Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, is holding a town hall meeting in Baker City Saturday.

The town hall meeting will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the Baker County Fairgrounds Event Center, 2600 East St.

He will update his Baker County constituents on his work in Washington, D.C., answer their questions and invite their suggestions about how to tackle the challenges facing Oregon and America.

“In our ‘We the People’ democracy, town hall meetings are an essential tool for me to hear from Oregonians and represent their interests back in D.C.,” Merkley stated in a press release. “I invite all residents of these counties to come and discuss what we need to do to strengthen our state and our nation.” There will be constituent services workers at the meeting to help those who “are running into red tape accessing veterans’ benefits or dealing with Social Security or Medicare or having trouble getting what you need from other federal agencies.”

Merkley has been a staunch opponent of Republican’s efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act also known as ObamaCare.

A press release last week from Merkley’s office cited an analysis from the Congressional Budget office which found that Oregonians who are older, lower-income, or live in rural areas would receive less financial assistance under the BCRA (the Republicans’ replacement bill known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act), in addition to suffering from the bill’s “age tax,” and thus would pay premiums between 200 and 614 percent greater than what they would pay under current law. That amounts to thousands of dollars more for health coverage every year.

“In addition to the 22 million Americans who stand to lose care — 15 million within the next year alone — older Oregonians would see an impossible increase in their premiums,” Merkley stated. “The cruelty of this plan is breathtaking. Senators are supposed to come here to make our constituents’ lives better, not to destroy them. Making health coverage over 600 percent more expensive than it currently is would destroy lives.”

Merkley is also holding town hall events in Wallowa and Union counties on Saturday. The first will be at the Wallowa Senior Center, 204 Second St., Wallowa at 10 a.m. In Union County the town hall event will begin at 2 p.m. at the Powder Valley School Cafeteria, 333 G St., North Powder.

Since he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2009, Merkley has held a town hall meeting in each of Oregon’s 36 counties every year according to his website.