It’s 9:30 am on a rare, cool Monday morning in August. On the top floor of an office building in downtown Eugene, Oregon’s 4th Congressional District staff gather around a table to discuss what needs to get done that day. It’s a short 10-or-so minute chit chat before the real business gets started.
Pan left to the door and in walks Rep. Val Hoyle, followed by her deputy chief of staff, Dan Whelan.
Both quickly take a seat at the table; it’s time to get to work. Eugene Weekly spent the day with Hoyle and her staff to gain insight into the day-to-day work of a federal lawmaker, how that affects her constituents and what that means while Hoyle is up for re-election.
“What is our wheels-out time?” Hoyle’s chief of staff, Karmen Fore, asks.
“10,” replies Vanessa Cornwall, constituent services director.
“So we got a shorter check in for this morning,” Fore says.
It’s then 20 minutes going over — in broad strokes — what the office needs to get done and, more importantly, what it has influence over getting done for Hoyle’s constituency.
Cornwall says they have received 602 constituent cases, and closed 344 of them. Most of the remaining 258 open cases are related to Veterans Affairs, immigration and Social Security. “The veterans are constant contacts. They have one issue resolved and another one pops up,” she says.
Cases like passport applications take a few days to close, while Social Security cases can take up to several months, Whelan says. “Certain ones simply take longer than others,” he says. “Most of the time this is due to the complexity of the problem.”
Another constituent reached out to Hoyle’s office requesting a reinstatement with Medicare after discovering their coverage would lapse on August 17. Cornwall, at their request, reached out to Social Security and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to get them their coverage. “Social Security had sat on it for a really long time,” Cornwall says.
“The constituent called over the weekend,” she says, “to let us know that they had received a call on the 16th that their reinstatement had been processed.”
This is an abnormally quick turnaround for Social Security cases. Cornwall says that most cases get stuck in the appeals process, because many appeals in this district end up appearing before the same judge who denied the first request.
Hoyle says this will be something she’ll be targeting in the near future — it’s something she’s consistently brought up to the Biden administration. “It’s not fair. It’s not right,” she says.
Many requests even get denied outright for three reasons. First, medical records cannot be pulled as quickly as Social Security is requesting them. This issue is in tandem with a “50-year-old work rule” that argues if you can get a job — like one at a call center or on the floor of a shoe factory — you don’t qualify.
Hoyle says these rules were made when her grandmother was 12 and working in a shoe factory.
“How many jobs in a call center can you find here? None,” Cornwall says.
According to Whelan, the rep wants to prioritize the development of a container port in Coos Bay. This would create over 2,200 construction jobs and 6,000 permanent positions to maintain and operate the port, including longshoreman jobs, while also giving Oregonian farmers another port to get their food to market.
Mariah Daugherty, is a UA Local 290 Plumbers and Steamfitters member and a constituent. She says Hoyle’s advocacy for vocational training and apprenticeship programs has been very impressive. Hoyle “marched with the union, showing her frontline support and commitment. Her presence and support is a testament to her genuine interest in our work,” Daugherty says
The final piece behind the astounding amount of backlogged Social Security cases plagues the entire federal government: staffing.
“They were also inundated with cases just before COVID, so COVID has only made that worse,” Cornwall says.
“All of these agencies are underfunded,” Hoyle says. She says 20,000 employees out of the 25,000 at FEMA are temporary. Even with their current “runway of time” Hoyle says almost every single federal agency is underfunded and behind on its work.
Fore then suggests connecting their office with a representative from a more “senior” district to get some weight behind the staffing issue.
Hoyle pulls out the name John Larson, a Democratic congressman from Connecticut who has served since 1999. She then suggested getting data on the lack of available resources and technology for federal employees from FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program.
Twenty minutes are spent just going over Social Security, immigration, Veterans Affairs, staffing issues at federal agencies, rural health care, local waste disposal projects and the plans for the day: meeting with the Florence Area Democrat’s Club to go over the upcoming election, then the Florence city manager and Coast Guard to discuss river slope stabilization, and meeting with the press.
It’s then a quick handoff of the memos for the day — bound in a nondescript packet — and off to Florence, an hour-and-twenty-minute drive away.
“If you have any questions,” Fore says to Hoyle, “we’re all reachable.”
Whelan and Hoyle then get in Hoyle’s 2019 scarlet-red Chevy Malibu, hitting the winding Highway 126 westbound to Florence.
‘Wheels-Out’
First up: an hour-long meeting with the Florence Area Democratic Club at its new local campaign office off Highway 101.
It’s now 12:45 pm and a sunny day on the Oregon Coast. Florence-area Democrat Maureen Miltenberger greets the group, including Hoyle’s campaign manager, Sage Lawrence, and his dog, Roo, with pizza and cookies.
“Oh wow!” Hoyle says as she picks up a plate with a slice of pizza.
