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To contact me, please click here: Rep.MarkGamba@oregonlegislature.gov

Hi folks,

Well, we are well into the legislative session and it has been a doozy. I sit on the Housing, Transportation, and Climate/energy committees and these appear to be some of the most popular ones in terms of the number of bills referred. Now that we’ve passed a critical deadline last week, several hundred bills have “died”, but the workload has paradoxically seemed to increase as each legislative office makes a wild dash to pass their bills out of committee before the next deadline. Please read below for an overview of what I am working on.

Constituent Conversations

Now that we are through the frantic start of session I am resuming my regular Constituent Conversation events. With all the catastrophic traumas being inflicted by the federal government on our people and on our institutions, I hope our conversations together can provide an opportunity to come together as a group of people who care about making our communities better. I will share updates on the goings-on in Salem and look forward to hearing your thoughts. I hope to see you at one of these.

Legislative Update

Eighteen of my priority bills survived last week’s deadline and are still alive, either because they have a work session or are located in a committee not subject to deadlines. A couple of these we already know will probably not move forward but are still technically alive. To keep this brief I will only list their bill numbers and titles below, but please feel welcome to E-mail my office (we do not receive responses to this E-mail address) with any thoughts or questions at Rep.MarkGamba@oregonlegislature.gov.

• HB 3628 - Oregon Transmission Authority
• HB 3681 - Transmission Permitting Reform
• HB 3336 - Grid-enhancing Technologies (GETs)
• HB 3659 - Kicker Accuracy
• HB 2968 - System Development Charges (SDCs)
• SJR 28 - Environmental Rights Constitutional Amendment
• SB 1187 - Climate Superfund
• HB 2966 - State Public Financing Task Force (State Bank)
• HB 2967 - Rental Application Screening Fees
• HB 2961 - EV-ready Expansion
• HB 2963 - Low-income E-bike Rebates
• HB 3489 - Timber Severance Tax on Value
• HB 3569 - Rulemaking Advisory Committee Sponsors
• HB 3314 - Ross Island Lagoon Fix
• HB 2964 - Nonprofit Housing Feasibility Dollars
• SB 681 - Pause Act
• HB 3609 - Virtual Power Plants
• SB 1067 - Local Option for Solid Waste Disposal

Eight of my priority bills have officially “died” for various reasons.

• HB 2962 - Houseable Wage
• HB 3877 - Rental Registry
• HB 3477 - Update to Oregon’s Emissions Reduction Targets
• HB 2965 - Net Pen Ban
• HB 2960 - Plastic Conversion and Depolymerization Facilities
• HB 2834-1 - DoD Energy Coordination
• HB 3894 - Wind on State Forestlands
• HJM 10 - Transmission Federal Resolution

NCEL State Lead Some good news! I have been selected as a State Lead for Oregon with the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators. There is a tremendous amount of synergy between this role and the work I am doing as a co-chair of the legislature's Environmental Caucus. I am passionate about this work and will continue trying to coordinate all the moving pieces to ensure we pass the strongest possible climate policies.

Transportation Package

Beyond all of my priority legislation, work is beginning to heat up on the big transportation package that will be passed this year. I think it is fair to say this package has overshadowed everything else we are doing in the legislature. Many other bills will live or die on the altar of the political maneuvering required to pass something of any value. I am honored to serve on the Joint Committee on Transportation so I have more of a window into some of these discussions than most, but it is not yet clear to me what this package is going to look like. I am fighting hard for is sufficient funding for transit, safe routes to school, and bike and pedestrian infrastructure in order to make our state safer, greener and more efficient when it comes to transportation. There is much more to come on the transportation package and I hope to have more news to share in my next newsletter.

Pictured: The cherry blossoms at the capitol, in full bloom!

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. If you have thoughts or questions, please send them directly to my office as we do not receive responses to this newsletter address. You can reach me at Rep.MarkGamba@oregonlegislature.gov.

All my best,

Mark Gamba

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​