By BILL LUNDQUIST

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., met with about 35 citizens Saturday in Brookings, and pledged his help to them on everything from veterans' issues to port dredging and fair gas and cable TV prices.

The town hall meeting at the Chetco Community Public Library was part of Wyden's campaign pledge to hold an open meeting once a year in each county in Oregon.

Wyden started the meeting promptly at 2 p.m. and spent all of the next hour and a half answering citizens' questions.

Gas Prices

Russ Crabtree, manager of the Port of Brookings Harbor, said the port is trying to create a fuel cooperative.

He said the oil industry is currently trying to intimidate the port with threats of litigation. He said the port is not easily intimidated.

Wyden asked if, for example, a senior woman on a fixed income would be able to buy gas at the port and save money.

Crabtree said anyone would be able to buy gas there.

"I want to help," said Wyden. "What can I do?"

He said he would talk about the port's proposed gas station during Congressional hearings on high gas prices scheduled for this week.

Cable TV Prices

Crabtree said he doesn't believe in the public sector competing with the private sector, except when there is no balance in the private sector.

He said the port is attempting to compete in the cable TV business because Charter Communications charges $50 in Brookings and $21 in Medford for the same service.

Wyden asked if the company had explained why it did that.

"They said there's no competition here," said Crabtree.

"Well I'll ask them," said Wyden. "I don't have a magic wand to solve your problem, but I will ask and get you an answer."

Port Dredging

Crabtree asked Wyden if there had been any progress on efforts to restore federal dredging funds for shallow-draft ports.

Wyden had no news to report, but said the dredging is critical to small ports like the one in Brookings-Harbor.

"We will pull out all the stops," he said. "I feel very strongly about this. It's a top priority for me."

Crabtree said federal dredging allowed the Port of Brookings Harbor to serve as an emergency refuge last week for the tall ship Lady Washington.

County funding

Curry County Commissioner Lucie La Bont thanked Wyden for writing the federal safety net bill for timber counties.

She said that money is already supporting county government. She said the Title III portion of the bill has been used by the commissioners to fund items like the recent student watershed symposium in Gold Beach, and the county's search and rescue program.

La Bont said members of the Siskiyou National Forest Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) are working together to use $800,000 in federal Title II funds on forest health and water quality projects.

She said of all the funding in Wyden's bill, only the portion directed to support schools in Oregon never got where it was intended to go.

La Bont said she knew Wyden had done his best to convince the Oregon Legislature to give the money to the schools.

Wyden said he considered it the most important law he'd written as a senator.

He said Oregon had paid for its roads and schools for years with federal timber receipts, but environmental laws had cut those receipts.

Wyden's bill will bring a total of $1.6 billion to Oregon, spread over six years. He said only $200 million of that is in question, because of Oregon's school funding formula.

He said the $200 million was supposed to go to schools in timber counties on top of regular state school funding.

Instead, said Wyden, the Oregon Legislature put the money into the general funding pool.

Wyden said, "$1.4 billion is going exactly where I intended. I want the whole amount to go to rural Oregon." He hoped the new governor and Legislature would send it there.

Wyden was pleased by La Bont's comments about the work being done by the Siskiyou RAC.

"I wanted to showcase a cooperative effort," he said. "In the RACs, people are working together in a way never seen before."

He said his county payments bill was designed with incentives for people to work together.

Henry Lustig asked what would happen to county government if federal funding disappeared.

"I cringe over the thought of what it would be like without the $1.6 billion," said Wyden.

He said he was told that Wheeler County could offer no services at all without the money. He said he will work to reauthorize the bill.

Education

One parent complained that teaching children to memorize facts "by rote" now seems to be illegal.

Wyden said, "The challenge in education is accountability. Parents want to know if their tax dollars are used for an education system so their kids can have good jobs and good futures."

Wyden said he liked the accountability measures in the "Leave no Child Behind" bill proposed by the president and Sen. Kennedy, though he objects to the "one size fits all" rule-making.

He said the bill gives parents options if their schools can't deliver proper services.

The parent wasn't satisfied. He said "knowledge is out and sensitivity is in" in schools. He said SAT scores have been falling steadily over the years.

Wyden wasn't so sure that was true.

A citizen asked why parents could not use some of the money that goes to public eduction for private school.

Wyden said he was all for choice in everything, provided there was enough money to go around.

He said there isn't enough money for public school, much less everything else people want their government to do.

"How can you argue, when there isn't enough to go around, to take money from a system that is available to everyone and give it to a system that would benefit only a few?" said Wyden.

He said people should be more concerned about the performance of the public schools, and the value they are getting for their tax dollars.

The citizen hoped people could use some of those tax dollars for their own benefit. Wyden said that would reduce the money available to public schools.

"I have a different take on vouchers," said one citizen. He said illiteracy is way up, and private schools cost less than public. Wyden said it would cost three times as much to send a child to the school Chelsea Clinton attended than to a public school.

Veterans' Benefits

"The paperwork never gets to where it should be," said a citizen. "Is there more that you can do to make sure benefits come through?"

Wyden said that is exactly why he employees three veterans in his Eugene office to help other veterans through the process. "They are experts in cutting through red tape."

Beyond that, said Wyden, he works hard to get additional support for veterans.

One veteran said he has suffered with radiation poisoning from nuclear testing. He said he has been unable to find help because radiation poisoning is not considered a disease.

