ONE on ONE: Rep. Janelle Bynum opens up about wildfires, being on the job, and responded to the Secretary of Labor

BEND, ORE (KTVZ) -- Earlier today Congresswoman Janelle Bynum joined Spencer Sacks for an exclusive interview to talk about Wildfires, Being a Congresswoman, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer's comments on national guard troops potentially being placed in Portland.

Having just returned to Washington, D.C from the August recess, Rep. Bynum spoke last night on the House Floor about cuts to wildfire response.

When asked about wildfire response, Congresswoman Bynum said, "You know, during the August break, I spent time with firefighters, both in central Oregon and in roundtables and at our National Night Out.
And the message was consistent. The pulling of resources from wildfire fighting activities was unacceptable. And even firefighters that voted for Trump were very concerned that the the land resources that they had. Weren't weren't there in the numbers that they needed them to be in."

Congresswoman Bynum was then asked about what she has done to bring more resources to wildfire fighting.

She told KTVZ, "So our office has been engaged regularly on the front lines in, you know, all of the coordinating meetings and keeping abreast of what's happening, informing the public, telling people where resources can be found. But also, I've been talking with insurance companies. I've been talking with my colleagues about what it takes for us to make sure we have the resources that we need."

Rep. Bynum continued, "So I've been telling the firefighters, tell me exactly what you need. Some have said, oh, I need backhoes. I need hard equipment. They've also told me that we need to make sure that we're doing forest management. We lost a lot of that capacity with these cuts. And then they're telling me, you know, we also need to have a conversation about insurance and what it means to protect the homes and protect property with good, like, hardier equipment and plants and removing brush from around people's homes."

Sacks asked about HR 3889, The Perscribed Fire Act of 2025, a bill Rep. Bynum has co-sponsored.

Rep. Bynum said, "Well, I think it's really important that we have a conversation, a consistent, ongoing conversation about what it takes to have preventative maintenance and what we're seeing a lot of is neglect, or, you know, taking a position that maybe satisfies one part of our priorities but doesn't satisfy the other. And so it is really important for us to make sure that where we're thinning, where we can, that we are understanding where we should and should not build, or where we are at risk. I mean, that's that's the biggest thing where we're at risk. And, how how can we mitigate as much risk as possible."

Sacks asked about Rep. Bynum's thoughts on cleaning the forest floor. Rep. Bynum responded saying "Well, I think that's a community decision. And one thing that our office has been doing is having conversations over the last, gosh, the last 15 or so weeks about what communities want to see. It actually isn't my job to prescribe what a community should get. But the reason we've been having so many town halls and we'll finish the last one this weekend. But the reason we've been having these town halls is to take in the information, ask, and have people have a direct line of communication to me to tell me what they need and then to act on it. So like I said, the firefighters told me they needed hard equipment. They needed, you know, the forest, you know, maintained. And they also, you know, are concerned to make sure that they have the number of people when they need it."

Last night during her speech, Rep. Bynum spoke about immigration being related to wildfires. Sacks asked her how the two are related. Rep. Bynum responded "I mean, when we are when we know that that flat fire. For in our case, but also in the case in Washington, when we know we, we have people on the front lines. It is important for them to do the job they need to do to protect life, to protect property, to protect animals. That is job one. And so for me, it's not the why, it's the how. And if we want to do immigration reform and we want to have an immigration conversation, we need comprehensive immigration reform. But to go and disturb the work of firefighters. I can't get with that."

Sacks shifted gears after this to ask about how the Congresswoman feels after being in office for 243 days. Rep. Bynum shifted it from her to her constituency. Saying "Well, I think it's more important. How would the constituents of CD5 rate my my work? Right. I've shown up consistently in central Oregon. I've been to the town hall that the AG offered, as you know, hosted. I feel like maybe it's 4 or 5 direct town halls, either with just by myself or with Senator. And, you know, I've been talking with community members about what is important to them. They drive my work. They give me the evaluation. I show up time and time again to make sure that I do the work for them."