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On Monday, at the start of the 82nd Oregon Legislative Assembly, I was formally credentialed and welcomed into the Oregon House of Representatives to represent House District 3, Josephine County.
It is an honor and a privilege to serve the citizens of Oregon!
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 To watch, click link [here].
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We are now one week in to the five-week 2024 short session. Oregon’s short session (held every even year) is intended to be a simple rebalancing of the state’s budget. The current biennium budget, which runs through June 30, 2025, is an already eye-popping $121 billion.
Instead, Oregon Democrats are using the session to ram through hundreds of new laws to further expand the state’s intrusion into Oregonians’ lives and wallets.
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Oregon Democrats are pushing to make temporary federal Covid relief funding permanent and ongoing, now paid for by Oregon taxpayers. They are pushing expensive and counterproductive fake "fixes" to Oregon’s real problems of drugs, crime, and homelessness. They want to pay for their follies by raiding Oregon's rainy-day fund, taking back taxpayers' kicker refunds, and imposing a new never-heard-of-before statewide property tax.
The progressive experiments need to stop. Republicans offer proven alternatives and a plan to get Back to Basics. Learn more at the bottom of this newsletter about how citizens can push back by being informed and engaged.
My priorities for the 2024 short session include:
- Restoring public health and safety including ending Measure 110 and urban camping
- Encouraging economic growth, innovation, and entrepreneurship based on fiscal discipline and free from race and sex-based discrimination
- Protecting citizens from state overreach including providing education freedom to families and preserving parental rights
I am doing everything in my power to protect the citizens of Josephine County from the authoritarians in Salem. Read more about my Reform Oregon priorities for 2024, link [here].
Due to its location on the Interstate 5 corridor in southern Oregon, Josephine County has been devastated by Oregon’s radical leftwing experiment with drug legalization. I support the Republican plan for dealing with the drug crisis, a comprehensive overhaul of Measure 110.
In my letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal, I explain why the Democrats’ plan is a fake “fix” that only seeks to aggrandize the Oregon Health Authority and spread the problems of Portland to every corner of the state.
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As a member of the House Committee on Economic Development and Small Business, I seek to ensure that Business Oregon, the $2 billion state agency tasked with supporting economic development in Oregon, operates fairly and effectively to bring growth and innovation to our state. |
This week Pacific Legal Foundation, a national public interest law firm, provided written testimony outlining serious constitutional concerns with the agency’s use of race and ethnicity in awarding publicly-funded grants via Business Oregon’s Economic Equity Investment Program. The program began back in 2022. I am working to ensure the equal protection of all Oregon citizens. Link [here].
This session Oregon Democrats are looking for state funding for school-based health centers. |
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Last year Oregon House Bill 2002 reduced the age for minors to consent to so-called “reproductive healthcare” and "gender affirming care" to zero without parental permission or even notification. As such, these school-based health centers are now a grave threat to parents’ constitutional right to protect their minor children.
As a member of the House Committee on Behavioral Health and Heath Care, I am working to amend House Bill 4070 to ensure state funding only flows to school-based health centers that require parental permission before they treat minor children.
This week the editor of the Grants Pass Daily Courier, Scott Stoddard, had something to say about sightseeing. It was quite a stretch. In his editorial, “Are politicians poisoning our well of tourism?”, he tried to make a connection between vacations and other various and sundry pursuits such as going to the library, a 4-H meeting, or a drag show for children. I don’t know about you, but when I’m choosing a vacation destination, these attractions don’t usually come to mind.
Travel has been on my mind this week though. Last Sunday I drove up to Salem to start my stint representing Josephine County in Oregon’s 82nd legislative session, which started Monday. The city of Salem is rife with crime, drug use, and homelessness. But what I’m seeing inside the Capitol is worse. Democrat lawmakers here are full speed ahead intent on spreading the problems of their failed cities to every corner of the state.
The most infuriating is their fake fix for M110, the law that has made Oregon the #1 travel destination in the nation for drug traffickers and dealers. The dirty deal won’t recriminalize, but rather handcuff law enforcement with more Oregon Health Authority state mandates over local communities.
I have only one vote in the state legislature. But I will use it and my voice to stand up for my values against the authoritarians in Salem. Tourists from Portland want the same: a clean, safe, and serene place to escape the insanity of their failed city. If standing up for my values makes me, as Mr. Stoddard says, a “small-picture” person, well, then I’m guilty as charged.
The short session is moving quickly. State government works best when citizens stay informed and engaged. Only then will you know if your elected officials are getting Back to Basics and getting Oregon back on track.
You can track and stay involved in the legislative process by using the Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS), link [here]. Click on "Bills" on the upper right of the page to find links to submit testimony and learn which legislator is sponsoring the bill you are concerned about so you can contact them directly via email or phone.
Please make sure you are subscribed to this electronic newsletter to receive regular updates about the legislative session by entering your email in the "e-Subscribe" box on my website, link [here].
I am here to serve you and look forward to hearing your concerns and suggestions!
Please be in touch with me via email at Rep.DwayneYunker@oregonlegislature.gov, over the phone at 503.986.1403, or by stopping by my office in the Oregon Capitol Building, 900 Court St. NE, H-371, Salem, OR 97301.
Sincerely,
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1403
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, H-371, Salem, OR 97301
Email: Rep.DwayneYunker@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/Yunker
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