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MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. It's sometimes easy to forget that the men and women who represent us in Congress have a tough job. They have to represent hundreds of thousands of people in their district, yet also weigh adherence to what congressional leadership wants them to do when it comes time to vote. And oh, by the way, while doing their job, they have to spend hours each day raising reelection money and spending months of their lives waiting in airports and flying on commercial jets, bouncing back and forth between their districts in DC. And if you're a West Coast congressperson, that gets even more tiresome. Today on the show we check in with our incredibly busy congressional representative, Val Hoyle, who blew into the district recently to learn and listen to seniors terrified of potential cuts to Social Security. Our conversation is next on Oregon on the record. The first time we spoke with Oregon representative Val Hoyle, the nation and the world looked quite different. Joe Biden was still president. The policies of diversity, equity and inclusion were growing around the nation. Higher Education was actively increasing, students from other countries, and the word tariff would hardly ever come up in a general conversation. Now, Hoyle and her Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives are at DEFCON 1 with regard to what the Trump administration is doing to our politics and even to the very rule of law. Today on the show, we sit down with the representative and talk about what she's seeing and hearing in DC and here in the district, but perhaps even more importantly, we talk about what her Democratic caucus and general citizens can and should do to fight back. Oregon representative Val Hoyle as always. Thanks. Thanks so much for coming in and talking with us.
VAL HOYLE: Well, thanks for having me. And thank you. As we were just talking offline, local news is absolutely critical, and something that we really all have to fight to preserve.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You’re in town. You just did a town hall, and you were talking to seniors, and I imagine they gave you an earful with some concerns about cuts to things like social security. Talk about what that meeting was like and what they told you.
VAL HOYLE: So, we had 300 people at Lane Community College and we had another 400 people online. We specifically live streamed this event that was focused on Social Security, because Social Security is so important, and this district is over 17,000 square miles, and we have a lot of people in rural communities that want to get news, and we wanted to be able to get it to them. So, it was myself, former congressmen Peter DeFazio and Max Richmond, who has been advocating for Social Security since the 80s, since the last attempts to try and privatize the system. And people are concerned. My district has more social security recipients than 87% of the districts in the country. A quarter of the population relies on Social Security. So Social Security is for seniors. It's an earned benefit that people pay into for low-income older adults, for people with disabilities and for children who have lost their parents. It was put into place by President Roosevelt to make sure that people could retire and could live out their life with dignity, instead of in desperate poverty. And this is a program that pays for itself. So, for anyone to say that they're cutting Social Security to save money for the government, it's total BS, because, quite frankly, Social Security is paid for by what you pay into, and it costs 1% to manage the program. What does it cost if they privatize the program like a hedge fund, or someone trying to manage it? It would cost 26% so this is a scam, and you know, we heard stories about people who rely on Social Security and how much we need to fight for it.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You're in a unique position, because obviously, you know many people in this state, and you talk to many people, but of course, you're also in DC. I'm curious; when you talk to your colleagues on the other side of the aisle about something like this, what do they tell you?
VAL HOYLE: It's an interesting mix. First of all, there's just a serious disconnect. There's a whole lot of people in DC, in Congress, just going through the motions, like everything's normal, like my Republican colleagues didn't completely roll over and give away their constitutional obligation to have the power of the purse. The executive branch has said, we don't care what Congress wants. We are going to decide where money is spent. That again, in the Constitution, we have a separation of the different branches of government, the legislative branch, the executive branch and the judicial branch. And so, my Republican colleagues, many of them, are just going along, some of them quietly, are saying we're really concerned, but we're going to be able to pull this back, and then a bunch of others are just full on drinking the Kool Aid, not saying anything that might upset Donald Trump, because they are afraid that Elon Musk will fund a primary and they might lose their seat. And I personally think that the future of our country and our constitutional obligation is more important than winning a seat in Congress. And hopefully some of my Republican colleagues will wake up and find their backbone.
MICHAEL DUNNE: It was widely reported, you know, you initially joined the Oversight Committee for Doge, the Department of Governmental Efficiency…
Actually,
VAL HOYLE: Actually, I joined the Doge Caucus different from the Oversight Committee.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Thank you.
VAL HOYLE: Melanie Stansbury is the ranking Democrat. She's from New Mexico, and she's doing a great job. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the chair of the Oversight Committee on Doge, and I have never seen her do anything that isn't vindictive or at all productive. The Doge caucus is a group of Democrats and Republicans, many of whom I work with and I do find it reasonable to find more efficiencies in government, whether that's upgrading it or reducing things that are unnecessary bureaucracy. Like people are frustrated with government for a reason. There are pieces that don't work, but what I decided was when I saw what Elon Musk and the Trump administration was doing in breaking apart these agencies, you can't fix something that's actively being blown up. So, I walked away from that. I'm committed to having efficient government and strong oversight of how we use taxpayer dollars. That's not what's happening right now.
