Wyden hears Union County concerns on forestry, privacy and insurance

Union County residents pressed U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden on insurance problems, privacy abuses and forestry management during an open town hall in La Grande. The questions also reached into the Epstein inquiry Wyden has pursued since 2022, underscoring how national fights land in a county where rural policy touches daily life.

Wyden’s La Grande stop was part of a July 6-8 swing through six Eastern Oregon counties, and his official schedule listed the Union County Town Hall for 07/08/26. Wallowa County was on the same date. His office said the senator had already held 1,168 open-to-all town halls statewide heading into the trip, part of a long-running pledge to hold at least one in every Oregon county each year he serves in the Senate.

Union County’s questions came from a place where the numbers are small and the stakes are concrete. The county had 26,196 residents in the 2020 Census, and the U.S. Census Bureau estimated 25,900 residents as of July 1, 2025. La Grande had 13,026 residents in the 2020 count. In a place where land use, health coverage and insurance access shape ordinary routines, the issues raised in the room matched the concerns that matter most outside it.

Forestry carried special weight because Union County sits near the Malheur National Forest in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon. The forest spans 1.7 million acres, including 88,350 acres of wilderness, and it holds the headwaters of the John Day River system. The U.S. Forest Service also identifies two Wild and Scenic river stretches there, making federal land policy a direct issue for communities that live with timber, wildfire risk, recreation and watershed management.

The town hall also reflected Wyden’s continuing focus on Epstein-related questions. The Senate Finance Committee said in March 2026 that his inquiry continued with questions to Leon Black over alleged hush-money payments and surveillance of women. For Eastern Oregon residents, that kind of oversight lands alongside the local fights over insurance markets, privacy protections and forest management, all of which came into view in La Grande as Wyden took questions from a prepared crowd.