2018 Legislative Debrief

The 2018 legislative session lasted only 27 days—a week less than the constitution allows. Join us to find out what legislation passed and what policy priorities were tabled for 2019. Questions we might ask include:

• What does the "boyfriend loophole" mean and how was it fixed?
• Will new legislation mean changes in how prescription drugs are priced?
• Does the carbon emissions legislation deferred to 2019 really have a chance?
• Will legislators declare health care to be a right?
• What's the latest with PERS and other budget concerns?

Learn about these and other issues as we lead into 2018 elections.

Panel

Jennifer Williamson is the Majority Leader of the Oregon House of Representatives—a position she has held since 2015. Representative Williamson has been a leading advocate for criminal justice reform, women’s health care, and working Oregonians and their families. She led the effort in the Oregon House to require background checks on all gun purchases, fought to secure the largest education budget in Oregon’s history and fund all-day kindergarten statewide for the first time ever, helped expand access to contraception, and supported a statewide paid sick leave law. Representative Williamson is a graduate of the University of Oregon and earned her law degree from Willamette University.

Jackie Winters is the Minority Leader in the Oregon State Senate. She began her governmental service in 1959 at the University of Oregon Medical School in the medical records unit. In 1969, she was recruited to be supervisor of the Office of Economic Opportunity’s New Resources Program at the request of Governor Tom McCall. In 1979, she was appointed Ombudsman by Governor Victor Atiyeh. During this service, she helped create the Oregon Food Share Program, the first statewide non-profit food sharing network, which continues today serving most of Oregon’s neediest families. In 1998, voters of District 31 elected Winters as State Representative, the first African-American Republican to achieve this honor in Oregon.  After serving two terms, she was elected as State Senator for District 10 and has served in that office since 2002.

Moderator

Paris Achen is the politics and state government reporter for the Portland Tribune and 34 other newspapers owned by the Pamplin and EO media groups. In addition, she co-authors the online blog and newsletter, Oregon Capital Insider, where readers can learn what happens behind the scenes of some of Oregon’s biggest political stories. Her work has won more than a dozen journalism awards from the Society for Professional Journalists, the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, and the Vermont Press Association.