BEND — U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley’s congressional committee assignments have ranged from appropriations and budgets to environmental concerns and foreign relations, with a dozen subcommittees thrown in for good measure.

The Oregon Democrat’s work in Congress affects people across the state. But he knows many of those people have little understanding of his legislative efforts or the effects that decisions made in Washington, D.C., could have on them.

In many corners of the state — and in thousands of communities across the nation — that lack of understanding can be linked directly to a lack of news coverage. News outlets across the country in all of the traditional media, and newspapers in particular, have been dramatically downsized or in many cases eliminated entirely.

In conversations with representatives of EO Media Group, which owns The Observer and will soon include the start-up Rogue Valley Tribune in Medford, Merkley applauded the group for that startup while also bemoaning the lack of local news reporters covering congressional issues that affect communities across the state and nation.

“There are so many pieces of the puzzle that (Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden) and I are immersed in,” Merkley said. “And there’s just no one there covering it.”

Merkley and Wyden have made efforts to remedy that, including legislation in the last session called the Local Journalism Sustainability Act. The act would have allowed newspapers to receive a tax credit for employing journalists.

The effort came up short in the most recent Congress, as funding for the act was excised from the omnibus appropriations package approved in December. Merkley said he will make another run at it in this year’s session.

“It’s frustrating, that was our big opportunity,” he said. “We will have to reintroduce it and start over again.”

Heidi Wright, publisher of the Bend Bulletin and chief operating officer of EO Media, said she was encouraged by the bipartisan support for the legislation, as members of Congress see newsrooms and news coverage disappearing from their communities. It is evident in Oregon in closures of newspapers in numerous communities, including Medford, Ashland and Lebanon.

“There have been so many news deserts popping up in Oregon over the past few years,” Wright said. She added that if the legislation is passed, EO Media and Portland-based Pamplin Media Group will support a Washington, D.C.-based news reporter.

In addition to restarting a Medford newspaper, EO Media is working with Ashland.news, an online publication, to assist in local news coverage and in creating a print product to accompany the digital news site.

“We may be the only state in the nation relaunching a newspaper,” Wright said. “The community support has been overwhelming.”

HomelessnessMerkley said issues related to homelessness are front of mind for Oregonians. “In every town hall I have, it comes up and at most places it’s the top issue.”

Merkley said housing prices have become unaffordable in many communities across the state. He noted that when his father was a union mechanic, the total cost of a house was about twice his annual salary, but that it is now about five times the equivalent salary.

The lack of affordable housing can be partly traced to investment companies, including hedge funds, buying up homes across the country, with an eye toward making a healthy profit on rents or resales.

“Families are competing against billionaires and the families are losing,” Merkley said.

Merkley has proposed legislation, and intends to reintroduce it, that would require home sellers to make homes for sale available first to families, an idea he said has been “universally supported” in his community town hall sessions.

WildfiresMerkley said he has supported efforts that have increased funding for wildland fire prevention from $100 million to last year’s $1 billion, but there is no guarantee that level of funding will continue.

“It’s so frustrating not to have our forests in better shape,” he said. “Thinning the second-growth forests makes them more fire-resilient and they’re also better ecosystems. It’s a win-win, but it’s not cheap and that’s why we’re trying to drive that funding.”