Dog days of August delay Klamath summit

Tam Moore
Capital Press Staff Writer

August 18, 2006

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., may have gotten publicity in the West last month when he called for a Cabinet-level summit on Klamath Basin issues, but he has had a hard time getting attention in Washington, D.C.

Walden, citing a litany of unresolved issues in the 10 million-acre basin shared by Oregon and California, asked the secretaries of Interior, Commerce and Agriculture plus the chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality to convene a meeting with the states and American Indian tribes to plot future work.

"The indicators were have received have been very positive," said Matt Daigle, Walden's press secretary.

The same week Walden sent his summit letter, he was invited to a White House meeting with Jim Connaughton, chairman of the Council for Environmental Quality. He "was quite favorable and is helping us by coordinating with other agencies," Daigle said.

But the practicality is that August is congressional recess time, and it's also the month Cabinet secretaries do a lot of traveling. So there are fewer people to speak with in Washington.

- Tam Moore
 
 

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