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Hello Friends,
It's been another busy week at the Capitol, and some of our bills made great progress throughout the week. Here are a few quick highlights:
The Redmond Affordable Housing [Skyline Village], House Bill 2336, is getting another public hearing and a work session on April 1st in the Senate Housing Committee. Essentially, this means that the bill will be receiving public input and potentially be voted on by the committee on the same day! The bill received unanimous bipartisan support in the House, and we hope this trend will continue in the Senate. This bill would continue the process to bring more than 480 new and affordable homes to Redmond, with half of those homes will be deed restricted for incomes of 80% AMI (Average Median Income). Central Oregon is facing a housing shortage crisis, and this would help bring additional supply to bring the cost of housing down. If you'd like to submit written testimony, you can submit it via email to SHOUS.exhibits@oregonlegislature.gov.
In other great news, the Wildfire Forest Protection Bill (House Bill 2222) passed unanimously (58-0 with two excused) out of the House chamber today! The bill would call on the State Forestry Department to annually report to the Legislature on the implementation of the Oregon Forestland-Urban Interface Fire Protection Act of 1997. The 1997 Act incentivized property owners to take precautionary steps to avoid incidents that would contribute to wildfires. HB 2222 would reinforce the 1997 bill, to ensure that ODF and Central Oregon take the necessary steps forward in order to avoid a major wildfire.
Tomorrow, March 29th is the deadline for numerous bills to advance in the legislative process. If bills do not have a work session scheduled, they will be considered "dead" and no further action will be required. We will keep you posted on where some of my priority bills land.
Finally, we are about midway through the legislative session. The constitutional adjournment for the 2019 legislative session is June 30th. I appreciate all the constituents that have visited the Capitol so far. If you'd like to come and visit our office, please email me at rep.jackzika@oregonlegislature.gov or call me at 503-986-1453.
Yours truly,
Representative Jack Zika
House District 53
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Brandon Roberts from Redmond was my intern for the day! |
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Pastor Campbell from the Highland Baptist Church in Redmond came to the Capitol to conduct the opening prayer before our opening floor session. Thank you, Pastor! |
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Earlier this week was the Friends of Family Farmers lobby day where we meet with constituents from Central Oregon to discuss legislation related to small and mid-sized family farmers. |
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Representative Alissa Keny-Guyer, who is the chair of the Human Services and Housing Committee, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer several weeks ago. She underwent surgery earlier this week (which was successful!) to remove the cancer so we all wore purple to honor our friend. We are all thinking of you Representative Keny-Guyer! |
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1453
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, H-387, Salem, OR 97301
Email: Rep.JackZika@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/zika
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