MICHAEL DUNNE: And that's why I brought it up, because obviously, there were these great pronunciations about how much that department was saving, and certainly, and even NPR discovered that’s not really the case. I just kind of wanted to get your kind of view of it, and now Elon Musk, publicly is saying he's sort of stepping back. I wanted to get your perspective on where this is and where it's going.
VAL HOYLE: I mean, many of us talked about Project 2025, as the road map for this. And how certain people like Russell Vote, who's the head of the Office of Management and Budget, and Steve Miller, who is focused on really, really racist ideology. And it is, it's quite frankly terrifying, but both of them are using this road map to find ways to ignore the power of Congress and the power of the courts. We've seen this with the 9-0 ruling from the Supreme Court saying Abrego Garcia needs to be brought back. They are shipping people to El Salvador that aren't even from El Salvador, that is not a deportation, that is internment in a horrific prison camp. So, what did Stephen Miller say? He went on Fox News and said we had a 9-0 ruling from the Supreme Court that supported what we were doing. They are outright lying to us, as if we can't see what's in front of us. But what I'll tell you is that many people don't understand what's actually happening because they're watching news coverage unlike this, who aren't presenting both sides, who aren't reporting the facts. And so, we have outsourced our social connections to social media algorithms run by Mark Zuckerberg, run by Elon Musk, run by oligarchs who want to keep us outraged and separated by putting forward misinformation. There are so many bots, whether they're from Russia or wherever else, that are putting forward misinformation. What we need to understand is that other Americans who voted differently or who think differently, it's not that they're stupid, it's literally that they are getting different facts, and we have to take the truth back, and we have to talk to people one on one again. Stop outsourcing, you know, your social interactions to a silo of preaching to the choir, and again, this constant outreach we've lost that, and that is a disservice to our country and our community.
MICHAEL DUNNE: We're talking with Oregon representative Val Hoyle. So, to that point, and you've obviously seen, there's been a tremendous amount of protest here in Oregon, and nationally. I wanted to give you the opportunity talking to this audience; what do citizens, in your opinion, need to do to fight back?
VAL HOYLE: So, there's three ways that we fight back. And again, I've said it before, fascism rises slowly, and then rises quickly, and we are in the rises quickly part, and this is the time that we can fight back. And the way we fight back is through Congress, courts and the community. In Congress, those of us who are willing to step up, we are speaking out in committee hearings. We are speaking up on the floor of the house. We are speaking up. What Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and Bernie Sanders are doing is exactly what needs to happen, going to places where republican congress people will not do town halls, and they're getting tens of thousands of people coming out. The courts need to rule, and the executive branch is trying to ignore the courts. That is a constitutional crisis. We have to go to the streets and also, we have to work together and not allow our own individual politics to separate us out, right? Not be exclusive. We all need to speak up, because I went and did town halls with Jeff Merkley in Curry County, Coos County, Douglas County, the most conservative parts of my district, voted for Trump between 20 to 30% and you know what they were concerned about? They were concerned about the tariffs, shutting down their businesses, making it difficult for a commercial fishing industry. They were worried about their social security. They are watching their friends, their neighbors, the people they rely on, being fired from the government. For instance, Bonneville Power. Doge cut staff at Bonneville Power, and those staff people are paid for by ratepayers. That is not about government efficiency. It's about breaking government and putting only people who are loyalists in place. We have to call things out as they are and not make it a partisan issue or a progressive purity test. We all need to be speaking out and talking about what our duties are as Americans. And yes, getting out in the streets, speaking up, contacting your congress people. We love hearing from people, hearing their stories. So, I can go in committee, onto the floor of the house and say, Did you mean to say that government efficiency is firing the people who know how to operate the tsunami warning system on the west coast that doesn't seem efficient, talking about the stories about the cuts to Social Security, talking about what Medicaid would do to shut down rural hospitals and our Indian health care systems. Those things matter. People need to speak up. And again, we need to come together and not allow ourselves to be artificially divided. But the protests in the streets matter, and the administration will try and fight back. And the administration is trying to break unions, is trying to target trans individuals, trying to take out the most vulnerable people, we have to stand up and stop that. Talk about what's wrong. Due process is a critical part of our Constitution and the freedoms that we enjoy in this country, and we can't say it's okay for that one group to be targeted, because next thing that happens, they're going to come for us.
MICHAEL DUNNE: What's the mood like amongst your colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle, in terms of not just even what's happening, but also perhaps looking forward? Obviously, you know the midterms will be here fairly soon. What are you hearing from your colleagues about what might happen?
