Inside
MEETING NO TICES
See
Page 6
V olume 109
Number 2
J anuary 18, 2008
P ortland
Unions Are Ready To
Build A New Bridge
Bi-state task force considers options
for I-5 bridge over Columbia River
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Tired of traffic bottlenecks on and around the Interstate Bridge?
For the past two years, a 39-member bi-state task force set up by the
Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and Oregon De-
partment of Transportation (ODOT) has been looking at ways to reduce con-
gestion and improve safety on I-5 between Oregon and Washington.
The advisory group — the Columbia River Crossing Task Force — has
sifted through dozens of bridge, transit and highway improvement project
proposals, ranging from digging a tunnel under the river to supplementing the
existing bridge to building a replacement bridge. The task force has win-
nowed the proposals to just five, and it expects to narrow it down to one by
August.
The proposal that appears most likely to win approval would replace the
I-5 Bridge with a new bridge no more than 200-300 feet to the West (down-
stream.) The new bridge would have five or six standard-sized lanes in each
direction, including a safety lane, plus a bike/pedestrian path. And it would
have light rail — either on a separate structure just next to it, or within it in
some way, like on the bridge’s underside. The new bridge would be about 90
feet above the Columbia River — high enough for boats to pass beneath
without a bridge-lift, but low enough to avoid complications for air traffic
from Portland International Airport and Vancouver’s Pearson Field. When the
new bridge opened, the existing bridge would be removed.
The bridge would be only one part of the project, however, which also in-
cludes improvements along the five-mile stretch of I-5, from State Route
500 in Vancouver to Columbia Boulevard in Portland. To improve safety
(Turn to Page 9)
NW lawmakers score well on AFL-CIO vote tallies
Reps. David Wu, Peter
DeFazio and Darlene
Hooley get perfect marks
in the first session of the
110th Congress
Congressional representatives from
Oregon and Washington scored quite
well on the national AFL-CIO’s in-
terim Committee on Political Educa-
tion (COPE) voting report card re-
leased last month in Washington, D.C.
The scorecard is a running record of
34 Senate votes and 33 House votes
that took place during the first session
of the 110th Congress, but it is not the
official voting record for 2007. The
AFL-CIO labeled lawmakers’ votes as
either “right” or “wrong,” based on the
position the AFL-CIO took.
Bills — and amendments to bills—
included the Employee Free Choice
Act, limits on guest worker programs,
and federal minimum wage increases.
A complete list of votes can be found
online at www.aflcio.org under the leg-
islative section.
U.S. H OUSE
Oregon Reps. David
Wu (1st District); Peter
DeFazio (4th District); and
Darlene Hooley, (5th Dis-
trict), were among 173
House Democrats to score
100 percent COPE voting
records.
Also among the “100
percenters” were Washing-
DAVID WU
PETER DeFAZIO
DARLENE HOOLEY
ton Democrats Norm
Dicks of Bremerton, and
synopsis, authorized $2 billion in fed- Rep. Jim McDermott of Seattle. Blu-
Rick Larsen of Bellingham.
eral loan guarantees for bio-refineries menauer compiled a 30-201 scorecard
Another 29 Democrats cast only and bio-fuel production plants with re- and McDermott was 31-2. The Farm
one vote in disagreement with the quirements that all construction be en- bill passed 231-191.
AFL-CIO. Among them were Vancou- forced by federal Davis-Bacon Act
Spokeswomen for Blumenauer and
ver, Washington’s Brian Baird, (30-1-2 prevailing wage standards. It also Baird told the NW Labor Press that the
absent); Tacoma's Adam Smith, (32-1), stopped the Bush Administration from congressmen are strong supporters of
and Jay Inslee of Shoreline, (27-1-5). continuing to contract out jobs of fed- the Davis-Bacon Act, but that the Farm
The three Washingtonians’“wrong” eral workers who conduct eligibility bill, overall, favored large agribusi-
votes came on a Farm bill that had at- determinations for the food stamp pro- nesses over the needs of small farmers
tachments that both strengthened gram.
and rural communities, among other
Davis-Bacon enforcement and ended
Also voting against that bill were issues they had with the bill.
privatization of some civil service jobs. Oregon Congressman Earl Blume-
Blumenauer and McDermott also
HR 2419, according to the AFL-CIO nauer (3rd District), and Washington voted against labor’s position on HR
1585, a defense authorization bill that
was modified to restore the rights of
federal civilian workers to collectively
bargain. The bill, which set military
spending priorities but did not actually
allot the money, passed 397-27, with
25 Democrats and two Republicans
opposing it. The opposition voters
wanted conditions for troop with-
drawal from Iraq. The AFL-CIO sup-
ported the bill because it deleted most
of President Bush’s plan to take away
union rights for the Department of De-
fense’s 700,000 civilian workers. But
the defense measure also lacked limits
on the war in Iraq, and that prompted
the opposition to the measure.
The defense bill vote allowed 51
Republicans to avoid a shutout and
register one “right” vote (1-33) on their
COPE scorecards.
Oregon Republican Greg Walden of
Cascade Locks (2nd District) scored
33 percent, with a vote tally of 11-22.
Washington Rep. Doc Hastings of
Pasco was one of the worst lawmakers,
voting with labor at 2-29-2.
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