Bentz visits Pendleton

PENDLETON – Oregon’s Second District Congressman Cliff Bentz (R-Ontario) held a town hall at the Pendleton Convention Center Thursday. The event allowed community members to bring up concerns or ask Bentz questions.

Bentz started the town hall with a presentation in which he addressed the national debt, saying that the government not only needed to reduce spending, but that interest rates also needed to be addressed.

Bentz continued by having a member of his staff come up to speak about wolf management. This prompted a loud, negative reaction from many members of the crowd who felt he was trying to divert from more important issues. At this point the rest of the presentation appeared to be scrapped, and the event moved on to the comment portion.

The issues brought up ranged from bringing down cost of living, selling federal lands, and to what some felt was overreaching executive action by President Trump. The issue that seemed to be brought up the most was the recent federal employee terminations and the consequences that could cause. A former Umatilla National Forest employee talked about her experience of being suddenly terminated this past Friday. This prompted a loud round of applause from many in the crowd.

This was the third in a series of four town halls that included stops in Baker City, La Grande and Boardman.

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