Oregon — A Republican lawmaker is accusing a state agency of stonewalling a lawful legislative oversight request, warning that the lack of response undermines transparency and accountability in Oregon government.
Rep. Dwayne Yunker, who represents House District 3, said he formally requested basic program and payment data from the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care on December 9, 2025. According to Yunker, the agency has yet to provide any response nearly a month later.
The request sought two core data sets: 2025 payments by provider and program, and the number of children served by provider and program. Yunker characterized the information as fundamental to legislative oversight, particularly given the scale of public funding flowing through early learning and childcare programs.
“Oregonians should be alarmed,” Yunker wrote in a public post. “When a Governor’s agency refuses to answer lawful questions from elected officials, transparency is gone and accountability has failed. The people deserve answers.”
Timing Raises Broader Concerns
Yunker noted that his request predates a high-profile fraud scandal in Minnesota involving childcare and early learning funds, suggesting that Oregon lawmakers should be proactive in reviewing program data before problems emerge locally.
While he did not allege misconduct by Oregon’s early learning agency, Yunker stressed the importance of response to oversight for accountability and transparency.
Legislative oversight is a cornerstone of accountable state government, ensuring that public agencies remain transparent, responsive, and answerable to the people they serve. As the Council of State Governments said in their 2020 legislative handbook:
As co-equal branches of state government legislatures have a constitutional role to hold state government accountable by ensuring tax dollars are spent wisely, programs are achieving their intended goals and monitoring agencies as they implement laws. As such, legislative oversight is as important as passing legislation and is critical to safeguard the checks and balances in our democratic system of governance.
Oversight Authority and Transparency
Members of the Oregon Legislature routinely request data from state agencies to inform budget decisions, policy development, and program evaluations. Such requests are generally considered part of lawmakers’ constitutional and statutory oversight responsibilities.
Yunker framed the issue as one of democratic accountability and did not address it as an issue of partisan politics.
In a report on services in the 2021 – 2023 biennium the Early Learning Department reported that under one of its programs, Preschool Promise, it served 3,567 children in 20212022 and 5,242 children in 2022-2023. The report also notes that $146.84 million dollars of state funding went to the program, a mix of general fund and Student Success Act Early Learning Account dollars, and that the cost to serve each child over the biennium was $13,650. The size and scope of this one program highlights the sizable investment of taxpayer funding and the impact on early childhood education and childcare in the state.
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