VAL HOYLE: I think there's different feelings. There are some people that are leaning in, saying we're going to win the next election and will pick up the house. And you know, I think that that's likely if we have elections in the same way that we normally do, there are some of us who are frustrated, who feel like we need to speak out more effectively to the people that feel disconnected and feel left behind. My background, you know, I came up into politics through labor, and there are a lot of working-class people who don't feel connected. There are a lot of progressives who don't feel connected to the Democratic Party. So, you know, again, there are a number of us who want to speak out. My biggest concern, and I share this with a number of my colleagues, is the plan for the executive branch is they've already undermined faith in our elections with the executive order that Trump signed into place. He says that federal elections will not be recognized unless states use a voting machine that hasn't even been created yet. They say that there should be no vote by mail. They say that women who've changed their name, like I changed my last name when I got married, that we are going to have higher barriers, right? Making it harder for women to vote effectively, having a poll tax if you don’t have your long-term birth, birth certificate. Not all of us have that. Many of my constituents don't have their passports. Your real ID cannot be used under that executive order as voter ID, right? So fundamentally, my biggest concern is to make sure that we fight to have the integrity of the ballot. Now, what the Constitution says is that states have the right to determine time, place, and manner for elections, and the executive branch is trying to override that. We have to remember how this country was founded, and that it was founded on the basis that we have checks and balances to ensure that we don't have another king, we don't have a tyrant. So, the number one thing that I think is important to focus on, because there's so many things that are happening, is the constitutional crisis, the lack of due process that the executive branch is trying to push through Number two, the fact that they are trying to undermine our federal elections coming up in the next year and a half. So, we need to keep fighting. We need to keep speaking up. It's really difficult when we've lost the means of communication in the way that the media is. We've seen so many media outlets bend over and, you know, pay off Trump and say that they will not criticize the president. The free press is critical. Freedom of speech is critical, and we as Americans need to fight for that. That is not a partisan issue, that is not about Democrats and Republicans. Freedom of speech is part of our constitution and we have to make sure that we exercise that and protect people who want to exercise their right to free speech with everything that we have, there's nothing more important.
MICHAEL DUNNE: To that point, the President has made overtures about wanting to completely obliterate federal funding for things like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Do you think that elected officials such as yourself and average citizens can fight against that?
VAL HOYLE: We are trying! And I believe that what the Trump administration wants is a press that will not criticize them. The thing about Public Radio, and they have painted it to be some, you know, I don't know, liberal, anti-patriotic, you know, Boogeyman. The fact is that public radio, especially in some of our rural communities, is the only game in town. You report the local news. You report news as you see it, and we have to protect public radio. Now in Oregon, those cuts will be really hard to deal with, but as Oregonians, we value that freedom of the press. We have that kind of libertarian streak, whether you know Democrat or Republican, we step up, but in many rural communities and conservative states, this will be lost, and we can't allow it to happen. I do believe that my Republican colleagues are going to be loath to stand up for public radio, but we need to highlight the work that public radio actually does specifically to get out actual news and what's happening on the ground. Yes, it's a target, and we should all be concerned about that.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Representative Hoyle, my last question for you is this: what are some things that are giving you optimism right now?
VAL HOYLE: What’s giving me optimism is I went to Curry County, Brookings, Oregon on a Tuesday, at 10 o'clock in the morning with Senator Jeff Merkley, and we had a standing room only crowd in Brookings, Oregon. That's not Eugene or Corvallis or Portland, that's Brookings, Oregon, and people are stepping up, and people are finding community, and people are fighting back. And that's what's critical and important, is that we find community. And every day that I talk to someone that says I haven't been involved in politics, but I'm going to stand up, either against or for, that gives me hope, and we cannot let ourselves be brought down. It is discouraging. It is overwhelming. So don't get lost in a social media doom scroll algorithm. Do the things that keep you centered. The thing that I do every morning is I read a part of Marcus Aurelius meditation, right? It really is. It's a great book to talk about how to keep focused in the moment and do what you can do. And then in the evening, I work to shut off so that I can be strong enough to handle what's coming at me during the day and focus on what we can do. But what gives me hope is the people I talk to throughout this district and throughout this country, and I have faith in the people of this country.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Representative Val Hoyle, it's always great to talk to you. Thanks so much for coming in.
VAL HOYLE: All right. Thank you.
MICHAEL DUNNE: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon on the record are available as a podcast at klcc.org It can be said that if you can't trust law enforcement professionals, who can you trust? Well, in Deschutes County right now, citizens are facing a huge dilemma, because the man they elected to be sheriff has been caught in numerous lies. Tomorrow on the show, you'll hear from reporters at the Bend Bulletin and OPB about the strange and sorry tale of Deschutes County Sheriff Kent Van der Camp. I'm Michael Dunne, and this has been Oregon on the record from KLCC. Thanks for listening.
