Rep. Val Hoyle, in a late June interview with Eugene Weekly, stresses her eagerness to fight for the democracy that is under the Constitution and the importance of ensuring the power balance in the government. From the U.S.’s attack on Iran, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that was passed by the House of Representatives in May and the Senate on July 1 to the immigration and ICE crisis, so much is going on in Washington, D.C., and across the country. Hoyle wants her constituents to know what she is doing.
Hoyle released a statement after she voted to table the impeachment of President Donald Trump over Iran strikes on June 24. “I voted to table the motion to impeach because there is no viable path to impeachment at this time,” Hoyle says. “Impeachment is one of the most serious actions Congress can take, and it shouldn’t be used as a symbolic gesture or partisan spectacle.”
Hoyle says one of her biggest concerns is the lack of power balance and the power that judicial branches can maintain and be able to enforce contempt rulings over the president’s actions. She says one of her Republican colleagues has said the executive branch can have all the power at once, which brought additional concerns about the power balance for Hoyle.
The president can’t do that — Hoyle on Iran strikes
Hoyle has been vocal about Trump’s military actions, and says she was one of the first politicians to speak against his action in Iran. She is the first and only U.S. representative from Oregon to back the Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie War Powers Act Resolution as of June 2025, which is a bipartisan resolution to prohibit involvement in Iran. It points out that Article 1 in the U.S. Constitution says, “Congress has the power to declare war,” not the president alone.
This is not the first time that Hoyle signed such a resolution. When President Joe Biden bombed Yemen in January 2024, Hoyle signed onto one as well. She says she believes that she is the only Oregon representative that has signed on to the War Powers Act resolution, which ensures that the president will consult with Congress before bringing the U.S. military into a war. “This isn’t just about President Trump. This is about ensuring that Congress acts within the authority that it has,” she says. “My constituents, regardless of party, do not want to send their children or their tax dollars to another forever war in the Middle East.”
“The bad bill”
Hoyle says that her biggest concern in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” is the loss of access to social programs that support so many Oregonians. She says the federal government is “gutting programs that are really successful,” such as Medicaid for the Oregon Health Plan and even SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) cuts. The bill now heads back to the House, which is expected to take it up as early as the morning of July 3.
Hoyle says SNAP is one of the most successful social programs. Formerly known as food stamps, SNAP was renamed in 2008, and has been providing monthly monetary support to low-income residents and households. In the current law, adults ages 18 through 54 need to work, volunteer or participate in training programs for at least 80 hours a month. The new legislation would expand the work requirements age to 64. According to the Associated Press, over 42 million people nationwide received SNAP benefits in February this year, which is roughly one out of every eight people in the country. “Children who are hungry cannot learn,” she says, adding that the Trump administration is considering 8 years old as not a child anymore. The new legislation would extend the work requirements to receive SNAP benefits to parents without children younger than age 7.
Hoyle says that the government wants to cut funding for Planned Parenthood alongside making abortion illegal and trying to ban birth control. “If you need help because you’re having a child that you didn’t plan on having or you can’t afford, they don’t want to help with that, either,” she says.
More and more fear
The current government climate is creating fear among immigrants, international students and federal workers, Hoyle says. She recognizes the impacts that vulnerable populations and immigrants are facing today. “Lack of due process, targeting of immigrants and other vulnerable groups with this administration,” she says, adding “cruelty is the point.”
She points out that the government is “deporting” people who are not criminals, are going through the right process, and have taken some of them to countries that they are not even originally from.
Since Trump’s presidency, over 59,000 federal jobs have been shed, according to the Labor Department report. Many left work due to fear in the work place in the effect of the department of government efficiency “You should be thankful to the federal workers,” she says. This loss of workers can slow down federal agency work, making it more difficult to receive federal services, she says.
“What can we do? Number one, we show up. Number two, we have to protect our elections,” Hoyle says.
In Eugene, almost 10,000 people came out to protest June 14 for No Kings Day and over five million people across the country came out to protest peacefully, to say, “We shall have no kings.” Hoyle says that this matters, and the number of participants was significantly higher compared to Trump’s military parade that day. “You can see where the people are,” she says.
Democrats “represent well,” she says, as the Republicans have a narrow majority in the House with four seats. However, it has been difficult to make an impact on bills when Republicans are not engaging in discussions nor answering questions.
For example, the SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act) Act that Republicans pushed through the House bans vote by mail. Hoyle says Oregon has voted by mail that was supported by Republicans and Democrats for more than 25 years. Now, Oregon is the first state the federal government wants to ban. On top of that, Hoyle says that the state is trying to ask people to show ID, which would affect women who’ve changed names after marriage and other barriers. “What do we do to protect elections? What do we do to make sure that we elect Democrats in the House?” Hoyle says although winning a majority in the Senate might be difficult, she believes that Democrats can win back the House.