77 Facts About Ron Wyden

Ronald Lee Wyden is an American politician and retired educator serving as the senior United States senator from Oregon, a seat he has held since 1996.

Ron Wyden is the dean of Oregon's congressional delegation and chairs the Senate Finance Committee.

Ronald Wyden was born in Wichita, Kansas, the son of Edith and Peter H Wyden, both of whom were Jewish and had fled Nazi Germany.

Ron Wyden grew up in Palo Alto, California, where he played basketball for Palo Alto High School.

Ron Wyden attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, on a basketball scholarship, and later transferred to Stanford University, where he majored in political science and received his Bachelor of Arts in 1971.

Ron Wyden received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1974, but has never been a member of the Oregon State Bar.

Ron Wyden was the director of the Oregon Legal Services Center for Elderly, a nonprofit law service.

In January 1996, in a special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Bob Packwood, Ron Wyden defeated Oregon State Senate President Gordon Smith by just over 18,000 votes, mainly due to swamping Smith by over 89,000 votes in Multnomah County.

Smith won the November 1996 Senate election to succeed the retiring Mark Hatfield, and Smith and Ron Wyden served together until Smith's defeat in 2008 by Democrat Jeff Merkley.

In June 1996, Wyden offered an amendment to the mission of the Federal Aviation Administration that was endorsed by Transportation Secretary Federico F Pena.

In late 1999, Ron Wyden threatened a filibuster amid Senate debate over banning physician-assisted suicide.

Ron Wyden admitted reluctance in his opposition and said he hoped that Norton would change his view of her.

In May 2001, Wyden released a letter by Inspector General Kenneth M Mead in which he stated that airlines had admitted to him that they deliberately delayed some evening flights to accommodate late-arriving passengers who would otherwise have had to wait until the next morning without notifying passengers of the change in schedule.

In January 2002, Wyden charged Enron with resorting "to a variety of legal, regulatory and accounting contortions to keep investors and the public in the dark" and called for Congress to begin an investigation into the matter.

In March 2002, amid the Senate's inability to reach an agreement on legislation intended to overhaul American election procedures, Ron Wyden said the bill was "not a corpse" and must not disrupt Oregon's and Washington's vote-by-mail systems.

Ron Wyden characterizes himself as an "independent voice for Oregonians and the nation" and emphasizes his positions on health care reform, national security, consumer protection, and government transparency.

On March 6,2013, Ron Wyden crossed party lines to join Republican Senator Rand Paul, who was engaged in a talking filibuster to block voting on the nomination of John O Brennan as the Director of the CIA.

Ron Wyden has been praised for his ability to defuse partisan tensions and encourage bipartisan cooperation.

In May 2017, after Trump announced the firing of FBI Director James Comey, Ron Wyden restated his past criticisms and said the decision to fire him amid investigation of Trump and his associate into possible Russian ties was "outrageous".

Ron Wyden advocated that Comey be called to testify in an open hearing about the investigation of Russia and Trump associates at the time his tenure was terminated.

In May 2018, Ron Wyden was one of six Democratic senators to sign a letter asking that all members of Senate be authorized to read a report from the Department of Justice underpinning the decision to not seek charges in the CIA's destruction of videotapes.

Ron Wyden confirmed his support for IRS general counsel nominee Michael Desmond and criticized Treasury consideration of indexing capital gains taxes to inflation as contributing extra tax savings to the wealthy along with possibly being illegal.

Ron Wyden personally opposes assisted suicide and said he voted against the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, first enacted in Oregon in 1997, each time it appeared on the ballot by voter referendum.

In 2000, Ron Wyden blocked attempts in Congress to overturn the Oregon assisted-suicide law by threatening a filibuster.

In 2006, Ron Wyden informed Senate leadership that he would block legislation overturning the Death with Dignity Act.

Ron Wyden voted against limiting lawsuits against gun manufacturers and in favor of increasing background checks.

In October 2015, Ron Wyden was one of the Senate Democrats to unveil a new gun control campaign in the aftermath of the Umpqua Community College shooting.

In January 2016, Ron Wyden was one of 18 senators to call on the appropriations committee leadership to hold a hearing on funding for gun violence research at the CDC and spoke with other Democratic senators and researchers supporting federal funding for investigation into gun violence prevention.

At a March 2018 town hall, Ron Wyden answered "Yes" when asked if he intended to pass bans on bump stocks and assault rifles.

Ron Wyden expressed optimism about the chances of passing national gun legislation, noting that legislation passed in Florida in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting was strong enough to warrant lawsuit by the NRA.

In late 1995, Ron Wyden became the first US Senate candidate to publicly support same-sex marriage.

Ron Wyden was one of just 14 senators to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

Ron Wyden has voted against the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have proposed an amendment to the Constitution to bar recognition of same-sex marriages.

In June 2007, Ron Wyden was among the minority of Democrats to vote in favor of declaring English the official language of the United States.

On March 12,2013, during a United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing, Wyden quoted NSA director Keith B Alexander's keynote speech at the 2012 DEF CON.

In February 2019, Ron Wyden was one of 38 senators to sign a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham calling on him to "hold a hearing" on universal background checks and noting Graham's statement that he "intended to have the Committee work on 'red flag' legislation and potentially background checks, both actions" the senators supported.

In December 2020, in light of the 2020 United States federal government data breach, Ron Wyden renewed calls for the introduction of mandatory security reviews for software used by federal agencies.

In July 2017, Ron Wyden voted for the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act that placed sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea.

Ron Wyden was one of 23 senators to vote against the authorization of military force in Iraq in 2002.

