Salinas navigates partisan divide in House to push help for Oregon agriculture

With just four words, U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas intends to get help for Willamette Valley farmers from two federal agencies.

She made the move recently as a Congressional committee considered legislation directing the Energy and Agriculture Departments to work together on research.

Salinas, the Democratic congresswoman from Oregon’s 6th Congressional District, sits on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

One section of the pending legislation instructed the federal agencies to jointly use science…