MARCH 13, 2020, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
Opinion
Voters will remember in November
By BILL POST
Governor Kate Brown, House
Speaker Tina Kotek, Senate Presi-
dent Peter Courtney and I agree on
at least one thing: the 2020 legisla-
tive session was a failure. Regarding
how and why the session failed; we
have extremely differing views.
Just three bills made it to the gov-
ernor’s desk before adjournment.
Dozens of crucial bud-
get bills and bipartisan
policy proposals failed
to receive votes. But it
didn’t have to end this
way.
The truth is, Dem-
ocrat leaders wanted
their
cap-and-trade
bill so badly, they were
willing to sacrifi ce everything in
its wake to ensure its passage. They
made the choice to put a fl awed
cap-and-trade bill ahead of legis-
lation that would have addressed
homelessness, health care, housing,
education and public safety. When
we encouraged them to put budget
bills and bipartisan policy proposals
ahead of cap-and-trade early in the
session, they said no.
That was their right and that was
their choice, but they now need to
own that decision. They do not have
the right to make this choice and
then try to pin the blame on others
for their own actions.
When it became clear that Dem-
ocrat leaders were not interested in
compromise on cap-and-trade and
were not going to move forward
with a proper end to the session,
Republican lawmakers
developed their own
plan for completing
the legislature’s busi-
ness. Our proposal to
return on the fi nal day
of the session (March
8) would have allowed
us to pass those essen-
tial budget bills and
other shared priorities. To be clear,
Republican lawmakers were not
attempting to “cherry pick” which
bills lived or died. In fact, we agreed
to the list of important budget bills
that Democratic leadership an-
nounced as priorities on the House
fl oor without allowing the passage
of cap-and-trade.
Again, Democrats said no.
Make no mistake, we had the
time (in 2019 the Senate passed
guest
column
over 100 bills on the last day), the
authority, and the resources to get
these bills across the fi nish line on
the fi nal day of session. Instead of
joining us on Sunday to fi nish the
peoples’ work, Democratic leader-
ship prematurely gaveled out the
session and quit on the people of
Oregon. It’s ironic, given the rhet-
oric that has been aimed at Repub-
licans over the last two weeks, that
the fi nal act of the 2020 legislative
session will be Democrats “walking
out” on Oregonians.
Sadly, there were a lot of bud-
get and policy bills that both par-
ties agreed upon, including my two
bills; kratom and land use. It’s unfor-
tunate we couldn’t have passed these
bi-partisan bills at the beginning of
session. Instead, Democratic lead-
ership made their choice to hold
common sense bills hostage until
their agenda was complete.
Democratic leaders made their
choice and their agenda wasn’t
completed. Now, they own this ses-
sion’s failure. It is my sincere hope
that Oregon voters will remember
in November.
(Bill Post represents the 25th House
District that includes Keizer.)
Covid19 isn’t another Katrina. It’s worse.
By MICHAEL GERSON
One symptom of the coronavi-
rus outbreak—at least for me—has
been nasty fl ashbacks to Hurricane
Katrina in August 2005. At the time
I was a policy adviser to President
George W. Bush, visiting New York
City for meetings. The day after
the storm hit, I recall talking to a
colleague at the White House and
helpfully offering that the federal re-
sponse “looked pretty good
from here.”
The next several days had
the quality of a nightmare,
as images of unrelieved suf-
fering fi lled the news. The
crisis, it turned out, was
unprecedented—not just a
massive hurricane but a city-wide
fl ood. When it came to providing re-
lief and maintaining order, the nor-
mal procedure was to defer to state
and local authorities. They quickly
proved incapable or incompetent.
Many Americans assumed that the
main federal component of the re-
sponse—the Federal Emergency
Management Agency—could do
emergency response and logistics on
a large scale. But FEMA wasn’t (and
isn’t) an elite corps of emergency
responders. It was (and is) a skeletal
organization that expands by hiring
contractors in time of need. And the
need is usually defi ned as putting up
trailers while a relatively thin strip of
destroyed coastal homes is rebuilt.
As the scale of Katrina’s destruc-
tion became evident, some at the
White House proposed to preempt
state and local roles and send in the
military. Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld offered legal objections to
conducting operations on U.S. soil.
Others made the case that if we took
action, we would “own” the situa-
tion—creating the impression we
could replace the institutions that
had primary responsibility.
We found, of course, that the
president owns every crisis that can
only be solved on a national scale.
So why the fl ashbacks? Because
the United States again faces a cir-
cumstance in which the problem
may be larger than the institutions
that normally deal with it. Public
health is mainly the responsibility of
states and localities. Americans may
think the Centers for Disease Con-
trol is leading a national
response to the coronavi-
rus. It isn’t. The CDC has
a weak role in setting and
implementing policy, and
it is not suffi ciently staffed
to do the job people think
it is doing. The working
group headed by Vice President
Mike Pence—while needed and
helpful— only has the power of ca-
joling. In a public-health emergen-
cy, there is no national coordinating
function.
In normal circumstances, I am all
for federalism. But some problems
have a scope—say, fi ghting a war or
constructing a national highway sys-
tem—that overwhelms the theory of
local control.
Coronavirus is likely to be this
kind of problem. As America moves
to the mitigation stage of the out-
break, social distancing measures
—such as closing schools, ending
mass gatherings and restricting travel
—are the next line of defense. But
the problem with such measures is
that they tend to be imposed too
late and/or lifted too early. And the
current implementation of social
distancing by states and localities can
best be called spotty.
