BAKER CITY — In the midst of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal government, fellow Republican Cliff Bentz, the congressman who represents Eastern Oregon, drew a crowd of more than 200 people to the Baker High School auditorium for a 90-minute town hall on Wednesday morning, Feb. 19.

The audience was much larger than has been typical during the past decade when Oregon’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, had similar events in Baker City.

Much of Bentz’s presentation, and many of the questions from the audience, dealt with President Donald Trump’s executive orders and the actions of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. A prominent topic was the administration’s decision during the past week to fire thousands of federal workers, including 50 or more in Northeastern Oregon. Many of those worked for the U.S. Forest Service, which manages 5.5 million acres of public land in the region.

Bentz represents Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes all of Eastern Oregon and most of the state east of the Cascades. Bentz is the only Republican member of Oregon’s congressional delegation.

Trump received about 73% of the votes in Baker County in the November 2024 election.

Several audience members made it clear, though, from their statements and from their reactions to both questions and Bentz’s answers, they don’t support the administration.

“I think all of you would agree that the last 30 days have been different from the past two years,” Bentz said during introductory remarks.

Bentz showed a slide showing the partisan breakdown of the House of Representatives, with 218 Republicans, 215 Democrats and two independents.

With such a slim GOP majority, it’s imperative Republican members attend as many sessions as possible to support the party’s platform, said Bentz, a former Oregon state lawmaker from Ontario.

Bentz is a member of the House Natural Resources Committee as well as the Energy and Commerce Committee.

“It took me four years to get on it, and I’m very happy to be there,” Bentz said of the latter committee. “This committee has the largest jurisdiction in Congress.”

He’s one of 30 Republicans on the committee.

Bentz talked about congressional tasks over the next four months, including budget appropriations for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1.

He mentioned reconciliation, which allows bills to pass the Senate with 50 votes rather than 60 votes. He called it a “normal process” that Republican and Democratic majorities have used.

Bentz discussed his priorities, including reducing federal spending, funding border security, extending the 2017 tax cuts, which would otherwise expire at the end of 2025, and increasing oil and gas production.

Bentz said income taxes will increase if the 2017 tax cuts aren’t extended.

Bentz said the Energy and Commerce Committee is trying to reduce spending in its areas of jurisdiction by $880 billion over the next 10 years. He said that will be a challenge.

Bentz talked about his views on federal spending. He showed a slide stating 30 cents of each dollar the government spends is borrowed, and taxpayers pay $1.126 trillion in interest each year on the debt. 

Bentz discussed the more than 65 executive orders Trump has signed during his month in office.

He also talked about the recent firings of federal employees, including residents of Northeastern Oregon.

“My heart goes out to those people,” Bentz said, a statement that provoked derisive laughter from some in the audience.

He showed a slide stating in the 2nd Congressional District there are about 7,877 federal employees, about 2.65% of the district’s total workforce.

“We have to stop spending as much money, and President Trump is doing his best to take action in that regard,” Bentz said.

Bentz said it’s “hard” to spend less. “If somebody doesn’t stand up and say what I’m saying right now, we’re all going to be the worse for it.”

He said it’s not fun or easy to stand before an audience and talk about reducing spending.

Other issues

Wolves

A member of Bentz’s staff, Nick Schrader, talked about a “rogue wolf” in northern Lake County that has killed six calves in 17 days. Federal workers have been hazing the wolf.

Bentz said he believes it’s “stupid” that wolves haven’t been removed from the Endangered Species List across the country. In Oregon, wolves are not federally protected east of Highways 395, 78 and 95, including Baker County.

“This is very close to home for me,” said Bentz, who is from a ranching family and has brothers who raise cattle.

Questions

Audience members who wanted to speak were given a ticket when entering the auditorium, and tickets were chosen at random.

Concern about Oregon wildlife risk map reducing property values and making it difficult to get homeowners insurance

Bentz said the map has had a “terrible impact” on homeowners across Oregon. Although the map is a state, not federal, project, Bentz said he has talked with Oregon lawmakers about potential changes to the map.

He encouraged residents to talk with their state legislators about the issue, since the federal government can’t override the state on the matter.

