Serving Senate District 30

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Friends,

The 2021 legislative session has nearly reached its conclusion and the pace has anything but slowed in the final week. As we speak, amendments are being introduced at the last minute, votes are being scheduled at the last hour, and bills are being passed more quickly than we can count them.

Next week, I’ll provide you with a comprehensive wrap-up of the good, the bad and the ugly elements of this session, but I wanted to share with you some recent issues I’ve tackled on behalf of Senate District 30.   

Serving you and responding to the diverse needs of our vast communities is my top priority. While we’ve stayed connected in other ways, it’s been disappointing and difficult to serve this session without the Capitol being open to the public and I’ve missed having meetings with you and seeing you when you visit. We look forward to later this summer and fall when we will be able to connect with you in person throughout the district.

Thank you for sticking together through a challenging time in our state and a unique legislative session. While it hasn’t been easy lately, I am confident there are brighter days ahead.

As always, if you need more information or have any questions, please contact us at any time. You can reach me and my staff via email at sen.lynnfindley@oregonlegislature.gov or by phone at (541) 986-1730.

Thank you,

Senator Lynn Findley
Senate District 30

Congratulations Class of 2021!

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I wish you a heartfelt congratulations on your graduation whether it be from high school, college, vocational school, or even pre-school and kindergarten! These are important milestones in your lives, and you deserve to be honored and congratulated for your hard work and accomplishments. I look forward to seeing what your futures hold. 

To the parents and families, We see you and honor the sacrifices and work you’ve put in to help your students, your kids, succeed. You, too, deserve congratulations and recognition. I know you’ve stepped up in monumental ways and have endured a tough year where many of you have become first-time teachers, quit your jobs, or had to make tough decisions to make sure your kids have the best future ahead.

Sponsoring Bans on Vaccine Passports

If you’ve followed my newsletter, social media or public statements, you’ll know I’ve been supportive of taking every step possible to slow the spread of COVID 19, keep each other safe and healthy, and thoughtfully re-open our state for business and our schools for our kids, and I’ve shared many of those recommendations and resources over the last year. I believe we can, and should, continue to do these things to get Oregon back to full recovery.

However, I draw the line at a vaccine passport or vaccine verification system being considered in Oregon. It’s beyond what’s necessary, it’s an invasion of privacy, places undue burden on businesses to execute, and it shows the government has an inherent distrust in the ability for Oregonians to make decisions for themselves.

In fact, Oregon is the only state in the country to have a vaccine verification mandate. It’s too much, too far, and for too long.

I’ve Chief Co-Sponsored two pieces of legislation that would ban the implementation of a vaccine passport verification system in Oregon

SB 872, introduced by Sen. Kim Thatcher, would prohibits public bodies and private entities from requiring person to receive COVID-19 vaccination or to possess COVID-19 immunity passport, immunity pass or other evidence certifying COVID-19 vaccination or immunity status.

HB 3407, introduced by Rep. Mark Owens, goes a step farther. Prohibits public body from issuing COVID-19 vaccine passport; prohibits a person or public body from requiring individual to state or document vaccination against or immunity to COVID-19 in order to access certain amenities. Prohibits person or public body from requiring individual to wear face covering if individual does not state or document vaccination against or immunity to COVID-19 in order to access certain amenities.

Even as Oregon approaches an arbitrary 70% vaccination rate, the threshold the Governor has set to “fully reopen the economy,” I stand firmly with my colleagues on this legislation as it is still unclear what that means given the Governor’s constant shifting of the goal-posts.                               

Protecting Innocent Lives

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I was proud to vote for SB 586, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. The vote was 18-11 in opposition to a bill that would have required medical care to be given to a baby that survives a failed abortion procedure. I believe we have a responsibility-medically and morally-to provide care to these babies without question or consideration.

This last year, we’ve all learned even more about what it takes to provide access to adequate, quality health care to those who need it and specially to implementing life-saving measures of every proportion.

Why should living, breathing babies be any different?

Providing Support for Our Police

As policing has become an increasingly thankless job, we must do everything we can to let our police men and women know that they have our support as they put their lives on the line to keep us safe.

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This is why I sponsored Senate Bill 547, a bill to pay law enforcement officers double-time for responding to riots and violent demonstrations.

Last week, the Senate Republicans did a “bill pull” on SB 547 which is a procedural move to have a bill brought straight to the floor for a vote to "consider" it. If it were to pass as a "consideration", then the bill would be voted on itself rather than from a committee. In other words, it’s not a vote on the bill itself, but on whether the Senate should vote on it – and it’s an important indicator of a bill’s support.

Unfortunately, not everyone agrees our police officers deserve more resources and it didn’t make it. The vote to consider it failed; it was voted down by every Democratic Senator and Republican Senator Dallas Heard.

Our shortage of police officers and increasing violent crime are not unrelated. We need to find ways to attract qualified officers to help protect our communities, and I will continue to advocate for them.

New Dollars for Senate District 30

A few weeks ago, Rep. Mark Owens and I submitted six million dollars in funding requests for critical infrastructure in Senate District 30 and House District 60 through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA).

We worked closely together and alongside local leaders to research and learn which projects are most needed and that would provide the greatest benefit to our communities. These infrastructure improvements are critical to the future of our region.

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In total, Oregon should receive an estimated $4 billion allocated to various government jurisdictions such as counties, city, tribal governments, as well as at a legislative district level. Each Oregon House member is able to direct $2 million and each senator $4 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds toward their communities' needs. The aid is part of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion  federal relief package passed by Congress in March to offset economic damages from the pandemic.

We will find out in the coming weeks whether the funding has been granted for these projects.

COVID-19 Updates & Information

County Risk Levels

Effective Friday, June 18, there will be 22 counties at the Lower Risk level, 5 at Moderate Risk, and 9 at the High Risk level.

  • A complete list of counties and their risk levels is available here
  • Review the list of sector-by-sector guidelines and what’s permitted here.
  • Visit the Oregon Coronavirus website here.

Vaccine Eligibility

All Oregonians age 12 and older are now eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Individuals meeting these criteria can use the following resources to get linked to vaccine information in their communities:

Contact Us

Capitol Phone:
503-986-1730

Capitol Address: 
900 Court St. NE, S-403, Salem, OR 97301
Email: 
Sen.LynnFindley@oregonlegislature.gov
Website:
http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/findley

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