74th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2007 Regular Session
 
NOTE:  Matter within  { +  braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within  { -  braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
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 LC 3008
 
                     Senate Joint Memorial 6
 
Sponsored by Senator GORDLY (at the request of Sean Cruz)
 
 
                             SUMMARY
 
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.
 
  Urges Congress to pass legislation requiring declaration of
National Energy Emergency prior to deployment of National Guard
troops in foreign war.
 
                         JOINT MEMORIAL
To the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United
  States of America, in Congress assembled:
  We, your memorialists, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly
of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled,
respectfully represent as follows:
  Whereas the United States has recently developed a policy of
extensively using the National Guard to fight foreign wars; and
  Whereas this policy has burdened a small number of American
citizens who are members of the National Guard and their families
with extraordinary, open-ended sacrifice, while the vast majority
of American citizens make no sacrifice whatsoever; and
  Whereas this policy is unfair and morally repugnant to the
ideals under which this nation was founded; and
  Whereas the cost of energy is integral to the cost of war, and
the nation's dependency on foreign sources of energy is a
continuing, contributing cause to the onset and prosecution of
foreign wars; and
  Whereas should this nation go to war in a foreign land, it
should do so with a policy of shared sacrifice and a policy of
energy conservation designed to reduce dependency on foreign
sources of energy; and
  Whereas this nation has often failed to provide adequately for
the postwar needs of its veterans and their families,
contributing greatly to the insecurity and suffering of those
deployed to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and
  Whereas a National Energy Emergency imposing a surtax on
foreign sources of energy, wherein said revenues would fund the
long-term medical, housing, educational and employment needs of
members of the National Guard and their families who are subject
to deployment orders, would reduce the insecurity and suffering
of said members and their families; and
  Whereas a National Energy Emergency imposing a surtax on
foreign sources of energy, wherein said revenues would fund the
long-term medical, housing, educational and employment needs of
members of the National Guard and their families who are subject
to deployment orders, while the nation is in the crisis of a
foreign war, would reduce the nation's consumption of and
dependency on foreign sources of energy and thus would contribute
positively to the nation's war effort; and
  Whereas the disruption to the normal lives of National Guard
members and their families by the extraordinary, open-ended
sacrifice demanded of them by the President's policies requires
an extraordinary commitment in kind by the nation; now,
therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of
  Oregon:
  That we, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly, on behalf of
the citizens of Oregon, respectfully urge the Congress of the
United States to immediately enact legislation declaring a
National Energy Emergency, recognizing that many members of the
National Guard are already deployed in a foreign war; and be it
further
  Resolved, That no future deployments of National Guard members
to a foreign war should occur without the threshold step of the
declaration of a National Energy Emergency and the imposition of
a national energy surtax; and be it further
  Resolved, That the long-term medical needs of National Guard
members and their families will be met regardless of the
physical, mental or emotional nature of their conditions; and be
it further
  Resolved, That a copy of this memorial shall be sent to the
Senate Majority Leader, to the Speaker and the Clerk of the House
of Representatives and to each member of the Oregon Congressional
Delegation.
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