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Friends and Neighbors,
Five days after Portland became an official Sanctuary City, Francisco
J. Rodriguez Dominguez was detained without a warrant by Immigration
authorities. A participant in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program
(DACA), Francisco has lived in Portland since he was 5 years old and is deeply
involved in his community. Upon his detainment a call to action went out
through friends, family, and activist networks, urging people to call ICE and
demand Francisco’s release. On Monday, Francisco was happily released on bond
back to his family. While the conclusion of this story is happy, many others
result in the tragic involuntary separation of parents and children, families
and friends.
Oregon must continue to back up our Sanctuary Status with vigilant
and demonstrated dedication to Portland’s immigrant community. Please reach out
to my office if you or anyone you know has had negative interactions with ICE
or other Federal immigration agencies. I would be happy to help in whatever way
I can to help make Portland a place that is vibrant, welcoming, and safe.
 Thank you to all who attended my Constituent Coffee on March
25th, and to the Russellville Grange in Parkrose for hosting the event. Education
funding largely took center stage as a major concern, with people sharing their
stories and experiences in public schools. I continue to put Oregon’s students
first and will fight to fix our revenue system to fund education and set up our
kids for success. I hope to have another
event sometime in May, so please stay tuned if you would like to attend in the future.
Pay Equity, HB 2005A
Pay Equity passed the House after a long period of
discussion on March 28th and will now be considered by the Senate. This bill
works to ensure pay equity for every Oregonian regardless of race, gender,
sexual orientation, sexual identity, marriage status or disability, because
every Oregonian deserves equal pay for equal work. It also includes a
stipulation that employers may not ask about job candidate’s previous salaries,
which is a system that has previously perpetuated pay inequities. Modeled after
bills in Massachusetts and California, when HB 2005 passes it will be one of
the strongest in the nation.
I was proud to cast a ‘yes’ vote for this bill, and thank
all of my colleagues for sharing their insights on the need for equity in the
workplace. I look forward to monitoring its path as it moves toward passage in
the Senate.
Housing, HB 2004A - Passed Today!
This bill was worked extensively to get the version
that was passed off of the House Floor earlier today. This amended bill, among other aspects, would eliminate
no cause evictions after the first six months of tenancy, lift the statewide
preemption on rent stabilization, and require one month’s relocation assistance
to be covered by the landlord, with some exceptions for landlords with small
numbers of properties.
I am a sponsor of this bill because I have heard extensively from my constituents and
colleagues about the statewide impacts that the affordable housing crisis has
on families, low-wage workers, students, seniors, and communities of color. It
has become increasingly clear that the legislature needs to take action, and I
believe that HB 2004 offers important tools and protections for Oregon’s
renters while still being considerate of the needs of small landlords. I look
forward to the upcoming vote, and hopeful passage, of this bill in the Senate.
Revenue, Corporate Transparency
I continue to hear a consistent message that my constituents
want to raise revenue to fund Oregon’s education, healthcare, public safety,
transportation, and environmental priorities. Thank you for reaching out to me,
and I encourage you to continue this outreach to your representatives at all
levels of government. Further, please continue this conversation with your
family and friends across the state to make sure that all Representatives and
Senators in Salem receive this message loud and clear from their constituents.
The House Revenue committee is still working on corporate
tax approaches, hearing public testimony, and considering how best to make
targeted spending cuts while reforming our broken revenue system.
Transportation
The Joint Committee on Transportation, Preservation, and
Modernization completed its first round of workgroup proposal presentations
this past week. The workgroup I am a part of focused on Traffic Congestion and
Freight Mobility, and we presented a proposal that discussed the most pressing
congestion pathways in Oregon, most notably the I-5 freeway and Rose Quarter
region. With many proposals on the table, the committee now will begin the
nitty-gritty process of fine-tuning these ideas into a policy package. I
continue to maintain that we cannot pave our way out of the problems that we
now face, and that the transportation package must be innovate, multimodal, and
environmentally responsible.
Oil Trains
We had public hearings for my Oil Train Safety Bill, HB
2131, on March 13th and 15th. They were very well
attended and included the Senate President, tribal officials, city councilors,
environmental activists, outdoorspeople, railroads, and relevant state agencies.
I look forward to continue moving this bill forward through the legislative
process in the coming weeks.
Sincerely,
 Representative Barbara Smith Warner
House District 45
email: Rep.BarbaraSmithWarner@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1445
address: 900 Court St NE, H-487, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/smithwarner
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