Dear Friends,
We are almost through our third week of the February session.  In my opinion, we passed some good bills and some bad bills; some necessary for a special session and some not necessary for a special session. 

Oregon's Driver's Licenses
Last Wednesday, the House passed Senate Bill 1080 to secure Oregon's drivers licenses and identification documents.  SB 1080 is the first House Republican priority bill to be approved by the Legislature in this session. SB 1080 secures our drivers licenses and complies with federal law.  It also gives Oregon a strong tool to combat identity theft and other types of fraud.  SB 1080 requires the Department of Motor Vehicles to verify both an individual's social security number and proof of Oregon residency before the agency issues a driver's license.  The legislation also ensures that if an applicant is in Oregon with a temporary permit, the license would expire when the applicant's legal documentation expires.  By passing SB 1080, Oregon joins 44 other states in requiring proof of legal presence.  I hope this bill will prevent Oregon being a magnet for people seeking to obtain fraudulent driver's licenses and ID cards.  Republicans have worked to pass similar legislation in previous sessions.  I have received calls and emails from constituents who are worried about being required to use their SSN as a form of identity.  We hope this can be discussed in the rule making process to address concerns about this issue.

Health Care as a fundamental right
A bill which was not appropriate for this session was HJR 100.  By a party-line vote, HJR 100 passed the House 31-29.  HJR 100 is a referral to the voters to change the Oregon Constitution to state that ‘access to health care is a fundamental right.’  A similar bill, HJR 18 passed the House last session on a party vote 31-29 and died in the Senate.  Thus, this is a very controversial issue and should not have been introduce under the guidelines of ‘no partisan bills during February.’  Last session, with a non partisan vote we established a committee to study health care costs.  This is an important issue which we need to address but HJR 100 which is a commitment to “universal health care” has previously been rejected at the ballot box by the voters of Oregon.

Accountability Bill
The House on Tuesday passed HB 3613 to establish a "Committee on Performance Excellence" to help state agencies improve government performance.  The Governor vetoed a similar bill from the 2007 regular session.  HB 3613 offers a way for the public to keep an eye on their state government. The committee will help us set up objective and measurable goals and reward programs that meet those expectations.  While supportive of HB 3613, House Republicans continued to call for the creation of a Legislative Audit Office, independent of the Executive Branch.  House Republicans have worked to establish a legislative auditor since 2005.

“Mortgage Foreclosure Scam” Bill
This week, we passed an important consumer protection bill which was supported by the mortgage industry.  HB 3630 requires foreclosure consulting contracts to be in writing, and be provided to a homeowner 24 hours in advance.  It prohibits a foreclosure consultant from being the purchaser, and requires that 82 percent of net proceeds from the sale of the house be given to the homeowner.  HB 3630 also ensures that homeowners facing foreclosure receive straightforward information from their lenders regarding the foreclosure process and directs the homeowner to counseling and assistance that is available to them.

Tough Vote – HB 3618A Estate Tax Relief
I support deletion of the Death Tax.  In 2007, we passed an estate tax reduction for families who own farms, timber, fishing and other natural resources.  There were Federal problems with implementation of this bill and HB3618 was introduced to fix the problems..  It has some good points but also some bad points; like increasing estate taxes for some and not covering some types of natural resource family estates.  Thus, I voted NO although the bill passed the House.  I am hoping the problems will be corrected in the Senate and I’ll be able to vote for the amended bill to reduce the estate taxes for all of our farmers, foresters and fisheries.

House Education and Judiciary Committees
This week, we held two “informational hearings” at my request as vice chair on vision screening and Oregon’s workforce need for educational degree holders.  From the hearings we learned that we need to address the need to provide more vision screening for our children and that Oregon needs more degree holders for our future workforce needs.  I will be forming work groups to discuss strategies to address these issues and develop any necessary legislation.

Oregon’s 149th Birthday  
On Thursday, February 14th, the Governor cut cake in the Capitol Rotunda celebrating Oregon’s 149th birthday.   This begins the countdown to Oregon’s 150^th birthday next February 14th.  We all will have one year to learn to say “sesquicentennial.”      

Best to all,
Gene Whisnant