Merkley talks Gaza, housing crisis, transgender youth sports at Bend town hall

“The phrase I use as kind of my philosophy is, ‘Never stop fighting to make the world a better place.’”

He added: “I want to see a world — I want to see a country — that works well for ordinary Americans. Government of, by and for the people.”

After that first question, a small handful of the roughly 100 people who attended the town hall at the community college’s Willie Hall got to ask their own.

Alongside questions about reaching across the aisle, the U.S. Supreme Court and mandatory draft registration, the town hall was also an opportunity for many community members to be heard. It acted, in some parts, as a platform for Bend’s residents and advocates to air their grievances about everything from dam removals to Medicare to foreign wars.

One attendee applauded Merkley for opposing the $95 billion foreign aid bill, which was sent to Biden’s desk Tuesday, that sought to give Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine military and humanitarian aid.

Merkley said he was opposed to American money and weapons being provided to a country restricting humanitarian aid access, such as Israel has been accused of doing, he said. He also condemned the October Hamas attacks on Israel.

“But it’s how you respond that matters,” Merkley said. “It is my hope that we’re going to see a pathway to a future that breaks the cycle of hate and violence.”

He said he supports a regional security partnership between the Arab nations and Israel paired with a post-war pathway that establishes a Palestinian territory with international assistance, he said.

In response to questions about the Supreme Court and draft registration, Merkley said he is in favor of legislating tenure limits and a code of ethics with more teeth for Supreme Court justices and abolishing mandatory draft registration.

Gretchen Valido, a longtime Bend resident who has voted for Merkley in the past, and Marilyn Winkleby, who has lived in Bend for a month, were two of attendees Sunday. The two retirees were interested to hear Merkley address the root causes of Oregon’s housing and homelessness crises.

“There need to be incentives to develop smaller, more affordable homes,” Merkley said at the town hall. “It was housing that caused me to run the state legislature now 26 years ago.”

Valido was concerned, in particular, with wealthy groups purchasing swaths of land or hordes of existing housing. Merkley’s proposed End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act seeks to enact limits on hedge fund homeownership.

If a buyer loses out on a home sale to an all cash, no inspection buyer, “that’s a hedge fund,” Merkley said.

There hasn’t been any firm evidence of a hedge fund-owned housing problem in Oregon or Central Oregon.

Merkley didn’t acknowledge homelessness, but no one in the crowd asked about it either.

The final question at Sunday’s town hall asked about Merkley’s thoughts on transgender youth participating in school sports.

“Let them play,” Merkley said.

Transgender youth are among the most bullied and the most vulnerable to challenges, he said. A loving approach is key, he said.

“I just thought that showed him to be a very empathetic person,” Winkleby said following the town hall.

She called him a real advocate for liberal issues.

Merkley, who was first elected in 2008, has held an open town hall in every Oregon county each year since taking office, his office said recently. He was most recently reelected by Oregon voters in 2020. His current term ends 2027.