Reflecting on my first session

 

 

Hello Friends,

After working through the weekend to finish our work before the constitutional deadline, on Sunday afternoon the legislature adjourned–and I am incredibly proud of the work we got done. I want to sincerely thank you for engaging with my office over the last six months. Thank you for reading the newsletter (once per week!), attending my town halls, office hours, and constituent coffees, writing my office, calling, and more. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to represent our community in Salem. 

One important thing I want to highlight before getting into the details is this: about 90% of the bills we passed this session were bipartisan–including many pieces of significant and impactful legislation. One of my favorite parts of the session was getting to know and build relationships with legislators from all across the state. I consider many of my colleagues, in both parties, genuine friends. 

It’s a bipartisan, bicameral tradition in the state legislature to wear Hawaiian shirts in the final days of session. Here is a group of us below partaking while we finished our work over the weekend:

Me, Rep. Tom Anderson, Rep. Rob Nosse, Rep. Annessa Hartman, Rep. Kevin Mannix, Rep. Mark Gamba (and Rep. Dacia Grayber photobombing!)

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Major highlights from the 2023 Legislative Session

This was an unconventional session (including the longest walkout in Oregon history)–but in the end, incredibly important work got done that will benefit Oregonians. I believe this session will be remembered for important legislation and budget investments that were passed. Below I’ve highlighted a few of the top items: 

Hall Boulevard: I’m sure you’re not surprised to see Hall Boulevard first on my list! As I mentioned last week, we secured $3 million for pedestrian safety improvements along Hall Blvd. This is the first legislatively directed allocation for Hall Boulevard ever–I think of it as a down payment on an inter-jurisdictional transfer. We will be back in 2025 to work to ensure Hall is included in the Transportation Package. Importantly, House Bill 2793 passed–which creates a pathway for orphan highways to receive funding for jurisdictional transfers in 2025. 

Housing

• Invested nearly $2 billion in the construction of new homes (SB 5511, SB 5505, HB 3395)
• Directed $200 million for homelessness prevention and increasing the production of affordable housing units (HB 2001, HB 5019)
• Rent stabilization–added a cap to the amount that rent can increase with inflation (SB 611)

Economic Development

• Passed the Oregon Kids’ Credit to help struggling parents make ends meet with a tax credit of $1,000 per child (HB 3235)
• Oregon CHIPS Act–allocated $260 million to capitalize on federal matching funds and cement Oregon’s status as a global leader in the semiconductor industry (SB 4)
• Rural Infrastructure and Economic Development Package–targeted investments in Oregon’s rural economies to fix and create infrastructure and affordable housing (HB 3410)

Addiction Treatment & Behavioral Health

• Created stable funding for the 9-8-8 Suicide Prevention & Behavioral Health Crisis Line (HB 2757)
• Passed the Bipartisan Opioid Harm Reduction Package that will address the state’s fentanyl crisis by increasing access to life-saving naloxone (HB 2395)
• Improved Measure 110 implementation so that Oregonians struggling with addiction can receive the care they need to recover (HB 2513)

Community Safety

• Banned unserialized, untraceable “ghost guns” (HB 2005)
• Allocated more funds to attract public defenders to ensure Oregonians have access to fair and quick justice (SB 337)
• Extended the statute of limitations for rape charges from 12 to 20 years (HB 3632)
• Supported police agencies in combating organized retail theft (SB 900)

Education

• Fully funded our K-12 education system at $10.2 billion in the state school fund (HB 5015)
• Required all high school students to receive credit in personal finance in order to graduate (SB 3)
• Invested $144.3 million to support evidence-based, culturally responsive literacy strategies in and outside of the classroom (HB 3198–I was a proud chief sponsor)

Representative Kropf and myself after the Early Literacy Package we worked on together passed

Dolly Parton Imagination Library: I am incredibly excited that one of my favorite proposals, statewide funding for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, was included in the final budget. This means that every child in Oregon, from birth to age five, will be eligible to receive a free book in the mail every month.

Cassie Bruske (a legislative advocate who worked on the Dolly Parton Imagination Library legislation) and I celebrating after it passed

Healthcare

• Affirmed codified abortion rights that Oregonians had under Roe v. Wade, expanded insurance coverage for gender-affirming care, and protected Oregon medical providers' ability to give the best, most appropriate care to their patients by passing the Reproductive Health & Access to Care Act (HB 2002)
• Ensured safe staffing ratios between nurses and patients so nurses will be able to care for everyone who comes to an Oregon hospital with the attention they deserve (HB 2697)
• Regulated pharmacy benefit managers, the middle person of the pharmaceutical industry, to decrease the cost of drugs for Oregonians and protect small pharmacies (HB 2725, SB 192)
• Improved access to life-saving HIV-preventative treatment, PEP (HB 2574)
• Created the Universal Health Plan Governance Board to develop a comprehensive, flexible system for providing every Oregonian with affordable health care (SB 1089)

Good Government

• Created a plan for implementing Ranked Choice voting, which allows a more representative democracy (HB 2004)
• Closed a loophole that allowed some politicians to shield the sources of their income from public disclosure (HB 2038)
• My bill to ban TikTok from government devices unanimously passed the Senate. The bill will improve Oregon’s cybersecurity and protect Oregonians’ privacy (HB 3127)
• Sent the question to the voters whether or not we should follow the lead of most other states in the nation and allow the House of Representatives to impeach the governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer, and state labor commissioner for corruption, dereliction of duty or a “felony or high crime” (HJR 16)
• Referred to voters the question of whether or not Oregon should establish an independent commission to determine elected official’s salaries (SJR 34)

Environment

• Capitalized on federal dollars to implement community-based climate solutions like making our buildings more efficient at heating and cooling (HB 3409, HB 3630)
• Invested $100 million in drought and wildfire prevention (HB 2010)

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Sign up for office hours this Saturday!

Now that the legislative session is over, I’ll be hosting office hours this upcoming weekend and would love for you to stop by and chat! If you’re interested in scheduling a 15-minute meeting with me during office hours, please email rep.benbowman@oregonlegislature.gov with the subject of the meeting, and a member of my staff will work to find you an open time slot.

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One final note

Thank you again for reading. Now that the legislative session is over, I will be tapering down the frequency of my newsletter (but I’ll still be sending periodic updates).

Even in the interim, my staff and I are available to support you. Please reach out to my office any time with ideas, feedback, or requests for assistance: rep.benbowman@oregonlegislature.gov.

 

Sitting at my desk on the House floor.

 

Have a fantastic summer. As always, thanks for reading,

 

 

Ben Bowman
Oregon State Representative

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