Wyden, along with fellow Senator Merkley and President Obama, agreed that U. S. forces should not be on the ground in Libya.

Although Wyden was ultimately passed over in favor of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, he took advantage of the interim to reintroduce his Healthy Americans Act, with additional co-sponsorship from Republican Senators led by Tennessee's Lamar Alexander and Utah's Bob Bennett as well as from fellow Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley.

In 2011, with the expiration of the Patriot Act approaching and with efforts to reauthorize the Act once more intensifying, Wyden and fellow Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley sharply criticized the rush to pass the bill.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was not part of the original Senate legislation, but was added in conference with the House, where it had been separately introduced by Representatives Christopher Cox ( R-CA ) and Ron Wyden ( D-OR ) as the Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment Act and passed by a near-unanimous vote on the floor.

Later that fall, Wyden easily defeated his Republican opponent, Darrell Conger, with 71 percent of the vote.

Wyden was elected to a full term in 1998 with 61 percent of the vote, and in 2004, was re-elected to another full term, receiving 64 % of the vote compared to 31 % for his main opponent, Republican Al King.

As of April 2010, Wyden has an approval rating of 51 %, with 35 % disapproving.

In 2007 Wyden sponsored ( with Representative Gabrielle Giffords in the House ), the Stop Arming Iran Act, which would have barred the Defense Department from selling surplus F-14 parts and prohibit buyers who have already acquired surplus Tomcat parts from exporting them in order to prevent Iran from acquiring the parts.

Wyden was attacked by union interests for advocating replacement of the employer tax exclusion with a tax deduction that would apply to all Americans.

Wyden has shown support for increasing Medicare funding, enrolling more of the uninsured in federal programs ( although his Healthy Americans Act would eliminate many of these programs including Medicaid and SCHIP and replace them with private insurance ), importing lower priced prescriptions from Canada, and negotiating bulk drug purchases for Medicare in order to lower costs.

In 2003 Wyden joined with Senators Lindsey Graham ( R-SC ) and Trent Lott ( R-MS ) to help pass the Bush Administration's Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act.

In late 2011 and early 2012, Wyden attracted attention for working with GOP House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan to develop a Medicare reform plan that would result in the semi-privatization of the system, provoking a negative response from Wyden's Democratic allies, including President Obama.

However, Wyden ultimately voted for the bill and voted mostly with his party on various amendments to the bill.

In 2007, Wyden, with fellow Oregon Senator Gordon Smith, again supported the bill.

In almost every year, Wyden has maintained a 100 percent rating or close to it with pro-choice groups: NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood, and National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, and a 0 percent rating or close to it from pro-life group: the National Right to Life Committee.

Wyden personally opposes assisted suicide and stated he voted against the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, first enacted in Oregon in 1997, each time in appeared on the ballot by voter referendum.

In 2006, Wyden informed Senate leadership that he would block legislation overturning the Death with Dignity Act.

In June 2011, Wyden announced his " Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act " in partnership with Representative Jason Chaffetz ( R-Utah ).

Wyden was the first politician in Congress to stand against the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act ( SOPA ) ( in the House ) and the PROTECT IP Act ( PIPA ) ( in the Senate ) on the grounds that it would " step towards an Internet in which those with money and lawyers and access to power have a greater voice than those who don ’ t.

On December 16, 2010, Wyden announced that the previous month he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in its very early stage from a routine screening.

They denounced the idea, with Wyden stating, " The idea of a federal betting parlor on atrocities and terrorism is ridiculous and it's grotesque ," while Dorgan called it " useless, offensive and unbelievably stupid ".

The Wyden camp had developed a very rudimentary website with the ability to gather volunteer information and accept donations.

* 1996 U. S Senator Ron Wyden is elected by mail with a 66 % turnout, succeeding Bob Packwood.

" Wyden offered an amendment to reform the " business-records provision " of the Patriot Act, which he views as being used abusive and secret way.

