Rep Val Hoyle is a strong advocate for the workers in her district and nationwide. Whether it is bringing home the bacon through transportation and infrastructure projects, helping out union members, or taking on Wall Street, Hoyle charts a populist course on issues regarding the economy or workers’ rights.
No better example can be shown than her introducing a bill that would strengthen Social Security by making it solvent until 2096 instead of threatening to slash it like Republicans do.
As Republicans threaten cuts to Social Security and other essential federal programs, U.S. Representatives Jan Schakowsky (IL-09) and Val Hoyle (OR-04), along with U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), are introducing legislation that would expand Social Security benefits by $2,400 a year and ensure Social Security is fully funded for the next 75 years – all without raising taxes by one penny on over 93% of American households that make $250,000 or less.
These estimates reflect an analysis of the legislation conducted by the Social Security Administration. The analysis was also released today in a letter from Chief Actuary Stephen Goss.
“Every American should be able to retire with respect and security by knowing that they will receive the Social Security payments they have earned,” said Congresswoman Val Hoyle. “With the rising cost of living, it’s time to modernize and expand the program. I’m proud to co-lead the Social Security Expansion Act, my first bill in Congress, which helps address the disproportionate amount Social Security recipients spend of their income on things like health care and prescription drugs. While House Republicans are willing to put Social Security on the chopping block, we are fighting hard to protect Americans’ hard-earned benefits and expand coverage.
Today, the spotlight is on a friend of the working class — Rep. Val Hoyle!
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Rep. Val Hoyle (Oregon-4)
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Biography — HoW Did Hoyle Get to Congress?
Rep. Val Hoyle hasn’t always been a politician. In fact, she has spent more time in the private sector than she has serving constituents! She was bitten by the politics bug when she became a legislative aide to a state senator when she moved to Oregon.
In 1999, Hoyle and her family moved to Lane County, Oregon, where she joined the education advocacy group Stand for Children. Before serving in the Oregon legislature, she worked in sales and marketing for bicycle manufacturers Burley Design and Cane Creek, and served as legislative aide and policy analyst for State Senator Floyd Prozanski. She was also a director of the United Way of Lane County.[5]
Eventually, Hoyle was appointed to a vacant seat in the Oregon House of Representatives. She served with distinction in the 2010s, eventually rising to Majority Leader in an election that was contested. Winning the election amongst her Democratic peers showed her political skills.
She is also a former Democratic member of the Oregon House of Representatives, representing District 14 from 2009 to 2017. She was first appointed to the chamber on September 23, 2009, to replace Chris Edwards (D), who was appointed to the Oregon State Senate.
Eventually, Hoyle decided to forego her position as Majority Leader to attempt to run statewide. The vacancy in the Secretary of State position was caused by the resignation of Gov. John Kitzhaber. Hoyle was mentioned as a strong candidate for the Secretary of State position.
On July 7, 2015, Hoyle announced that she was stepping down as majority leader to run for secretary of state in 2016.[1] On May 17, 2016, she was defeated in the Democratic primary by Brad Avakian.[2]
Before joining Congress, Rep. Val Hoyle was elected Labor Commissioner for the entire state of Oregon in 2018. This bureau of the state government has wide-ranging powers, some of which Hoyle describes on her campaign website.
As Labor Commissioner, Val ensures that workers are paid the wages and benefits they are owed under the law, oversees enforcement of civil rights and housing discrimination protections for Oregonians, and has jurisdiction over apprenticeship programs that provide workforce training across the state.
During the pandemic, she fought to expand the Oregon Family Leave Act and ensure workers could continue to earn money part-time while retaining their unemployment benefits. Val has secured a three-fold increase in settlements for victims of discrimination, and cracked down on employers who exploit their workers and compete unfairly with responsible businesses.
To get to her current job in Congress, longtime Rep. Peter DeFazio needed to retire. There was a primary election, in which Hoyle crushed the opposition and earned the endorsements of some heavy hitters in Oregon politics, including Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden. DeFazio also endorsed Hoyle, noting her track record of victories both in the Oregon State House and as Majority Leader.
Hoyle campaigned on continuing DeFazio’s work in Congress. When DeFazio retired, Hoyle stated that “no one can fill DeFazio’s shoes”, but that her goal was to continue his “dedication to our people and communities… and his track record of putting the needs of hard-working Oregonians first”. She concluded by saying
Oregonians need a continuation of Peter’s strong, experienced leadership, especially in these challenging times. That is why I am announcing my candidacy for Congress in Oregon’s 4th Congressional District.
From my time as Majority Leader in the Oregon House to my current role as Labor Commissioner, I have built a track record as a fighter for the middle-class and working families. I have always been focused on getting the job done, not on who gets the credit.
