley co-sponsored USA FREEDOM Act
Congressional summary:: Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet-collection, and Online Monitoring Act or the USA FREEDOM Act:
- Amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to require that the records sought pertain to an individual in contact with a foreign power.
- Amends the USA PATRIOT Act to minimize the acquisition and retention of information and to prohibit its unauthorized dissemination.
- Imposes additional requirements on the authorized use of pen registers and trap and trace devices (devices for recording incoming and outgoing telephone numbers).
- Prohibits the searching of collections of communications of US persons.
Opponent's argument against (Electronic Frontier Foundation): The bill only addresses a small portion of the problems created by NSA spying. It does not touch problems like NSA programs to sabotage encryption standards; it does not effectively tackle
the issue of collecting information on people outside of the US; and it doesn't address the authority that the government is supposedly using to tap the data links between service provider data centers, such as those owned by Google and Yahoo. The bill also does not address excessive secrecy; it won't deal with the major over-classification issues or the state secrets privilege.
Opponent's argument against (J. Kirk Wiebe, former NSA Senior Intelligence Analyst interview with TheRealNews.com): It's window dressing. Stopping bulk collection is a good step, but the only thing that's going to fix this is direct access into NSA's databases by an independent group of hackers, techie types, people like Snowden who know how to get into a network and look at things and verify that the data they're collecting and what they're doing with it complies with the Constitution. The NSA has essentially operated illegally--unconstitutionally--for 60% of its existence.
Source: HR3361 & S1599 14-S1599 on Oct 29, 2013
Funding wars separately is gimmick against sequestration.
Merkley voted NAY National Defense Authorization Act
Congressional Summary: HR 1735: The National Defense Authorization Act authorizes FY2016 appropriations and sets forth policies regarding the military activities of the Department of Defense (DOD), and military construction. This bill also authorizes appropriations for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), which are exempt from discretionary spending limits. The bill authorizes appropriations for base realignment and closure (BRAC) activities and prohibits an additional BRAC round.
Wikipedia Summary: The NDAA specifies the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense (DOD) for Fiscal Year 2016. The law authorizes the $515 billion in spending for national defense and an additional $89.2 billion for the Overseas Contingency Operations fund (OCO).
Opposition statement by Rep. Gerry Connolly (May 15, 2015): Congressman Connolly said he opposed the bill because it fails to end sequestration, and pits domestic investments
versus defense investments. Said Connolly, "This NDAA uses a disingenuous budget mechanism to circumvent sequestration. It fails to end sequestration."
Support statement by BreakingDefense.com(Sept, 2015): Republicans bypassed the BCA spending caps (the so-called sequester) by shoving nearly $90 billion into the OCO account, designating routine spending as an emergency war expenses exempted from the caps. This gimmick got President Barack Obama the funding he requested but left the caps in place on domestic spending, a Democratic priority. "The White House's veto announcement is shameful," Sen. John McCain said. "The NDAA is a policy bill. It cannot raise the budget caps. It is absurd to veto the NDAA for something that the NDAA cannot do."
Legislative outcome: House rollcall #532 on passed 270-156-15 on Oct. 1, 2015; Senate rollcall #277 passed 70-27-3 on Oct. 7, 2015; vetoed by Pres. Obama on Oct. 22, 2015; passed and signed after amendments.
Source: Congressional vote 15-HR1735 on Apr 13, 2015
Exempt Veterans Affairs from federal hiring freeze.
Merkley signed exempting Veterans Affairs from federal hiring freeze
Excerpts from Letter from 53 Senators to President Trump We are deeply troubled that your freeze on the hiring of federal civilian employees will have a negative and disproportionate impact on our nation's veterans. As such, we urge you to take stock of this hiring freeze's effect on our nation's veterans and exempt the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from your Hiring Freeze.
- Have you considered how this hiring freeze will affect VA's ability to provide veterans with access to health care?
- How it will affect VA's ability to decide on appeals for disability compensation?
- How it will impact those veterans who apply to federal jobs?
We urge you to classify VA's delivery of health care as a national security and public safety responsibility, and exempt it from this hiring freeze. To do otherwise is to jeopardize the national security and public safety of our nation.Opposing argument: (Heritage Foundation, "Eliminate Redundant
Government Hiring," May 9, 2017): It's not hard to find federal programs that are duplicative or ineffective. The president's executive order requires all agency heads to submit plans for reorganizing their operations. Their proposals are to "include recommendations to eliminate unnecessary agencies and programs." That all sounds great, but what does it actually mean?
Well, for starters, it means the previous federal hiring freeze is no more. But it doesn't mean programs and departments are free to hire willy-nilly. Instead, they've been instructed to follow a smart-hiring plan, consistent with the President's America First Budget Blueprint.
A few agencies, like the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs, will beef up staff. Most, however, will have to pare down employment. All federal employees can expect to see resources shift to higher-priority ones. Many may be asked to do something new or different with the goal of optimizing employees' skills and time.
Source: Letter on DVA 17LTR-DVA on Jan 26, 2017
Expand health services for women veterans.
Merkley signed Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act
A bill to expand and improve health care services available to women veterans, especially those serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to: - report on barriers to the receipt of comprehensive health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) encountered by women veterans, especially those of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom;
- provide for an independent study on health consequences for women veterans serving on active duty in deployments in such Operations; and
- report on the employment of full-time managers for women veterans programs at VA medical centers.
Requires the Secretary to:- develop a plan to improve the provision of
VA health care services to women veterans;
- carry out a program of education, training, certification, and continuing medical education for mental health professionals providing care for veterans suffering from sexual trauma;
- carry out a pilot program of providing reintegration and readjustment services in group retreat settings to women veterans recently separated from service after a prolonged deployment; and
- carry out a pilot program on subsidies for child care for certain women veterans receiving health care from VA facilities.
Requires women veterans recently separated from service to be included on the Advisory Committee on Women Veterans and the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans.Authorizes the Secretary to furnish care to a newborn child of a woman veteran receiving VA maternity care for up to seven days after the birth of the child.
Source: S.597 2009-S597 on Mar 16, 2009
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