Congresswoman Janelle Bynum recently told the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, “Whether it’s wildfires, hurricanes, or flooding, the American people can’t afford to wait years before getting the help they need to rebuild in the wake of disaster.”

She is absolutely right.

That is exactly why her statement is so painfully hypocritical.

Here in Oregon, thousands of families did wait years after the 2020 Labor Day fires destroyed homes and communities across the Santiam Canyon, Talent, Phoenix, Blue River, Lincoln County, and other parts of the state. They waited through insurance battles, underinsured losses, rising construction costs, permitting delays, temporary housing, bureaucratic paperwork, and the slow grind of a state recovery system that seemed better at process than production.

Janelle Bynum was not watching this from a distance. She was serving in the Oregon Legislature during the fire recovery years, inside the same political ecosystem that failed to deliver timely help to fire survivors. Oregon Democrats controlled the governor’s office, dominated the Legislature, ran the agencies, and still left too many victims waiting.

The federal money was not imaginary. Oregon received a massive $422 million HUD Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery award. Yet years later, investigative reporting found that most of the money remained unspent. The Oregon Journalism Project reported in June 2025 that more than 90% of Oregon’s wildfire recovery grant was still unspent. Axios Portland reported Oregon had spent less than 10% of the $422 million by June 2025. OPB covered the same dysfunction, including the frustration over hundreds of millions in federal relief still sitting idle while fire victims waited.

Even worse, Oregon’s own Homeowner Assistance and Reconstruction Program, HARP, did not open until March 2024 — nearly three and a half years after the fires. That program was supposed to help homeowners rebuild, replace, repair, purchase, or be reimbursed for losses tied to the 2020 disasters. But by the time it opened, many families had already endured years of uncertainty, debt, insurance shortfalls, and displacement.

So when Bynum lectures Congress that Americans cannot afford to wait years after disaster strikes, Oregon should be Exhibit A. Not because Oregon got it right, but because Oregon proved exactly how government can fail people after the cameras leave.

Kate Brown was governor when the fires happened. Tina Kotek inherited the recovery mess. Oregon Housing and Community Services administered the long-term recovery program. The Legislature had years to demand accountability, timelines, transparency, and results. Instead, Oregon’s political class did what it too often does: celebrated compassion in public while ordinary people waited for action in private.

That is the part Bynum cannot simply speech over.

The urgency she now performs in Washington was desperately needed here at home when fire survivors were trapped in limbo, when federal recovery money had been awarded but remained largely unspent, and when Oregon’s homeowner rebuilding program had not even opened until 2024. Oregon leaders had the authority. They had the agencies. They had the federal money. What too many survivors received instead was process, excuses, and the slow-motion cruelty of government failure.

Bynum’s statement is correct. Americans should not wait years for disaster relief.

But Oregon fire victims did wait years. She is lying about who caused the delay, she is projecting outrage and avoiding accountability.

She is a gear in the same political machine that failed them, a party that keeps promoting its own members upward, where they can give speeches about the very failures they helped normalize.

She may think she is making a viral moment for her Facebook follower but what she is actually doing is advertising Oregon’s “fail up” politics and her lack of self awareness on full display.

Read my full breakdown on Substack.

Sources:

Oregon Journalism Project — “Oregon Got a Massive Federal Recovery Grant After 2020 Wildfires. Most of the Money Remains Unspent.”
https://www.oregonjournalismproject.org/wildfire-money

OPB / Think Out Loud — “Why hundreds of millions in federal relief for 2020 Oregon fire victims remains unspent.”
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/07/03/think-out-loud-oregon-fire-2020-victims-federal-relief-spending/

Axios Portland — “Oregon hasn’t spent majority of 2020 wildfire recovery funds.”
https://www.axios.com/local/portland/2025/06/04/wildfire-recovery-funds-unused-oregon

Oregon Housing and Community Services / ReOregon — HARP opened March 2024 and was funded by the $422 million HUD CDBG-DR grant.
https://apps.oregon.gov/oregon-newsroom/OR/OHCS/Posts/Post/ReOregon-Homeowner-Assistance-and-Reconstruction-Program-closing-to-new-applications-by-year-endv