All the elements now exist for a
swiftly unfolding emergency, on a
scale that dwarfs Katrina. Because of
the early absence of adequate tests,
we have very little idea how preva-
lent the disease is in the country and
other
opinions
What can
we do?
happen.
So what, during all of
this uncertainty, can we as
individuals step in and do?
Lots of things really. There
are many small steps that
each of us can take that
collectively will make positive im-
provements to our present and future
environmental quality. None of them
require permission, just good choices.
Here are some examples for you
to consider: Drive less. Learn to
combine trips, use public transit and,
letters
To the Editor:
The Trump Adminis-
tration is rolling back en-
vironmental programs and
safeguards on a fairly regular basis.
Our state legislature could step in to
manage and oversee the voids that are
being created by the roll backs. But
if there isn’t the political will, inter-
est, and money to do so, it might not
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little idea of how fast it is spreading.
Dangerously and absurdly, politi-
cal leaders have been using the low
number of confi rmed cases as the
evidence of success when it is actu-
ally a measure of our blindness.
While administration offi cials
were speaking the word “contained,”
the virus was spreading unhindered
in some places for weeks. And if
sickness begins to come in a sud-
den rush, it will swamp the health
care system, leading to shortages of
masks, hospital beds, ventilators and
personnel (as it has in northern It-
aly).
“The glaring risk today,” as J. Ste-
phen Morrison of the Center for
Strategic and International Stud-
ies told me, “is that the elderly and
those with fragile health suffer ex-
treme illness but are unable to access
life-sustaining care and die in large
numbers.”
In just 18 days, Italy went from
three confi rmed cases of coronavi-
rus to imposing nationwide internal
travel restrictions. In a similar cir-
cumstance, the United States would
need an assertive, active, early fed-
eral role in encouraging mitigation,
readying the health care system and
helping states and localities bear the
cost of the crisis. Agencies would
have to aggressively use their power
to infl uence, because there is no time
for Congress to give them the real
power to act. Some logistical role for
the military may even be helpful.
I can imagine the objections.
Some may argue that this would
trample on the authority of states
and localities, and that the adminis-
tration would own whatever follows.
But an unprecedented emergency
may require going beyond tradition-
al thinking and traditional roles. And
the administration owns the situa-
tion already.
(Washington Post Writers Group)
when possible, walk. Fly less. Ev-
ery day, U.S.-based commercial
aviation uses about 63 million gal-
lons of fuel. That fuel is converted
into gases, particulate matter and
sensible heat that is injected di-
rectly into the atmosphere. Con-
sume less. Be less wasteful. Put
up a clothes line and during the
summer months, hang out your
laundry to dry in the breeze and
sun. Grow a garden, large or small,
and produce some of your own
produce. Make a plan to reduce or
eliminate the use of pesticides in
your yards. Accept some dande-
lions, clover, a few weeds, and la-
dybugs in your yard. Help farmers
use fewer pesticides by being more
tolerant of spots and blemishes on
the produce you purchase. Ask the
city, county and state right-of-way
managers to use less herbicide on
road shoulders and drainage ways.
Make it part of your way of life
to take good care of earth’s most
precious resources; clean air, fresh
water and healthy soil.
Additionally, the City of Keiz-
er has environmental protection
information and programs that
you can check into. You probably
have some ideas of your own. Give
them a try. If we all do just a few
things consistently and regularly,
we can protect and enhance our
environment and health without
the effort becoming burdensome.
The countryside, waterways, air,
soil, wildlife, and all of us will ben-
efi t. There is no downside.
Jim Parr
Keizer
cuffed
in Keizer
Anthony Dale
Stallions
Brett Raymond
Chase
Arrested March 2 for:
Theft
Previous convictions:
Violating stalking
order
Arrested March 5
for:
Unlawful use of a
weapon
Pending charges:
Criminal mischief,
burglary, theft
Stanislav
Vadimovich
Bakanov
Arrested March 3
for:
Violating restraining
order
Previous convictions:
Stalking, menacing,
theft, burglary
Cutty Willie
Moore
Arrested March 3
for:
Violating restraining
order
Previous convictions:
Stalking, menacing,
theft, burglary
Anthony Wesley
Good
Arrested March 7
for:
Failure to register as
a sex offender
Pending charges:
Fleeing police, drug
possession, Failure
to register as a sex
offender
Cody Lee
Woodard
Arrested March 3 for:
Disorderly conduct
Previous convictions:
Theft
Elise Dianne
VonKemp
Arrested March 7
Heather D. Drew
Arrested March 4
for:
ID theft
Past convictions:
ID theft, drug
possession
for:
Resisting arrest
Previous
convictions:
DUII
Daray Koty
Williams
Arrested March 4
for:
Possession of
methamphetamine
Other pending
charges:
Disorderly conduct,
criminal mischief,
intimidation
Jose Alvarez-
Vilches
Arrested March 8
for:
Felon in possession
of a weapon
Past convictions:
Criminal mischief
Tommy Lynn
Barnes
Arrested March 5
for:
Possession of heroin
Past convictions:
Theft (numerous
counts), drug
possession
Juan Carlos
Navarro-Flores
Arrested March 5
for:
Reckless
endangering
Alexander L.
Liljequist
Other pending
charges:
Reckless
endangering,
conspiracy to commit
a felony
Arrested March 8
for:
Theft
Past convictions:
Traffi c infractions
Blood drive March 14
The American Red Cross is hold-
ing a blood drive at Dayspring Fel-
lowship, 1755 Lockhaven Drive N.E.
on Tuesday, March 24 from 12 - 6 p.m.
To schedule an appointment call
the Red Cross at 1-800-733-2767 or
contact Connie Moritz at (503)-851-
0375.
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