Ron Wyden News

Every advance in the health care debate has seemed to produce the same headline: "Now for the hard part." The headline is never inaccurate, with hurdles such as abortion language, 60 votes for Senate passage and a House-Senate conference committee still ahead.

The U.S. Senate on Friday talked itself toward a crucial showdown vote over the weekend to begin formal consideration of a historic but highly controversial health-care reform bill.

Quotable "Their sweeping overhaul of the health care system - which Congress is halfway toward enacting - would almost certainly make matters worse.

The Senate is ready to begin a volatile, high-stakes health care debate that's sure to be punctuated by tense and unpredictable battles over some of the most incendiary issues in American politics today.

Staffers on Capitol Hill were calling it the Louisiana Purchase. On the eve of Saturday's showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn't secured the support of Sen.

Close Sen. Ben Nelson after a weekly Democratic policy luncheon in October. WASHINGTON -- An influential centrist Senate Democrat said Friday he would vote to move forward with health-overhaul legislation, raising expectations that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will secure the 60 votes needed to thwart Republican efforts to stall the bill.

Sen. Mary Landrieu said Friday night that she's "leaning towards" voting to start debate on the health care bill which would leave Democrats just a single vote shy of clearing a critical test for the reform package on Saturday.

Cook Report: "Very weak" Oregon GOP has "no enthusiasm" for challenging Wyden Over at the Cook Political Report, they've done their baseline report on the U.S. Senate race in 2010.

National forests can be used as a carbon "sink" with vast numbers of trees absorbing carbon dioxide to help slow global warming, the Forest Service chief said Wednesday, but that goal must be balanced.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he is hopeful he will have the votes needed to begin debate on health legislation even as fellow Democrats raise concerns over issues including abortion to a government-run insurance plan.

Senators from both political parties have expressed support for opening up the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program to the public, or ending the program entirely and requiring federal employees to enroll in proposed new state-based health exchanges.

Bill introduced by Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley would add more than 4,000 acres to monument Loading... Rosemary Mallonee and Dylan Wimpee, shown in July 2008, fill tanks with water, as part of preservation work in the Rimstone room of the Oregon Caves National Monument.

As President Barack Obama labors to construct a strategy for Afghanistan, he is buffeted by competing recommendations -- and competing risks.

Employees of large South Florida corporations may get hit with a new tax on their healthcare benefits under a bipartisan proposal being supported by 14 United States senators.

A plan to provide housing, clothing, and other services to women trapped in a life of prostitution was announced Thursday by Oregon Sen.

Barack Obama ran for president on a promise of saving the typical family $2,500 a year in lower health care premiums.

Congress will miss President Obama's deadline to enact health care reform by the end of the year, a key Democratic senator said Tuesday.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski is making another surprise visit to Iraq to visit Oregon National Guard troops, this time in honor of Veterans Day.

Reporting from Washington - With Senate leaders navigating a tricky path to move healthcare legislation forward, Democrats on Tuesday received a blunt warning from the president who tried in vain to provide universal coverage 15 years ago -- and who suffered the political consequences of failure.

As health care legislation moves toward a crucial airing in the Senate, the White House is facing a growing revolt from some Democrats and analysts who say the bills Congress is considering do not fulfill President Obama's promise to slow the runaway rise in health care spending.