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Hi folks,

What an absolute whirlwind these past seven months have been. On Sunday, 6/25/23, we officially ended the 2023 legislative session. That is the last day the state constitution allows us to be in session and we ended less than seven hours before the actual deadline at midnight. If the session could be described in a single word, it would be “frantic.” We have an ineffective way of going about state government and the biggest symptom of that is the walkouts we have seen every session for the past four years. I believe this year’s walkout was the second-longest in the history of the entire USA. Every time, the work of the legislature grinds to a screeching halt until deals are made that result in a weakening of key legislation. We have seen this on issues ranging from climate, to guns, to abortion, and more.

I do not believe the state legislature is capable of passing the sort of monumental, game-changing concepts we truly need, especially on climate, until we fix the foundational process that allows these walkouts to happen. Oregon is one of only four states in the country that does it this way and it is past time we learn from the rest of them. We had pinned our hopes on Measure 113, which the voters passed last year. It clearly was not effective and failed to address the root cause of the problem.

You will be hearing much more about this soon but a group of citizens, legislators, and advocacy organizations are launching a campaign to finally fix our process and allow the legislature to function with a majority of members present, instead of the supermajority that is currently required. This is how it is done in most of the country and it will end the tyranny of the minority for good.

Pictured: I defended HB 2763 on the floor of the House when the opposition tried its hardest to kill it.

Bill Highlights

Here are some highlights on important bills we considered in the final week of the session, after the walkout ended. I will keep it brief but please feel free to reach out to me at Rep.MarkGamba@oregonlegislature.gov with any questions.

• Climate Resilience Package - HB 3409 and HB 3630 contained some of the biggest climate concepts we considered this session and we passed both into law on the second-to-last day. The Resilient and Efficient Buildings, Natural and Working Lands, and budget appropriation pieces are good steps towards less pollution from our buildings, cleaner air and water, and landing billions of federal dollars for climate investments in Oregon.
• State Bank Task Force - HB 2763 is my bill to officially start work on the absolutely transformational concept of public banking. In spite of Wall Street sending top lobbyists to try and kill the bill we managed to get it passed in the final week of session. It is now on the Governor’s desk awaiting her signature.
• Gov. Kotek’s Land Use Bill - HB 3414, in its final form, would have created a moderate loophole in cities’ planning and zoning processes. This loophole would have resulted in expensive mcmansions in prime areas of cities where we really need more and denser housing. More alarmingly, it would devastate our land use system by allowing rapid Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) expansions at a whim. UGBs are THE reason Oregon does not have urban sprawl like is found in places like Houston and LA. Ultimately, we can completely gut the land use system and throw billions of dollars at housing, but until we solve the workforce problem we are just not going to be able to build new housing at the pace that is needed. In my mind HB 3414 would have been catastrophic in many ways, all while not actually solving the problem it was supposed to fix.

Constituent Coffee Calendar

I will be hosting more frequent Constituent Coffee events during the interim. I want to be available to answer all of your questions and to hear what you would like me to focus on in the next legislative session. I hope you are able to join me for some of these. Events further in the future are more subject to change so please keep an eye on these newsletters for updated information.

• Saturday, July 29th at Ledding Library, Conference Room, 10-12pm (Milwaukie)
• Saturday, August 19th at 9am, at Risley Park (Oak Grove)
• Saturday, August 26th at 9am, at Willamette View
• Thursday, September 14th at 6pm, at Ardenwald City Park

Workgroups

We are running a host of workgroups during the interim to help craft legislation for a future session. Some of them are directed by or in concert with another legislator. If you have expertise in one of these realms and might like to participate, please let me know.

• Natural gas and the building trades
• Expanding adoption of rooftop solar
• Transportation system reforms
• Inter- and intra-state transmission of electricity
• Portable/unified rental application system
• State Bank Task Force
• Long-term kicker reform
• Career and technical education for K-12 students

Thank you for reading and staying informed. I am working my hardest to represent you in Salem. As always, please reach out with any thoughts or questions. I am here for you.

Mark

Capitol Phone: 503-986-1441
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-477, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Rep.MarkGamba@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/gamba​