This report describes the outcome of my own major efforts in Salem this year – just a fraction of what the Legislature accomplished. Writing a two-year budget and updating a shelf-sized set of laws requires collaboration and division of labor. All 90 legislators are involved, each with their own priorities and interests. These priorities reflect my committee assignments, constituent requests, and personal interests.

Health Care

The Legislature took important steps forward this year on increasing access and lowering the costs of health care.  As a member of the Health Committee, I focused my efforts on the cost containment aspects of House Bill 2009, an omnibus reform bill.

The 2009 Legislature’s efforts on health care will extend health insurance to more than 100,000 low-income children and adults.  At the same time, it will begin the process of establishing a state health insurance “exchange” to allow low-cost, prevention-focused plans to compete for business from individuals and small businesses.

Major credit goes to Rep. Mary Nolan (D-Portland) and Rep. Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland) for their leadership on this important issue.  They were tireless in their advocacy for this legislation.

Members of the Oregon Health Fund Board also deserve our gratitude.  This was the citizen-based commission whose extensive study and public outreach resulted in the 2009 legislation.

The Bottle Bill

During the 2008 interim, I served as a member of a Bottle Bill Task Force. Our recommendations to the 2009 Legislature included a phased-in expansion to sports drinks, teas, and juice, and a doubling of the deposit to $0.10.

As chair of the House Environment and Water Committee, I dedicated a significant chunk of committee time to a bill that followed the Task Force’s recommendations: HB 2184. In the end, however, I was unsuccessful. Faced with vigorous opposition from grocers and distributors, I could not convince enough of my colleagues to support expansion.

I plan to work with DEQ, OLCC, grocers, distributors, and recyclers on bottle bill legislation that could be reintroduced in 2010 or 2011. In the meantime, it will be interesting to monitor the industry-led effort to create redemption centers as alternatives to returning containers in stores.

Global Warming

Environmentalists entered the session with high hopes for aggressive action to combat climate change.  The highest-profile bill, which would have moved Oregon towards participation in a regional cap-and-trade system, never gained traction in the Senate in the face of opposition from most business organizations and concerns about economic competitiveness. Still, the Legislature passed several new policies, including one landmark bill, HB 2186, that will assure Oregon’s continued leadership as a hub for clean energy and reduced emissions.

HB 2186 establishes a Low Carbon Fuel Standard to reduce carbon emissions from fuel by 10% by 2020. Oregon joins California as only the second state to adopt the standard, which accounts for emissions associated with the entire lifecycle of the fuel, from production through transportation and combustion. The standard gives a big leg up to local producers of biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol, and will reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Although it was originally introduced and heard in my committee in January, HB 2186 didn’t receive final passage until late last week. It took six months of work, including dozens of amendments and House and Senate work groups, before we won narrow majorities in both chambers. This bill was my proudest work of the session!

Online Voter Registration

In 2007, Reed College student Joey Mornin emailed me with a great question. Why doesn’t Oregon follow Washington and Arizona in establishing an online voter registration system? Well, starting just in time for the 2010 primary election, online voter registration will be an option for Oregonians with a valid Oregon driver license, permit or ID thanks to the passage of HB 2386.

My office worked closely with various stakeholders, including Secretary of State Kate Brown, Representative Jefferson Smith (D-Portland), and organizations such as the Bus Project, the Oregon Student Association, and Democracy Reform Oregon to move this bill through the Legislature. In the end, we had bipartisan support at every turn for this simple way to improve the voter registration process.

Addiction Treatment and the Beer Tax

Fact #1: Oregon woefully under-funds addiction treatment. Every dollar that we invest in addiction treatment and prevention saves many more in law enforcement, corrections, foster care, and health care.

Fact #2: Oregon’s beer tax is less than a penny per glass (less than $3 per barrel), and has not been increased since 1977.

My conclusion was HB 2461, which would have raised Oregon’s beer tax in order to fund addiction treatment.  Despite a late-session amendment to address concerns raised by local brewers, this proposal never moved out of its first committee.

I plan to revisit the issue in future sessions. The point is not a beer tax. The point is that it’s shameful that in Oregon, even drug and alcohol-addicted children are routinely turned away from treatment programs due to lack of funding.

I am grateful to the cosponsors of the bill for slogging through this with me: Rep. Michael Dembrow (D-Portland), Sen. Bill Morrisette (D-Springfield), Sen. Jackie Dingfelder (D-Portland), and Sen. Diane Rosenbaum (D-Portland). And I appreciated the opportunity to work with Judiciary Chair and home-brewer Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene) on the amendment.

