Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley is seeking the release of $2 million in timber payments that he claims has been wrongly withheld from 18 Western Oregon counties because of automatic spending cuts. Merkley sent a letter Wednesday to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar claiming that the Bureau of Land Management withheld too much of the $38 million in federal safety net payments that were supposed to go to the counties. The BLM responded to the March 1 across-the-board cut by withholding 10 percent, but was authorized by sequester rules of holding back only 5.1 percent. Merkley said he based the percentage on …