Wyden asked a member of his staff to talk with the veteran. He said he would follow-up on the case.

One citizen said local veterans' clinics are always full. Another said some Vietnam veterans are suffering from Hepatitis C caused by military inoculations.

"I have made veterans a special priority in my office," said Wyden. "We need additional funds in this area."

Health Care

Wyden said the fast growing veteran and senior population will soon result in a "demographic tsunami."

He said national health care will have to be debated, and hard choices will have to be made.

Wyden said the nation currently spends $1.3 trillion a year on health care, amounting to $18,800 for each family of four.

He said that is a crude measure of how much is being spent, and how inefficiently.

Wyden knew of one doctor who put an elderly patient in the hospital for six weeks because he couldn't afford to pay for his medication on an outpatient basis.

"The government spent $50,000 to $60,000 on the hospital instead of $300 to $500 on medication," said Wyden.

Vikki Nuss, owner of Coastal Copiers, said her health insurance, with a $5,000 deductible, is virtually useless.

She said small-business owners aren't allowed to form a pool in Oregon to buy health insurance at better rates.

She also said her business insurance doubled in three months after Sept. 11, forcing her to lay off a part-time employee.

Wyden said it might make sense to raise insurance rates for skyscrapers in big cities, but not for small businesses on the Oregon coast. He said Congress would deal with terrorism insurance during the next few weeks.

As for health insurance, Wyden told Nuss, "The ability to form pools could make a real difference in your bargaining power."

Assisted Suicide

Wyden filibustered a bill to overturn Oregon's assisted suicide law. He said it passed the House easily and people thought it would do the same when it reached the floor of the Senate.

"I said if you are throwing the votes of the people of my state in the trash can, we will be here a long time," said Wyden.

He believes Attorney General John Ashcroft will lose in the court system. "He's trying to get around federal law," said Wyden. "He's rewriting the law in his office."

He said of the Bush administration, "They go along with states' rights if they think a state is right."

He added, "What part of ‘no' does Ashcroft not get?"

A citizen said Ashcroft is a "fanatical ideologue" who won't back off. The citizen said Ashcroft is trying to impose his religious beliefs on those who don't share them.

"He's entitled to his religious beliefs," said Wyden, "but he's substituting his personal values for those of the electorate."

"I did not vote for Oregon's assisted suicide law," said Wyden. "I voted to repeal it. I voted to not authorize it. But the people of Oregon voted on something that has historically been left in their hands.

"Assisted suicide was left to the states. The people have spoken. I won't substitute my personal beliefs."

Church and State

One citizen was concerned the proposed Care Act, a faith-based initiative, would erode the separation of church and state.

"I'm bothered that federal dollars would go to any religion at all," said the citizen.

Wyden said he is looking at the bill, which has changed "drastically" recently.

"The sponsors feel the faith-based community can reach people, with health care and job training, who haven't been reached before," he said.

"If it can be done without running afoul of the church/state separation," he said, "it may be worth looking at."

A citizen said religious social services have done a lot on a volunteer basis, but should not receive tax dollars.

Hostile Takeovers

A citizen said she retired from a telecommunications company shortly before it was the victim of a hostile takeover by a company that had never made a profit.

She said her company's stock fell by 90 percent, but was still popular on Wall Street.

She said its formerly robust pension fund was depleted, and some retired employees were getting only $500 a month.

"In the last 10 to 15 years," said Wyden, "we've seen some give short shrift to the assessment of businesses. There will be a lot of changes on Wall Street."

He thought there would be legislative hearings on businesses and pension funds. One citizen believed Congress would just "whitewash" the Enron situation.

"The pattern of abuse has been established," said Wyden. "The guys at the top sell their shares while stranding their employees in the Titanic boiler room."

"There are areas that cry out for change," he said, "but a complicated financial investigation is hard for Congress to do in hearings."

He said the length of each testimony is limited, and the top executives are brilliant at filibustering.

Wyden said those kinds of people are driven to make more and more money, so part of their penalty should be using future earnings to pay restitution.

Prescription Drug Costs

Pete Chasar said the same prescription drugs cost three to five times as much in the United States as they do in other countries.

Wyden said, "We carry the world on our back with research."

He said the United States bears the cost of developing drugs, and when they go off patent, the rest of the world cashes in.

He said that is fine when done with private money, but half of all new drugs are developed with tax dollars.

"It's time to bring the talking to an end and get some action," said Wyden.

A citizen said drug companies seem to charge different prices in the United States and Canada for the same drugs.

Wyden said the costs should be the same.

Fishery Relief

A commercial fisherman from Port Orford thanked Wyden for his support of the groundfish transition bill, but said the money hasn't reached Oregon yet.

He said 23 families in Port Orford are waiting for funds to help them retrain and make the transition out of fishing.

"I'm in school now," he said, "but it's hard to keep going."

"The National Marine Fisheries Service has a long history of dallying on this," said Wyden. "It's unconscionable.

"I will walk through the system for you. That's what the disaster relief money is for."

The Middle East

Jay Stoller said the president first said terrorists were no friends of the United States, then invited them to his ranch.

"He's been all over the map on Middle-East policy," said Wyden. (Secretary of State Colin) Powell and the president are not even on the same wavelength."

"He's got to be consistent," said Wyden. "He's sending a muddled message. Congress is concerned."

He said Congress can't play commander-in-chief, but the president has to make judgments and stick with them.