Hearing Aids for Children

Hearing aids are expensive — from $1,000 to $2,500 per ear — and health insurers rarely cover them. For children with partial hearing loss, whose cognitive development is greatly improved by the earliest use of hearing aids, such costs created gaps in communication skills and learning.

I am grateful to constituent Emily McKnight, who contacted me about her health insurance policy failing to cover her son Parker’s hearing aids. We worked together with OHSU and others to craft a bill that would require health insurance policies to cover hearing aids for kids. With the help of Sen. Vicki Walker (D-Eugene), HB 2589 passed both chambers with bipartisan support.

Supporting Local Agriculture

In recent years, buying local has become an ethos for many Oregonians. Our farmer’s markets have become important community centers in Montavilla, Lents, and throughout Portland. We value locally-owned businesses and support them with our buying power.

Multnomah County, as part of its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and support local farmers, wanted to give preferential treatment to local agricultural products for its food contracts. State law, however, prevented this. Under the old law, if a Hood River pear cost just a penny more than a pear from New Zealand, the county was required to purchase the New Zealand pear.

Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) and I co-sponsored HB 2763 in order to allow for some preference for local agriculture in our state contracting code. As long as the price is within 10% of the lowest available price, local governments will be able to purchase homegrown products starting in January. This bill passed both chambers unanimously.

Citizen Initiative Review

Initiative reform is a particular interest of mine. In both 2007 and 2009, the Legislature passed various provisions into law which help to reign in signature fraud and other abuses of our initiative system. Last year, a Eugene nonprofit called Healthy Democracy Oregon showcased a unique idea: Citizens’ Initiative Review. They convened a small group of diverse Oregonians to dig deep into a ballot measure. This small group then generated a one-page guide to that ballot measure.

HB 2895, which I co-sponsored with my Capitol next-door-neighbor Rep. Chris Harker (D-Beaverton) and Sen. Doug Whitsett (R-Klamath Falls), provides for the publication of up to three Citizens’ Initiative Review reports in the 2010 voter’s pamphlet. It is hard to find reliable, unbiased information on ballot measures and I am hopeful that Citizens’ Initiative Review will fill that gap. Healthy Democracy Oregon’s founders, Eliot Shuford and Tyrone Reitman, worked tirelessly to get this bill passed!

Clotheslines

Yes, you read that right: clotheslines. As Oregonians struggle with soaring electricity and gas bills and shrinking household budgets – and strive to reduce their energy consumption, many families are unable to use an affordable, effective technology: drying clothes with the sun and breeze. HB 3090 would have fixed this problem by putting an end to clotheslines prohibitions by homeowners’ association CC&Rs and bylaws.

Florida and Colorado have adopted laws to ensure its citizens can use clotheslines – and HB 3090 passed the House with bipartisan support. However, the bill did not pass the Senate. Our own senator, Sen. Jackie Dingfelder (D-Portland), and I will continue to work on this issue going forward. If someone wants to use a clothesline on their own property, they should be able to do so.

Protecting the Metolius River

By a slim majority, the Legislature established the Metolius River region as an “Area of Statewide Critical Concern.”  The bill, HB 3298, was a reincarnation of a proposal sponsored by Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) and me, and it will limit development in this special and sensitive region of Central Oregon.

Areas near the Metolius headwaters were slated for “destination resort” development under a zoning change proposed by Jefferson County. Local and statewide outcry led the Governor to ask state agencies to study development impacts on water flows, fish habitat, and the elk range. Their conclusions resulted in the proposal to the Legislature.

The process was not without controversy. While the “Area of Statewide Critical Concern” designation had been proposed for other areas of the state, none had ever been established. Some feared that by trumping the local land use process, our Legislature would set a harmful precedent. I concluded that (a) we had provided sufficient development alternatives for the affected parties, (b) we had not overturned existing land-use laws, and (c) the stakes for the ecology of this region were very high.

Statewide Water Planning

For too long, urban Democrats have tended to ignore the need for public investment in water supplies for agriculture. At the same time, rural Republicans have tended to oppose the applying environmental standards to water development projects.

Early in the session, I asked Rep. Jefferson Smith (D-Portland) and Rep. Bob Jenson (R-Pendleton) to serve on a subcommittee of the Environment and Water Committee that would deal with the need for statewide investment in water planning and the development of water resources — while ensuring public and environmental benefit.  Their bill, HB 3369, will result in investment strategies that prioritizes water re-use, conservation, and efficiency to deliver more water to farms and fish. To this point, Oregon has been one of only a handful of states that lacks a integrated, statewide water strategy.

Kudos to Reps. Smith and Jenson for their work on this issue.