Proponents of the Stand By Your Ad provision, such as Senator Ron Wyden ( D-Oregon ) who sponsored the provision in the BCRA, advocate that by forcing candidates to associate themselves with their attacks in the ads, voters would be more inclined to punish them for using such a strategy, thus discouraging candidates from campaigning in such a manner.

Wyden added, " While I continue to have concerns about ensuring that taxpayers are protected if this loan is to occur, I believe that if the President can unwisely provide $ 750 billion of taxpayer money for the investment banks who took horribly unacceptable risks and helped trigger an economic collapse, we certainly have a duty to attempt to preserve a cornerstone domestic industry and the jobs of hundreds of thousands of working people whose personal actions are in no way responsible for the current economic crisis.

Wyden married his current wife, Nancy Wyden ( née Bass ), co-owner of New York's Strand Bookstore, on September 24, 2005.

Wyden also served as the director of the Oregon Legal Services Center for Elderly, a nonprofit law service.

Wyden voted against the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, a Republican effort to restrict the number of class actions suits against businesses and the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, a bipartisan change in bankruptcy law designed to make it more difficult to file for bankruptcy and to make those in bankruptcy pay more of their debts.

Wyden voted for the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, which would change federal law to allow federal money to fund embryonic stem-cell research, ending a federal ban.

In a May 2011 speech in the Senate, Wyden sharply criticized the use of Patriot Act, stating: " The fact is that anyone can read the plain text of the Patriot Act, and yet many members of Congress have no idea how the law is being secretly interpreted by the executive branch, because that interpretation is classified.

However, Wyden successfully blocked congressional attempts to pass federal legislation to override Oregon's law.

In 2000, Wyden blocked attempts in Congress to overturn the Oregon assisted-suicide law by threatening a filibuster.

In 2001, Wyden wrote to President George W. Bush urging him to not alter the law through federal executive action.

Wyden said in 2009 that he will continue to " fight tooth and nail " to block new federal attempts to block the law.

On November 19, 2010, Wyden announced he would take the steps necessary to put a hold on The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act ( COICA ) so it is not enacted into law this year.

In December 2003, Burns and Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, were pleased that their legislation to combat spam, the CAN-SPAM Act, had been signed into law .< ref >

The 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act was a United States law authored by Representative Christopher Cox and Senator Ron Wyden, and signed into law on October 21, 1998 by President Bill Clinton in an effort to promote and preserve the commercial, educational, and informational potential of the Internet.

Dorgan and Wyden argued that the U. S. should " pull the plug on U. S. government television broadcasts to Cuba, broadcasts even the American government acknowledges Fidel Castro routinely jams and the Cuban people can't see.

" Wyden delayed the PIPA in the Senate by placing a hold on the legislation in 2010, which prevented the bill from being considered by the full Senate even after it was unanimously voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

While teaching gerontology at several Oregon universities, Wyden founded the Oregon chapter of the Gray Panthers ; which he led from 1974 to 1980.

The 3rd has long been the most Democratic district in Oregon, and Wyden was reelected seven times from this district, never dropping below 70 percent of the vote.

In 2006, Wyden was one of 13 Senators to vote to require the redeployment of U. S. forces from Iraq by July 2007, and was one of 39 Senators to vote to call on the President to begin withdrawing forces from Iraq and establish a timeline for withdrawal.

Wyden also voted many other times for withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq, against funding for the war without binding timelines, and against the establishment of permanent military bases in Iraq.

Wyden was among several moderate Democratic senators who in early January 2009 criticized President-elect Barack Obama's stimulus plan, calling for a greater emphasis on " tangible infrastructure investments " and warning that an effort had to be made to differentiate it from the Bush bailouts Wyden had opposed.

Ezra Klein wrote: " Perhaps no single member of Congress deserves as much credit for slowing the advance " of the bills than Wyden, who for much of 2010 " fought a one-man battle to keep the Senate version of the legislation from moving through on a unanimous vote.