Can The Oregon Standoff Happen Here?

We have all been keeping an eye on the volatile issue in Oregon's Harney County. Oregon's Congressman Greg Walden delivered a lengthy and very passionate message from the floor of the House. Congressman Dan Newhouse from Washington, who is in his first term, agrees with a lot of what Walden had to say.

NEWHOUSE: I listened to Congressman Walden give a very impassioned floor speech about the frustrations that he and a lot of us from the west experience as it relates to the federal government and management of federal lands and the interaction with public lands and some of the struggles we've had. In fact, I've got to tell you that this past year, my first year in Congress sitting on the Natural Resource Committee, we have spent just a tremendous amount of time trying to find ways to get the government to do a better job in managing federal lands that they have control over and I think that gets to the heart of the here, that frustration that people are feeling and we see erupting now.

That begs the question as to whether this could happen here?

NEWHOUSE: Certainly you can bet that people in Washington State and around the west are watching very carefully what's going on in Oregon State. We have some of the same frustrations building in our own areas and so I share those frustrations and I certainly share Mr. Walden's sentiment about what's going on down there but I would say to that I agree with the Congressman an armed takeover of a federal building - we have better ways of addressing these kind of things.

And that's Washington Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.