The Oregon Democratic Party was roiled by dissension in 2022, with a moderate independent candidate siphoning off critical votes from the mainstream liberal candidate. Hoyle herself had a tough challenger in Alek Skarlatos, whose claim to fame was stopping a terrorist attack on a train heading to Paris. Skarlatos challenged DeFazio two years prior and held him to a close result. The campaign focused on Hoyle’s commitment to workers, while Skarlatos opposed an increase in the minimum wage. The 2022 result turned out to be wider than anticipated, with Hoyle winning by a 51%-43% margin.
Hoyle, Working in Congress for You
Upon joining Congress, Hoyle joined both the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the New Democratic Coalition. Both reflect some of her priorities and needs. She also is a proud member of the Labor Caucus in Congress. Rep. Val Hoyle sits on the Transportation Committee in the House of Representatives, as well as the Natural Resources Committee.
Hoyle definitely looks after the workers in her district. She advocates for many different policies and issues that help create good paying jobs. The lumber industry and related industries have shrunk significantly in her district, and Oregonians struggle to find jobs to replace those lost. Hoyle, like DeFazio before her, works to steer funds to her district.
One of the biggest transportation projects to help both Oregon workers and consumers across the USA is the Coos Bay Port. In an interview early this year, she stressed the importance of this major infrastructure upgrade.
FOX 12: “What overall challenges face your district right now?”
Val Hoyle: “People here need jobs, they need good-paying jobs and we need to rebuild the middle class, which is something we have previously had when people had jobs in mills and the Timber industry. So we need to look at what are the jobs of the future, how do we educate people for the jobs of the future. We have employers who have good jobs that are going unfilled because we aren’t filling the pipeline of young being trained in those jobs. We also need to create investments like the Coos Bay Port. The Port of Coos Bay which would be a deep-water container port would create 9,000 jobs in Coos, Douglas, and Lane counties. It would be a green energy-powered port that would take containers straight to rail. It’s also two days closer to the far east than California so it would allow our farmers to get their goods to market more quickly. Fundamentally, that project would be a game changer for our economy. It would reduce the supply-chain congestion on the West Coast by 10 to 12 percent. But the biggest thing is that it will rebuild the middle class and allow people here on the South Coast to be able to go into good-paying jobs and have their kids stay here for their future as opposed to having to leave to get a job in Portland or somewhere else. Our biggest export right now is our kids because they have to leave to go get jobs and we’d like them to stay.
Another example is a boon for coastal communities in Oregon and elsewhere where the commercial fishing economy is dominant. Hoyle introduced legislation to make it easier for small ports to secure funding for upgrades. It passed the House already!
Another example involves hunting, which provides recreation and food on the table for many working class Oregonians. Hoyle supported and passed an act that would ensure archery and hunting education programs still are supported in rural schools.
U.S. Representative Val Hoyle (OR-04) successfully helped pass the Protecting Our Hunting Heritage and Education Act (H.R. 5110) in the U.S. House of Representatives. This month, Congresswoman Hoyle sent a letter urging the House Education and Workforce Committee and the House Appropriations Committee to swiftly pass bipartisan legislation to clarify that federal funding can continue for school archery, hunter safety, culinary arts, and other related outdoor programs. The final bill, The Protecting Our Hunting Heritage and Education Act, incorporated many of the provisions that Congresswoman Hoyle fought for in her letter.
A final example can be found in trying to balance sustainable use of natural resources and economic growth for the working class residents of her district. This is clear in the act she wrote protecting southwestern Oregon’s watersheds. Instead of exploiting the land through mining, which could bring jobs, Hoyle decided that outdoor recreation and salmon spawning grounds would be a better choice for the land.
She isn’t just concerned with workers in her district. Keeping an eye out for the concerns of organized labor is second nature to her. Not only has she been a union member, but her father and grandfather were proud union members as well. She went on the Rick Smith Show and explained why these issues are so important to her.
I wrote about Rep. Val Hoyle in my Majority Savers series before the 2022 midterm elections. Even then, it was clear that she was going to be very strong on labor issues in Congress. I summarized her positions as such:
Labor and Working Families: Hoyle will push for the minimum wage to be increased to $15/hr, as well as paid medical leave for all workers. She is a huge advocate of the PRO Act, which would make it easier to unionize and generally would help unions regain a foothold in a pro-big business nation.
In terms of legislation, Hoyle has co-sponsored the LEAP Act, which is meant to help apprenticeship programs throughout the nation. These types of programs often partner with unions in the professions they teach and are a fertile recruitment ground for future union members.
Hoyle is a populist when it comes to economic policy, and her support of both transportation projects and bills targeting Wall Street reflect her priorities when it comes to helping out the working class in Congress.