In 2006, Wyden was one of 13 senators to vote to require the redeployment of US forces from Iraq by July 2007, and one of 39 senators to vote to call on President George W Bush to begin withdrawing forces from Iraq and establish a timeline for withdrawal.

Ron Wyden voted many other times for withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq, against funding for the war without binding timelines, and against the establishment of permanent military bases in Iraq.

Ron Wyden opposed President Barack Obama's plan for a "troop surge" in Afghanistan in 2009.

In September 2016, in advance of a UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, Ron Wyden signed an AIPAC-sponsored letter urging Obama to veto "one-sided" resolutions against Israel.

In May 2017, Ron Wyden co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, Senate Bill 720, which made it a federal crime, punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories if protesting actions by the Israeli government.

In December 2010, Ron Wyden voted for the ratification of New START, a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the US and the Russian Federation obliging both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads and 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years along with providing a continuation of on-site inspections that halted when START I expired the previous year.

In March 2018, Ron Wyden voted against tabling a resolution spearheaded by Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Mike Lee that would have required Trump to withdraw American troops either in or influencing Yemen within the next 30 days unless they were combating Al-Qaeda.

In March 2019, Ron Wyden was one of 11 senators to sign a letter to congressional leaders urging them to "bring legislation providing disaster supplemental appropriations to your respective floors for consideration immediately" after noting that the previous year had seen 124 federal disaster declarations approved for states, territories, and tribal nations.

In December 2018, Wyden was one of 21 senators to sign a letter to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb stating their approval of the agency's actions to hinder youth access to e-cigarettes and urging the FDA "to take additional, stronger steps to prevent and reduce e-cigarette use among youth".

Ron Wyden has supported efforts to legalize cannabis at the federal level, cosponsoring the Marijuana Justice Act in 2017 and the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act in 2019.

Ron Wyden introduced Senate Bill 420 in 2019 to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and tax it similarly to alcohol.

In 2009, Ron Wyden sponsored the Healthy Americans Act, an act that would institute a national system of market-based private insurance.

Ron Wyden supported increasing Medicare funding, enrolling more of the uninsured in federal programs, importing lower priced prescriptions from Canada, and negotiating bulk drug purchases for Medicare in order to lower costs.

In 2003, Ron Wyden joined Senators Lindsey Graham and Trent Lott to help pass the Bush administration's Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act.

Not long after Tom Daschle's withdrawal as Obama's nominee for United States Secretary of Health and Human Services due to a scandal over his failure to pay taxes, The Oregonian reported that Ron Wyden was being touted by many health care experts as a likely candidate for secretary-designate.

In late 2011 and early 2012, Ron Wyden attracted attention for working with GOP House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan to develop a Medicare reform plan that would result in semi-privatization of the system, provoking a negative response from his Democratic allies, including Obama.

In January 2019, Ron Wyden was one of 20 senators to sponsor the Dreamer Confidentiality Act, a bill that would ban the Department of Homeland Security from passing information collected on DACA recipients to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Justice, or any other law enforcement agency with exceptions in the case of fraudulent claims, national security issues, or non-immigration related felonies being investigated.

Ron Wyden voted for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, which would change federal law to allow federal money to fund embryonic stem-cell research, ending a federal ban.

Ron Wyden urged President Bush to sign it, saying, "I see no reason why embryonic stem-cell research should be treated any differently than other research" in terms of federal grant funding.

In May 2014, in response to the National Climate Assessment, Ron Wyden said that the "report adds to the ever-growing body of scientific evidence and on-the-ground proof that the effects of climate change are already being felt in every region of the United States".

In November 2018, Ron Wyden was one of 25 Democratic senators to cosponsor a resolution specifying key findings of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change report and National Climate Assessment.

Ron Wyden is critical of the estate tax, which he feels is inefficient, and has voted repeatedly to abolish it.

Ron Wyden co-authored the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act, which bans Internet taxes in the United States.

Ron Wyden voted against the Bush tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003.

In May 2016, Ron Wyden introduced the Presidential Tax Transparency Act, legislation requiring sitting presidents and presidential nominees to release their tax returns publicly.

On November 19,2010, Ron Wyden announced he would take the steps necessary to put a hold on The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act so it would not be enacted that year.

In June 2011, Ron Wyden announced his Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act in partnership with Representative Jason Chaffetz.

Ron Wyden's hold was credited with "[g]iving time for the Internet to rally against" SOPA and PIPA.

Ron Wyden did not vote on the automobile industry bailout, but said he would have voted for cloture if he had been present.

In early January 2009, Ron Wyden was among several moderate Democratic senators who criticized President-elect Barack Obama's stimulus plan, calling for a greater emphasis on "tangible infrastructure investments" and warning that an effort had to be made to differentiate it from the Bush bailouts Ron Wyden had opposed.

Ron Wyden ultimately voted for the bill and mostly voted with his party on various amendments to the bill.

Ron Wyden voted against the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, a Republican effort to restrict the number of class actions suits against businesses, and the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, a bipartisan change in bankruptcy law designed to make it more difficult to file for bankruptcy and to make those in bankruptcy pay more of their debts.

Ron Wyden supports lifting the United States embargo against Cuba as a more viable way to reach the Cuban people.

Ron Wyden has voted against free trade agreements with Chile, Singapore, and Oman.

Ron Wyden's home is in Portland, Oregon, and he has an apartment in Washington, DC He has two grown children, Adam and Lilly, by his first wife, Laurie ; they divorced in 1999 after 20 years of marriage.

Ron Wyden married his current wife, Nancy Ron Wyden, daughter of an owner of New York's Strand Bookstore, in September 2005.

In December 2010, Ron Wyden underwent surgery for very early-stage prostate cancer, detected during a routine screening.

Ron Wyden recovered quickly and returned to Congress in January 2011.