Bentz said the overall goal of reducing the wildfire risk, and the effects of blazes, is a focus for him.

Reducing the fuel load in forests is a key aspect of that effort, Bentz said.

He decried groups that file legal challenges to such projects. He mentioned the current effort to reduce the wildfire risk in Baker City’s watershed, which is slated to start later this year.

More federal money for U.S. Bureau of Mines to boost mineral production, including in Baker County

Bentz said the Trump administration will be much more aggressive in allowing mining.

“There is great enthusiasm” on that topic in the administration, Bentz said.

Is Congress overseeing the downsizing of the federal government?

There is a “serious question” about how far the president’s constitutional authority goes in reducing the federal workforce, and whether the Trump administration has exceeded that authority, Bentz said. He said the issue will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

Bentz said Congress has oversight, through its various committees, over this issue. He described that oversight as “modest.”

He said reducing federal spending in some, but not all, cases will involve reducing the number of employees.

How much power does Elon Musk have?

Musk’s main source of power is his friendship with Trump, Bentz said.

Forest Service employment — at what point would you be concerned that the agency has shrunk too much?

Bentz said it has been “extraordinarily sad” to watch the Forest Service thwarted by what he called “serial litigators.”

Spending more money to hire agency employees to fight these lawsuits is “not the proper place to put the money,” Bentz said.

Rather, he called for changing laws to ensure that the Forest Service can focus on improving public forests.

He reiterated his earlier point that the federal spending deficit needs to be addressed.

An 18-year-old asked whether there is potential to still get a job, particularly in firefighting

Bentz said the Trump administration has “indicated” that for every four federal employees fired, the agency can hire one person.

DOGE work riddled with conflict of interest, and accessing private data of citizens. Have you asked questions about this? What actions will you take to protect Americans? How much money is spent sending the president to the Daytona 500?

Bentz said he has asked the White House in a few instances about the effects of federal firings.

Bentz said he believes the Trump administration intends to fulfill its campaign promise to reduce federal spending.

He said he can “be of greatest help” in trying to address the effects, on his district, of workforce reductions.

DOGE accessing private records

Terry Strommer of Oxbow, a disabled veteran, asked Bentz if he believes Musk and his team have the authority to access private records of citizens, such as Medicaid and Medicare.

“Do you think he’s doing it right,” Strommer asked Bentz. “I don’t see him answering to anybody.”

Bentz said the “approach Elon Musk is using” has been approved by a court.

Bentz called Musk a “world-renowned expert in computer analysis.”

Bentz said the government needs to root out clear cases of money being misspent, “because we need the money.”

With regard to DOGE accessing private data, Bentz said, “I don’t want my data looked at unless it’s done appropriately.”

Concern about fire danger in Baker City’s watershed

Bentz said his staff is checking with Forest Service lawyers about possible lawsuits that groups with concerns about the proposed project might file. Three groups filed objections to aspects of the project, particularly involving proposed commercial logging, but no lawsuit has been filed.

Bentz suggested those groups “be called out like I’m being called out today.”

He also talked about investigating the tax deductions that corporations can receive by donating money to environmental groups.

Growing gap between rich and poor, and what does Congress feel about it, and does Bentz have concerns?

Bentz said Congress deals with that by taxing people more heavily based on their income, a comment that drew catcalls from the audience.

He said the top 1% of taxpayers pay 40% of the total income tax.

Concerns about firing federal workers; who’s going to work to improve forest health?

Bentz said, “boy is it hard to shrink government.” He said most federal employees are working hard.

Bentz said if Musk or DOGE has exceeded their authority, the courts will hold them accountable.

“I would say to you, how would you shrink government?” he said.

Bentz asked whether people want higher income tax rates for the wealthy.

Several audience members answered in the affirmative.

Jamie Ratliff of Baker City said she was saddened to hear audience members — neighbors — yelling at each other.

“I’m all for fiscal responsibility and downsizing the federal government,” she said. “You can do it in a way that’s humane. It’s your job to make sure that people follow the laws.”

Ratliff called on Congress to “take responsibility for the unsustainable budgets” rather than trying to deal with the situation by targeting federal employees.

She said Congress “has plenty of power” to address the situation and needn’t wait for judges to “bail you out.”