For instance, one of the clearest examples was when Hoyle centered workers when she voted against the Bipartisan Debt Ceiling Deal from a progressive position. Her statement on the vote reads:
“Tonight, I voted against House Republicans’ debt limit bill that screws over working people. We should be passing a clean bill to pay for what we’ve already bought, exactly as Republicans supported under Reagan and Trump.
Instead, we got a messy bill that guts environmental protections, greenlights a fossil fuel pipeline, strips essential government programs, and takes food from the mouths of the most vulnerable members of our society. I refuse to support a precedent of letting congressional Republicans threaten to tank the U.S. economy by failing to support a clean bill.
House Republicans have no willingness to reverse the Trump tax cuts that reward their millionaire and billionaire donors and leaves working people behind. It’s bad policy to drive up costs and refuse to pay the bill when it comes due. This is the opposite of fiscal responsibility, and I won’t go along with their political theater.”
Another instance is multinational corporations have been buying back stocks in order to boost the share price while at the same time eliminating workers or their benefits. Hoyle feels that this is wrong, which is why she teamed up with other populist Democratic members of Congress to introduce the Reward Work Act.
In order to help the working class out, Hoyle is all about taxing Wall Street to the benefit of Main Street. A financial transactions tax has been floating as an idea for Congress to adopt ever since the Great Recession in 2008. Hoyle proudly helped to reintroduce this proposed bill for this session of Congress.
Today, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) reintroduced legislation to create a new progressive tax on financial transactions that would curb high-risk trading practices, reduce economic inequality, and generate $752 billion in new federal revenue over the next decade.
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“Wall Street trading practices, like speculative trading, benefit a small percentage of our country’s most elite investors. I’m proud to introduce the Wall Street Tax Act with Senator Schatz to discourage speculative trading that causes market instability,” said Representative Hoyle. “The Wall Street Tax Act would generate billions of dollars that we can use to invest in affordable health care, infrastructure, and jobs that will support working families.”
While other members of Congress and the Federal Reserve are concerned about taming the rampant inflation of the past couple of years, Rep. Val Hoyle has a different set of priorities in mind. She wrote an op-ed in The Hill along with Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania about her worries of triggering another recession.
We know that rate increases help to reduce inflation rates, but they have the potential to come at the cost of gains for workers. While the labor market is strong and adding an average of nearly 250,000 jobs a month, continuing to rapidly increase interest rates could threaten this recovery. In President Biden’s economy, employers are finally competing for talent and workers are empowered to seek out new opportunities and better-paying jobs. A self-inflicted recession that leads to millions of jobs lost will disproportionately hurt low-wage workers and those who are already living in financially precarious positions. We also know that rate hikes take their time to work through the economy, which means that we may not have yet seen the full effects of the Fed’s 10 rate increases.
History tells us that once an unemployment increase begins, it is hard to contain. With inflation at its lowest rate in two years and the economy and wages still stable and strong, continuing to raise rates could imperil millions of American livelihoods, ruin our shot at a soft landing, and threaten a self-inflicted recession. As strong supporters of American workers, we believe the real risks far outweigh the possible benefits.
People in Pennsylvania and Oregon, and throughout this country, are finally seeing an economy with higher wages and opportunity for all. Bidenomics is working, and our economy is in a far better place today than it was one, two, or even three years ago. It’s time to pause the hikes and give the economy a chance to fully recognize the impact of previous rate increases. After Wednesday’s 11th rate hike, the danger of over-correcting is now far greater than the danger of persistent inflation. If the Fed doesn’t get this right, millions of hard-working Americans will pay the price.
Rep. Val Hoyle is concerned about many different issues, but there is no doubt about which one is her signature issue. Her tireless advocacy for workers in her district in Oregon is multi-faceted, focusing not only on economic conditions but also organized labor, transportation, resource use, job training, and even corporate greed.
Hoyle may not be a familiar face on the national talk show circuit, as only having 1.8k Twitter followers can attest to. She is more well known in Oregon through holding many different political offices. Being well known in the media does get your priorities attention, but that can backfire in Congress where relationships with other members is paramount to getting legislation passed — even in the minority.
Hoyle does reside in a swing seat, which may explain why she takes moderate stances on many other issues other than her signature issue. As long as she continues to look out for working class Oregonians, she will be tough to beat in any future election!
New Faces in Congress is a diary series meant to highlight our new and diverse members of Congress in the Democratic Party. These 36 House freshmen range from political neophytes to seasoned legislative veterans. The series will run every Sunday morning, bright and early.
Last diary, the New Faces in Congress series continued with a profile on Rep. Seth Magaziner from Rhode Island’s 2nd district. If you missed it, feel free to click on this link to read all about him!
Next week, I will profile Rep. Wiley Nickel of North Carolina’s 13th district. See you then!
Rep. Val Hoyle (Oregon-4)
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