Miltenberger, who is retired, says the office reopened for this election season the day before, on August 25, and she’s been ecstatic with the amount of volunteer turnout. With a line out the door of more than 40 people signing up to canvas, letter-write or phone-bank, Miltenberger says. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Throughout the day, more than 100 people showed up to volunteer with the Democrats. “It gives us wonderful fodder,” she says.
Harris and Walz yard signs, cardboard standees and other merch fills the empty space in the office. Several people grab signs on their way out.
Before Biden stepped out of the race, Miltenberger says, the Florence-area Democrats were “slumping.” She says, “All we could talk about was Project 2025.” Project 2025 is the alt-right think tank Heritage Foundation’s authoritarian Christian nationalist plan to steer the country toward autocracy.
But when Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stepped into the race, Miltenberger says she’s never seen people more excited.
“I’m in my seventh decade and I’ve never seen this kind of enthusiasm for anything,” she says.
The enthusiasm only grew as the hour progressed.
After chatting over some pizza, the Florence Area Dems and Hoyle gathered to snap a quick picture. “Democracy on three,” Lawrence says, readying his iPhone for the picture.
Then it’s right back to talking politics. Hoyle is holding a Monique DeSpain campaign flyer. DeSpain is Hoyle’s Republican opponent in Oregon’s 4th congressional district.
Passing the flyer around the Democrats in the office, Hoyle says the Republicans don’t have a strong platform, so they’re resorting to attack ads. “They have nothing to run on,” Hoyle says. “She doesn’t even understand the difference between federal and state.”
The attack ads cite an alleged “federal investigation by the ‘U.S. Attorney’ for giving out an illegal grant to a top campaign donor.”
Hoyle says there is no evidence she is under federal investigation — no one has contacted her or served her a subpoena. She says she complied with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries record requests surrounding the alleged deal between herself and La Mota — a group of cannabis dispensaries in Oregon under investigation by the FBI.
Hoyle says the allegations stem from her role on the oversight committee that governs the apprenticeship program and grant application process for Future Ready Oregon, a program initiated by former Gov. Kate Brown that provides funding to expand workforce development.
A grant application process was overseen by an apprenticeship council and auditor to develop curriculum for an apprenticeship program in the cannabis industry. One grant was awarded to Laura Vega, who immediately afterward went on to work for La Mota, Hoyle says.
“The day after she got the grant approved, she signed a contract to go work for Rosa Cazares,” the CEO of La Mota, Hoyle says.
Hoyle even offered to sit down with BOLI, but they declined. The FBI subpoenaed La Mota and Vega, but has yet to even contact Hoyle, she says.
“No one has ever talked to me. There is no subpoena with my name on it,” she says.
DeSpain is “a lawyer who doesn’t understand the law,” Hoyle says. “She’s either incompetent or a liar.”
Hoyle gives props to Willamette Week for its investigative reporting into La Mota and the contract between Vega and Cazares. However, she says in response to the Portland paper’s most recent story on her supposed relationship with La Mota, “I fought really hard for the reputation that I’ve built, and so it’s frustrating to see them try and tear that down, but it’s been very slanderous,” Hoyle says. “It has been exceptionally slanderous.”
She says that, from what other reporters have told her, she believes that Willamette Week is effectively parroting National Republican Congressional Committee talking points.
“But that’s all they got,” she says.
Hoyle says the NRCC is putting this as one of the top target races in the country. She says DeSpain has “big money” from the GOP backing her, along with appearances from party bigwigs like Rep. Mike Johnson, the fourth-term Republican speaker of the House from Louisiana.
Hoyle says the GOP has spent $250,000 on political ads alone. She believes their race is being so heavily targeted because of all the rampant gerrymandering nationwide.
“There’s very few seats that are actually in play,” Hoyle says. “They got to take their best shot, and we have to not take it for granted.”
Not only that, Hoyle says the NRCC has more than 300 lawyers aimed at questioning the integrity of congressional elections. “Seventy percent of Republicans think that the election was stolen, and there’s no evidence of it,” she says.
After a couple more minutes of political conversation, it was time to move on to a meeting with city of Florence government employees.
‘Democracy on Three’
Meeting with Cheri Brubaker, Hoyle’s field representative in Lincoln, Benton and coastal Lane County, we take a step into Florence’s city hall.
It’s a quick round of introductions between Hoyle’s office, the Florence city government and Lt. Commander Stephen P. Henderson from the Coast Guard station nearby. On the table today: the Siuslaw River slope stabilization project.
Currently, the river’s slope is slipping — essentially meaning the river embankment is changing due to continued erosion. Florence Public Works Director Mike Miller says that access to the local Coast Guard station and to a private neighborhood will be affected if something isn’t done soon.
Six houses could end up falling into the river if action is not taken, Florence Mayor Rob Ward says. Already, a stormwater drainage system into the Siuslaw has been exposed to the elements and a Coast Guard fence is slowly falling into the river.
Fortunately, Miller has a solution: a secant pile wall of intersecting reinforced concrete piles would reinforce the embankment. However, it’s not permanent and will push the problem off for 10 to 15 years. “It’ll buy us some time until a more permanent solution,” Miller says.
