Longtime Oregon U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio visited the University on Thursday, informing students gathered in Knight Library’s Browsing Room about the last few weeks of congressional activity and answering questions about the hopes and challenges of his career.
DeFazio, now in his 13th term of office, is tied for the longest-serving U.S. Representative in state history, having worked as the representative of southern Oregon and Eugene since 1986. A University graduate alumnus from 1977, DeFazio’s visit Thursday was inspired by the incredible significance of the current legislative season.
“There are a lot of volatile events internationally as well as domestically right now,” Priscilla Southwell, political science department head and moderator of the event, said. “We thought it would be a great nonpartisan and public interest event to have DeFazio visit and have students come and fire questions at him.”
Without a doubt, the biggest issue facing the U.S. Congress at the moment is the possibility of a shutdown of several government functions after March 4 if Democrats and Republicans fail to reach an agreement over the specifics of the 2011 federal budget. The effects of such a standstill would mean thousands of federal employees could temporarily be put of work, along with the many agencies, research facilities and national parks at which they are employed.
However, DeFazio and many others in Congress feel that a government shutdown — while not entirely unprecedented — is still highly improbable. At the beginning of the event, DeFazio described how the House spent the last week working on an agreement, and said the Senate, which in his opinion has been unproductive, will likely come to agree on last year’s funding levels.
Still, DeFazio says the federal budget is an incredibly important issue in itself, and he has been an outspoken advocate of reduced spending for years. At the event, he expressed the need for the legislature to find a solution to the nation’s steadily growing deficit.
“We are at a time when we need to move back toward a more sustainable level of spending,” Defazio said. “The whole budget in its broadest form is $3.4 trillion, and our deficit this year is projected to be close to $1.6 trillion. That means 40 percent of what we are spending this year is borrowed.”
While the budget seemed to be the biggest issue for many in the room, students in the audience spoke about other issues as well. Loryn Cesario, a third-year graduate teaching fellow in the political science department, mentioned a key concern as being the growing tension of labor disputes in many parts of the country. She also touched on the future of transportation in Oregon, an important subject because DeFazio is a senior member on the House Transportation Committee.
“There has been an ongoing push for a high speed rail in the Northwest,” Cesario said, “and I think that’s going to be an important issue, especially for the Eugene area.”
DeFazio strongly agreed throughout the event that there is an immense need for more transportation funding. He cited that an estimated 150,000 bridges are in need of repair across the country, and pointed out that a few developing countries actually spend more in total on their transportation systems than the U.S. currently does.
But funding struggles are the source of Congress’ current predicament. Following a few more stops in Oregon, DeFazio will return to Washington D.C. next week along with other Oregon congressmen to continue work on this issue, where he said he hopes they can find a solution.
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