Hello friends,
I am sure you are aware that it is an election year, with the Oregon primary looming just 60 days away. What you may not know is that legislators are required to shut down constituent communication efforts for the two months prior to each election. This is to prevent the use of -- or perceived use of -- state funds for campaign efforts. So this will be my last newsletter until after May 20th.
What will I be doing that I can't tell you about?
Fatherhood (see right) and teaching will continue to keep me busy. Evelyn draws toward her first birthday beginning to crawl; my eighth-graders draw towards their graduation by mounting a play and planning a class trip. Spring is truly a season of growth!
On the legislative front, my interim committees (Health Care and Environment) will continue to meet. We'll be preparing for the next legislative session, receiving updates from various state agencies on an array of projects, and tracking the implementation of bills passed last session. I will continue to meet with members of the Bottle Bill Task Force as we prepare our recommendations for further expansion and improvement of the Bottle Bill. Finally, I was honored to be recently appointed to the
Global Warming Commission, which held its first meeting on Monday. This group will take a close look at the recommendations of stakeholder groups including the Governor's Climate Change Integration Group and the
Carbon Allocation Task Force; we will pay close attention to the ongoing work of the Western Climate Initiative; we will work to secure more Oregon-specific data on global warming; and this fall, we will release our own recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature. I am happy to see this commission in action after helping secure its establishment last year, and I look forward to expanding Oregon's commitment to curbing global warming pollution.
I will also be working on my legislative agenda for 2009. I will be putting together a survey for this summer and fall to help inform my priorities for the next session, as well as planning a series of events this summer to bring members of our community together to talk about the issues that matter most to you. Please click here to take a look at what policy ideas I am currently working on for the next session. This is just a draft and will surely change. I welcome and encourage your feedback.
During the next two months, I encourage you to be in touch. I am allowed to respond to individual emails and it is an ideal time to help you out in any way that I can or to meet with folks one-on-one. In the meantime, have a wonderful transition to spring and I will be back in touch on May 21st.
Yours sincerely,
State Representative Ben Cannon
1125 SE Madison, Suite 100B
Portland, OR 97214
rep.bencannon@state.or.us
http://www.repbencannon.com
(503) 236-3351
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