U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), a longtime supporter of cleaning up the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, said Monday he would not run for re-election in 2020.
“So, I will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, nor election to any other office, but instead I will close the public service chapter of my life” after 30 years, the 62-year-old Walden said in a video announcement.
Walden has since 1999 represented Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District, covering the eastern portion of the state – south of the Hanford Site. He is the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee after losing his chairmanship following the November 2018 midterm elections.
The lawmaker said he decided to leave Congress although he feels confident in his ability to win another term. “I’m also optimistic that a path exists for Republicans to recapture a majority in the House, and that I could return for two more years as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.”
Walden said the time has come “pursue new challenges and opportunities.” He did not specify what that might be, although The Hill newspaper first reported Walden, who once owned radio stations, might be interested in succeeding National Association Of Broadcasters President and CEO Gordon Smith, a former U.S. senator from Oregon.
Before being elected to Congress, Walden spent a decade in the Oregon legislature, serving in its House of Representatives from 1989 to 1995 and in the state Senate from 1995 to 1997.
Walden has pushed for faster remediation of the Hanford Site in order to reduce the threat the contaminated site poses to the Columbia River, also a major water source for Oregon.
House Energy and Commerce has oversight authority over agencies including the Energy Department, its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