What Florence needs from the federal government is monetary assistance. That’s where Hoyle and her office come in.
“This is expensive and out of our normal operations and our normal budget and our normal ability to pay for with just rate payer fees,” Florence City Manager Erin Reynolds says, adding FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers have already visited the slope to figure out a permanent solution.
Whelan estimates that they can give Florence some funding by the second quarter of FY25, the end of next summer. “If it all passes and goes through, that money will be available,” he says.
“It’s quick in government time, but it is not quick enough,” Hoyle says.
‘Quick in Government Time’
Next is a quick drive over to River Roasters, a coffee shop in Florence, lying just below the OR-101 Highway bridge over the Siuslaw River. “Alright,” Hoyle says. “What do you got?” and asks for an impression of the day.
Hoyle credits part of her freshman success to her staff, inherited from her predecessor, Rep. Peter DeFazio.
“All of the people doing constituent work were doing it for Peter,” Hoyle says. “So they knew what they were doing. But more importantly, they know this community.”
She adds, “This is the culture that we try and keep. It’s just get shit done, no drama.”
Hoyle says Congress passed only 27 bills to President Joe Biden’s desk in 2023 — the fewest that have been passed since the Civil War. “It’s pathetic,” she says.
Hoyle voted against House Resolution 8369, the Israel Security Assistance Support Act — a GOP-sponsored bill preventing the federal government from stopping its own arms shipments to Israel. It overwhelmingly passed in the House and is on its way to the Senate floor.
Previously, on Dec. 1, 2023, Hoyle condemned the extremist contingent of the Israeli government calling for ethnic cleansing, its occupation of West Bank and Gaza alongside calling for the hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 to be released immediately followed by a ceasefire.
However, Hoyle says she was able to pass five bills she sponsored in her time as a freshman legislator, noting that she is most proud of HR 2839, which amended the Siletz Reservation Act restoring the hunting and fishing rights for the Confederated Tribe of Siletz Indians — getting rid of “historically racist” bureaucratic layers preventing them from fishing in their own waters.
“As Democrats, we often have to recognize when bureaucracy gets in the way of getting things done,” she says. “If we want to build green energy projects, we have to make sure that the permitting both protects where you want to protect and it doesn’t prevent things from happening.”
“When it takes you 10 to 15 years to get a NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] permit, and no one in the community knows what’s happening,” Hoyle says, “that’s not helpful.”
Hoyle says she wants to be helpful, even to her unhoused constituents. “In order to address the homeless crisis, we actually need more housing stock,” she says. “I worked with Sen. Ron Wyden on the DASH Act to make more housing vouchers available.”
The DASH — Decent, Affordable, Safe Housing for All — Act provides $15,000 housing vouchers for first time home buyers while also providing grants, loans and tax credits to promote the building, maintenance and affordability of housing.
“It’s a worthy investment,” Hoyle says. After her father got out of military service, her family moved into federally supported veterans housing because they couldn’t afford to live in a manufactured home.
Also at the federal level, Hoyle says she will vehemently defend a woman’s right to bodily autonomy. “People are dying, and that’s something my opponent doesn’t want to talk about,” Hoyle says of DeSpain. “She’s like, ‘It’s state by state,’ but my daughter, when she was pregnant, had to think about what state she could visit in case she had a miscarriage.”
Hoyle argues that DeSpain cannot be trusted by anyone who is pro-choice. Hoyle says that having Louisiana’s Johnson, who has a national abortion ban on his political “roadmap,” campaign on DeSpain’s behalf calls her stances into question.
“Are you going to make sure that there will not be a national abortion ban?” Hoyle asks.
This problem is only exacerbated in rural communities, where there is little to no access to life-saving health care. “The lack of care for pregnant women in our rural communities, for people with cancer,” she says, “it’s dire.”
Hoyle recollects a story her constituents from Curry County told about how they have to drive five hours to Eugene to receive chemotherapy treatments. Whelan says Hoyle has already secured $2 million in funding for a chemotherapy unit at the Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach.
“I get to work on all those things, and I feel like coming up with solutions,” Hoyle says.
Rep. Val Hoyle’s Eugene office is at 940 Willamette Street. Call 541- 465-6732 to make an appointment; Hoyle.house.gov. Find the Lane County Democrats at 115 West 8th Ave., Suite 120, or call 541-484-5099; Dplc.org.
Update
Willamette Week‘s Sophie Peel requested a change to respond to Rep. Val Hoyle’s statements. Peel writes in an email, “Rep. Hoyle has not identified a factual error in my reporting — instead, she went to a media outlet that would print her baseless allegation of slander. I stand ten toes behind my reporting. As to her allegation that I’m parroting NRCC talking points: the NRCC has repeatedly created talking points based on information I’ve brought to light in my reporting, not the other way around. I can’t control what others do with my reporting, and frankly, that’s not my problem.”