After representing a large swath of Oregon for 22 years, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden is looking forward to new pursuits when he leaves office in January.
“My wife and I are both ready to spend time doing other things,” Walden said in a telephone interview from his Capitol Hill office. Most immediately, he and his wife Mylene, who live in Hood River, plan to “hit the road.” But instead of campaigning or discussing politics, they will join friends for skiing at Mt. Bachelor before traveling to ski areas in Montana, Utah and Wyoming.
“If we’re still standing,” Walden joked. “I’ll either be in the best physical shape of my life, or I’ll be in traction.”
Despite living in the shadow of Mt. Hood, skiing is not something Walden has done often the last 22 years. Since being elected to Oregon Second Congressional District in 1998, Walden has spent most weekends flying between Washington, D.C., and Oregon. His huge district includes 20 counties in central, southern and eastern Oregon. When he flies back from Congress for the last time, it will mark his 644th round-trip journey, a cumulative distance of nearly three million miles.
Walden, who turns 64 on Jan. 10, has been involved in politics for 30 of the past 32 years. He spent six years in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1989 to 1995, then moved to the Oregon Senate from 1995 to 1997. After a short break and a long campaign, he took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in January 1999.
Walden said his major regret is not finding viable solutions to the ongoing Klamath Basin water crisis. He said a major obstacle was the strong opposition by critical House committee leaders who “pretty strongly opposed dam removal.” Efforts to pass the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, which would have led to removing Klamath River dams in Oregon and California, have been consistently opposed by U.S. Representatives from far Northern California.
“Not for a lack of trying by a lot of different people including myself,” Walden said of efforts to pass the KBRA. He said he eventually realized the legislation was “going to be a nonstarter. We never did a find a key that would unlock the legislative lock. I tried different things to see if we could break the gridlock … We did a lot but we never found a durable, fair solution that also could become law so that will be left to my successor (Cliff Bentz) who, as fate would have it, is a water law attorney. Cliff is perfectly suited to carry on that work.”
But he did find some positives in his work in the basin.
“We’ve made, I would argue, some pretty big advances in the Klamath Basin on water issues,” Walden said. As examples, he cited removing the Chiloquin Dam to improve fish passage, screening the A canal and “a lot of water conservation efforts … no water system probably received greater federal support, directly, than the Klamath water system has.”
Walden also believes significant steps were taken to support Kingsley Field, the home base of the Oregon Air National Guard’s 173rd Fighter Wing. A major Klamath Basin employer, the base’s future was bolstered last August when it was announced that Kingsley will host one of the Air Force’s first F-15EX formal training units in 2022. He hopes steps will continue “to not only improve the facilities but also to move forward on the next generation F-15 aircraft … hopefully that will all continue to go down the right path and Kingsley will expand its mission of fighter pilot training.”
Walden said he is proud of those accomplishments and others, including efforts aimed at improving forest management, expanding high speed internet to rural areas, defending farmers and ranchers, providing benefits for Oregon veterans and their families, funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program and promoting renewable energy projects, including geothermal research at Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls.
“Geothermal holds great promise for heat and power in our (Congressional) district,” he said.
He’s also championed several issues impacting the Rogue Valley and is especially proud of helping save and expand the Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center & Clinics in White City. There had been plans to close the SORCC, which operates 255 residential rehabilitation beds and a primary care/mental health outpatient clinic.
“That’s one project I really went to bat to save,” Walden said, noting the facility serves the wider region. Through cooperative efforts with county commissioners and others, the closure decision was reversed and its facilities were upgraded.
Walden said he worked with Jackson County Commissioners to prevent moving an air tanker base used during forest fires from being moved from Medford to Klamath Falls. His opposition stemmed from concerns that moving the planes would increase the response time to Rogue Valley and neighboring areas by up to 45 minutes.
“Time and again we’ve proven the value of having that tanker base in the Rogue Valley,” he said, noting the tanker base has also received funding for significant upgrades.
While Walden believes more action is necessary to prevent and reduce the impact for forest and other fires, he said the health forest act passed in 2003 has benefited southeast Oregon. In Jackson County, it reduced the wildfire threat in the Ashland watershed. This past summer, when fires devastated Talent, Phoenix and other areas throughout Oregon, Walden joined other legislators in successfully pushing for rapid disaster relief.
“We’ve had a lot of success along the way,” he said. “It’s always a case of good partnerships.”
On a national level, Walden explained why he did not join 126 other Republican Congressmen who joined President Trump’s efforts to overturn November’s election results in several key states.
“The good news for the country is we once again proved our system is pretty durable and works, and that there are checks and balances in place,” Walden said of the controversy. “This president (Trump) chose to be pretty outspoken about what he viewed in terms of the election and balloting. He had the opportunity to make his case and the courts pretty roundly rejected the arguments including the Supreme Court. The vote’s been cast and that decision is something we’re going to live by.”
Walden noted that claims of election fraud are not new. Until the pandemic, he said protesters had been at his Bend field office on a weekly basis since the 2016 election claiming Trump won the presidency because of Russian interference.
“It’d be nice to get through one of these someday and have people accept the outcome and move on,” he said.
Walden said he hasn’t always followed the party line.
“There are days I didn’t agree with myself,” he said. “I tried to call them as best as I saw them, always keeping in focus first and foremost I’m the voice for the people of the second district.”
Walden said he decided not to run for re-election because he “didn’t want to be voted out, which I didn’t think would happen, and I didn’t want to be carried out.” He said he’s ready to spend “go-go” time with his wife, son, family and friends.
“I’ll be 64 in January and I’m great,” he said of his health. “My wife refers to these as the ‘go-go’ years. If we’re going to go skiing and do these things that are more active, this is the time to do it. We want to take advantage of the ‘go-go’ years and go have some fun,” he said. “There’s always a colleague who over a course of two years is using a cane and a crutch and the next thing they’re in a wheelchair and the next thing a staffer is wheeling them in to vote and they just sort of sit there. In my book they stayed too long. I want to go do other things.”
Walden said he has no current future job plans, but expects he’ll find ways to keep busy and productive post-Congress.
“I have no idea of what that’s going to be, but I couldn’t just sit around or ski all the time,” Walden said. “I’ve had a good run. I’ve enjoyed the work, and I like the people and the process, and I still believe it (government) does function. It’s never easy, but making tough decisions never is.”
