Spring is almost here, bringing with it the halfway point of this year's Legislative Session.

I’ve been busy providing testimony, meeting with a broad range of constituents, and working to move important legislation on the floor of the House. The next several weeks will bring an increase in activity throughout the Legislature. 

I came to the Capitol with a commitment to address the issues of our community and to work hard on your behalf.  The opportunity to be able to help create positive change is exciting and I want to share that excitement with you.

Protecting Oregon's rivers is 

an important priority and many are important sources of drinking water. In Eugene and Springfield, we are lucky to have the McKenzie River as our primary source of drinking water.  One of my personal bills this session, HB 2256, seeks to remove barriers to land conservation to help protect Oregon’s critical natural resources. Today, I carried this bill on the Floor of the Orgon House and it successfully passed with 45 votes. It will now move to the Senate. 

Ensuring our government and 

economy is working for Oregonians is something I remain committed to as a state representative.  That is why I’m actively working on legislation with Senator Prozanski to address wage theft in the construction industry and to ensure that important protections are in place for working people, HB 2254.

There have been hundreds of complaints made to the Bureau of Labor & Industry (BOLI) regarding wage theft, each one from a real person suffering the real consequences of not being paid for their work.  The majority of wage theft complaints are deemed credible by BOLI, but many hard-working individuals are still waiting for their rightful compensation. Historically marginalized communities are the most vulnerable and at-risk for targeted wage theft.

With the Western States Carpenters on deck to testify with me, I spoke to the Senate Committee on Judiciary in support of this bill. If passed, it will be a strong step towards ensuring every Oregonian is paid fairly. 

Oregon Democrats are standing strong to protect OHP

while Congress is debating cuts to Medicaid.  On February 27^th, I proudly voted YES on HB 2010.  This legislation will help to keep critical funding in place for the Oregon Health Plan. OHP provides life-saving healthcare to 1.4 million Oregonians, including more than half of all children in our state. Right here in Lane County, 130,287 people, a third of our community, rely on OHP for medical, dental, and mental health care.

The Oregon Health Plan is paid for with both state and federal funds. HB 2010 extends Oregon’s biggest state funding source—fees from hospitals and insurance companies—through 2032. This is important because for every $1 Oregon invests in OHP, we get $3 more from the federal government. This legislation brings in more money for healthcare services in Oregon and works towards ensuring all Oregonians continue to have access to care.

Class size has significant

impacts on the ability of all students to be successful.  In my 25 years in the classroom, I routinely taught classes of more than 26 or 27 children.  I once taught a class of 33 kindergarten students.  With classes of this size, it is difficult to ensure that all children’s learning needs are supported, and in Oregon we are also seeing a significant increase in student’s learning needs in schools. 

This past week, along with Representative Muñoz, I provided testimony in the House Committee on Education on HB 3652, which would make class size a mandatory subject of bargaining. Currently, it is only possible to bargain class size for Title 1 Schools, and this creates inequities district wide.  HB 3652 does not propose specific class size mandates but would simply ensure that conversations about class size and case load can happen for all schools.  I’m hopeful this bill will provide an additional tool to ensure Oregon has supportive learning environments in all schools so that all students can be successful.    

My first Constituent Coffee 

was well attended by a large group of community members and I greatly appreciated hearing the diversity of questions, concerns, and thinking.  Thank you to everyone who attended.  There was a broad range of topics covered, including health care, both K-12 and higher education, transportation, accessibility issues, and housing. 

An additional topic on everyone’s mind was the chaos that is happening at the federal level; understandably people are worried and fearful.  It was great to hear from community members in attendance about the ways in which people are responding and engaging proactively on the local level.  I shared how the governor, the state legislature and the attorney general’s office are coordinating work around challenges at the federal level to help prepare for potential outcomes.  We also discussed the proactive actions being taken by Attorney General Dan Rayfield.

My office plans to host Constituent Coffees each month and we would love to hear from you and others at one of these in the future.  The next Constituent Coffee will be on Saturday, March 22^nd at 10am at Theo’s Coffee. 

The 2nd Annual Citywide

Healthcare Forum was a success and I enjoyed participating. The forum gave me the opportunity to talk about legislation I am working on to help close loopholes in Oregon’s corporate practice of medicine, SB 951.  These loopholes are one of the reasons that we are seeing consolidation in our healthcare industry which results in a loss of access to healthcare, increased costs, and declining quality of care. 

This legislation is about preventing what happened to hundreds of community members at Oregon Medical Group when it was taken over by Optum.  I’ve personally heard dozens of stories from constituents about how this resulted in the loss of their care.  It is critical to tackle this crisis of access, quality of care, and increased costs, and I will continue to work to do so.

Other highlights of the Forum included Senator James Manning’s discussion about progress being made on Universal Healthcare and hearing from Eve Gray, Lane County’s Director of Health & Human Services.  The audience had many questions about challenges at the federal level, workforce development in healthcare, and increasing emergency services in Eugene.  It was a great opportunity to connect with the community on these issues.  Thank you to Healthcare for All and Eugene Healthcare Coalition for organizing the event.    

I am diligently working to improve life for our community and for all Oregonians. The session may be moving quickly, but it is far from over!  I look forward to keeping you updated.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office.                                                            

 Sincerely,                                      

Representative Lisa Fragala
House District 8