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Capitol: 202.224.5244
FAX: 202.228.2717
District: 541.330.9142
District FAX: 541.858.5126
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Senator
Room 221 DSOB- Dirksen Senate Office Building 100 Constitution Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20510-3703
Residence: Portland, OR
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| Elected: 1996 Next Election: 2028 | | Spouse: Nancy Bass DOB: 5/3/1949 |
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| Committee Assignments |
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| Chairman | Senate Committee on Finance | | Chairman | Senate Subcommittee on Water and Power | | Chairman | Joint Committee on Taxation | | Co-Chair | Congressional Nanotechnology Caucus | | Co-Chair | Congressional Caucus on Wild Salmon | | Co-Chair | Senate Economic Mobility Caucus | | Co-Chair | Senate Small Brewers Caucus | | Vice Chair | Joint Whistleblower Protection Caucus | | Co-Chair | Senate Climate Change Clearinghouse | | Member | Senate Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth | | Member | Senate Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure | | Member | Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources | | Member | Senate Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness | | Member | Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining | | Member | Senate Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight | | Member | Senate Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy | | Member | Senate Subcommittee on Energy | | Member | Senate Select Committee on Intelligence | | Member | Senate Subcommittee on Health Care | | Member | Senate Committee on Budget | | FC Member | Congressional Hazards Caucus | | FC Member | Senate Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Caucus | | FC Member | Congressional Cranberry Caucus | | FC Member | Senate Caucus to End Human Trafficking | | FC Member | Senate Rural Education Caucus | | FC Member | Senate Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Caucus | | FC Member | Congressional Heart and Stroke Coalition | | FC Member | Senate Hunger Caucus | | FC Member | Senate Bike Caucus | | FC Member | Senate General Aviation Caucus | | FC Member | Community Development Finance Caucus | | FC Member | Senate Rural Health Caucus | | FC Member | Bicameral Congressional Caucus on Parkinson's Disease | | FC Member | Senate Travel and Tourism Caucus | | FC Member | Senate Taiwan Caucus | | FC Member | Senate Caucus on WMD Terrorism (Weapons of Mass Destruction) | | FC Member | Senate Diabetes Caucus | | FC Member | United States Coast Guard Caucus | | FC Member | Congressional Coalition on Adoption | | FC Member | Expand Social Security Caucus (Senate) | | FC Member | Senate Veterans Jobs Caucus | | FC Member | Congressional Internet Caucus | | FC Member | Congressional Ports Opportunity, Renewal, Trade, and Security [P.O.R.T.S.] Caucus | | FC Member | Congressional Recycling Caucus | | FC Member | Senate Oceans Caucus | | FC Member | Senate India Caucus | | FC Member | Senate National Guard Caucus | | FC Member | Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus | | FC Member | Arthritis Caucus | | FC Member | Bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease | | FC Member | Congressional Wine Caucus | | FC Member | Coalition for Autism Research and Education (CARE) | | FC Member | International Conservation Caucus (ICC) | | FC Member | Congressional Fire Services Caucus |
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BioOregonians know Ron as a senator who listens and innovates. For example, Ron has secured landmark health care and economic wins for our workers and retirees. Always citing the need to "throw open the doors of government for Oregonians" he holds an open-to-all town hall meeting in each of Oregon's 36 counties each year. Thus far he has held more than 970 meetings, as well as several virtual town hall meetings sponsored by the nonpartisan Town Hall Project. Wyden's dedication to hearing all sides of an issue and looking for common sense, nonpartisan solutions has won him trust on both sides of the aisle and put him at the heart of so many of the Senate's most important debates. In 2011, the Almanac of American Politics described Wyden as having "displayed a genius for coming up with sensible-sounding ideas no one else had thought of and making the counter-intuitive political alliances that prove helpful in passing bills." The Washington Post's Ezra Klein wrote- "The country has problems. And Ron Wyden has comprehensive, bipartisan proposals for fixing them."
In advocating for the needs of working families, Ron wants a tax code that gives small businesses and families an opportunity to get ahead, not one that rigs the rules for multinational corporations or the mega-rich. He led a pioneering expansion of unemployment benefits to help workers shoulder the economic burden of the COVID-19 health crisis, which economists say added more than $200 billion to the economy at a time when it was desperately needed. He updated the "Medicare Guarantee" with improved services for seniors with chronic illnesses, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, he secured Medicare coverage for telemedicine so homebound seniors could safely access medical care. Ron advanced the Family First Act to improve care for vulnerable families and kids, and was the first to promote internet policies that ensure free opportunities for Americans to learn and find good-paying jobs. Ron was also the first to introduce federal legislation to give all Americans the opportunity to vote by mail.
His relentless defiance of the national security community's abuse of secrecy forced the declassification of the CIA Inspector General's 9/11 report, shut down the controversial Total Information Awareness program and put a spotlight on both the Bush and Obama Administration's reliance on "secret law."
Wyden has taken the lead on policies that are helping to grow the economy in areas like improved infrastructure through his Build America Bonds program, micro and nano-technology, e-commerce, and through incentives for cleaner sources of energy.
He has won countless awards for his pioneering role in establishing a free and open Internet, is known for his commitment to an open government, having authored the "Stand By Your Ad" law and the resolution ending Senate Secret Holds, and he has been routinely recognized as one of the Senate's foremost health policy thinkers.
In Oregon, Wyden has authored laws extending permanent Wilderness protections to more than 400,000 acres including Mt. Hood, the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon's Bull Run Watershed, Badlands, Spring Basin, Copper Salmon and Soda Mountain. He has championed the designation of 1,986 miles of Wild and Scenic rivers in Oregon-more than any other member of Congress, overall, for the contiguous 48 states-helping Oregon secure the most wild and scenic river designations in the lower 48 states. Since 2000, the Wyden-authored Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act, commonly known as the "county payments" law, has helped provide a stable source of revenue for historically timber-dependent communities and Wyden's Combat Illegal Logging Act has helped protect Oregon's hardwood industries from the import of illegally harvested timber products. Wyden has fought to expand rural access to health care. For example, Wyden secured the creation of a Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in La Grande for veterans in Eastern Oregon.
Wyden serves on the Committees on Finance, Budget, Intelligence, and Energy and Natural Resources. He is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a senior member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Wyden began college at the University of California-Santa Barbara where he won a basketball scholarship and played in Division I competition for two seasons before transferring to Stanford University where he completed his Bachelors degree with distinction. He earned his law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1974, after which he taught gerontology and co-founded the Oregon chapter of the Gray Panthers, an advocacy group for the elderly. He also served as the director of Oregon Legal Services for the Elderly from 1977 to 1979 and was a member of the Oregon State Board of Examiners of Nursing Home Administrators during that same period. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 until his election to the U.S. Senate.
Senator Wyden's home is in Portland; he is married to Nancy Wyden, whom he married in September 2005. He has five children- Adam, Lilly, Ava, William and Scarlett.
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