Awards + Honor Roll
Environmental Champion of the Year
Rep. Khanh Pham (D-Portland)
In a tough legislative year, Rep. Pham did not miss a beat. She pushed tirelessly for meaningful progress on climate. Her bill to improve tree infrastructure in Oregon was ultimately included in the Climate Resilience package HB 3409. She led the way in urging a climate friendly, right-sized I-5 bridge replacement. And in critical negotiations she helped significantly improve a Major Threat bill that would have exempted some ports from land use laws (still a Bill of Concern, but it could have been much worse). Last but not least, she played a key role on important budget decisions as co-chair of the Ways and Means Natural Resources Subcommittee. Many of her efforts were behind the scenes, but time and again, Rep. Pham demonstrated transformative climate and environmental policy are core to her mission in the legislature.
Dynamic Duo
 | Sen. Majority Leader Kate Lieber (D-Beaverton) |
Rep. Pam Marsh (D-Ashland) |  |
|
Every single year we must make progress on climate change, and this year Sen. Majority Leader Lieber and Rep. Marsh were laser focused on ensuring the Resilient, Efficient Buildings package stayed on track and made it over the finish line as strong as possible––a task made doubly hard by the Republican walkout. Without their leadership, Oregon would have lost a key opportunity to stay on track to help our state meet our climate goals and draw down billions in federal funding on climate to the benefit of ALL Oregonians. | |||
Unsung Hero
Sen. Janeen Sollman
(D-Forest Grove)
Sen. Sollman wins the prize for having the most OCN priority bills in her portfolio, and as chair of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee, she was well-situated to move those bills forward. As the Chief Sponsor of the Toxic Free Cosmetics, and all four of the Zero Waste priority bills, she did a lot of heavy lifting for the environment this session. Not all the bills made it across the finish line, but those that did succeeded in large part because of Sen. Sollman’s determination to get the votes. Without her behind the scenes efforts, we would have been less successful on these public health and waste reduction priorities.
Perseverance Award
 | Sen. President Rob Wagner (D-Lake Oswego) | Speaker Dan Rayfield (D-Corvallis) |  |
|
Senate President Wagner and House Speaker Rayfield persevered through the longest Republican walkout in Oregon’s history. The two leaders collaborated to ensure there were strong climate and energy bill packages and prevented major progress from stalling out when Republicans finally decided to come back to work. Speaker Rayfield’s tireless work to move as many bills as possible to be ready to go when they returned was imperative to our successes this session–– President Wagner stood strong by refusing to forgive the Republicans’ absences and not caving to all their demands. Our state avoided some major losses and managed to achieve progress on climate and environmental bills due in large part to their perseverance. | |||
Honor Roll
Four Representatives (Reps. Chaichi, Gamba, K. Pham, and Sanchez), and three Senators (Sens. Golden, Dembrow, and Patterson) earned PERFECT 100% scores for the 2023 session.
THANK YOU to the 21 House members who voted no on HB 3414 – a Major Threat to Oregon’s land use system – and especially to the ten Senators who voted no and ultimately killed the bill on the final day of session.