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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, NOvEmbER 23, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
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DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
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GUEST COLUMN
Legislation can move at a glacial pace
G
ood ideas can take years to
become law. A prime example
is the recently passed federal
infrastructure package, which will send
billions of dollars to Oregon.
“This will deal with problems I’ve
been talking about forever,” said U.S.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from
Springfield.
Another example: It took 20 years for
DeFazio to unlock the
federal Harbor Mainte-
nance Trust Fund, where
billions of unspent
tax dollars piled up.
Last December, Con-
gress finally acted. That
money now will go to
DICK
port maintenance in Ore-
HUGHES
gon and other states,
including badly needed
dredging and jetty repairs.
State legislation can follow an
equally torturous path, as good ideas –
or bad ones, depending on your perspec-
tive – take years to gain momentum.
Such is the story of our vote-by-mail
system, which was blocked at times by
influential Democrats or Republicans,
depending on which party held power.
The 1981 Oregon Legislature approved
the first test of mail balloting for local
elections. However, it wasn’t until 1998,
after a veto by Gov. John Kitzhaber and
other legislative defeats, that Oregon
voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot
measure expanding vote-by-mail to all
elections.
Why does public policy take so
long? That is life in America. The 19th
Amendment to the Constitution was rati-
fied in 1920, finally granting women the
right to vote, but only after an effort that
took nearly 100 years.
As society evolves, so do political
and public sentiments. Some ideas need
to marinate and achieve the appropri-
ate balance, if there is one. Others linger
almost on life support until opponents
give up, move on or are outmaneu-
vered. Such was the fate of the Ore-
gon School for the Blind in Salem after
decades of discussion about its cost,
educational approach and deteriorating
facilities. Should it shut down? Should
it be moved across town to the Oregon
School for the Deaf campus?
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
A federal infrastructure package could send billions to Oregon.
As far back as the 1980s, closure-ori-
ented legislators were no match for one
watchful woman who resolutely lob-
bied against such talk. By 2009, the tide
turned. Despite some residual oppo-
sition, the Legislature defunded the
137-year-old residential school, whose
population had declined to about two
dozen blind or visually impaired stu-
dents. The school facilities occupied a
prime site in central Salem adjacent to
Salem Hospital, which then bought the
property for expansion.
This year’s Legislature followed sim-
ilar paths, passing policies that previ-
ously produced scant progress. With
only 11 dissenting votes, legislators
approved a rewrite of the official state
song, “Oregon, My Oregon,” to elim-
inate language deemed racist. State
Rep. Sheri Schouten, D-Beaverton, was
derided when she first raised the idea.
Not this year as part of the national reck-
oning on racial justice.
Another instance is that departing
Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer, succeeded in
undoing a 2005 law that required pre-
scriptions to buy cold or allergy med-
ications containing ephedrine or
pseudoephedrine.
One of the most controversial bills
this year — requiring safe storage of
firearms and banning almost anyone
from carrying them in the Oregon State
Capitol — finally made it through the
Legislature, albeit on a near party-line
vote. Senate Bill 554 was anathema to
gun-rights advocates, yet their subse-
quent efforts to refer the bill to voters
fizzled. So did recall attempts against
Republican senators accused of abetting
the bill’s passage by not walking out.
As for DeFazio’s infrastructure legis-
lation, he set the stage only to see some
key parts watered down or discarded
in negotiations among President Joe
Biden’s administration, two recalcitrant
Democratic senators and 10 Republican
senators.
With Gov. Kate Brown in attendance,
Biden signed the roughly $1.2 trillion
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
last week. It has parts but not all of what
DeFazio envisioned, especially in cli-
mate protections.
“This is not the bill I would have
written,” DeFazio said in a Zoom press
conference with journalists this month.
“Good legislation takes time.”
During the tenure of President Barack
Obama, a fellow Democrat, DeFazio
worked toward an even more ambitious
infrastructure plan. DeFazio said the
Obama administration killed it, fearing
the federal gas tax might rise for the first
time since 1993.
Subsequently, Republican President
Donald Trump talked with DeFazio and
others about a $2 trillion infrastructure
package. Yet two weeks later, accord-
ing to DeFazio, Trump said he wouldn’t
work with Democrats if they were going
to investigate him. Still, the House
passed DeFazio’s INVEST in America
Act, although it never became law.
Now that Oregon governments know
the infrastructure money is on its way,
some transportation, sewer, drinking
water and other projects can get under-
way next year.
A bottom ranking for Brown: Ore-
gon has the least-popular governor
in the nation, according to a ranking
from Morning Consult. Credit goes to
John Horvick of Portland-based DHM
Research for spotting this.
Republican governors dominate the
higher rankings. Vermont Gov. Phil
Scott tops the chart with a 79% approval
rating. At the other end is Gov. Brown, a
Democrat, at 43%. Scott, a Republican,
does well because he has solid support
among Democrats and independents in
his state.
The rankings for Oregon’s neighbor-
ing governors are California Gov. Gavin
Newsom, a Democrat, at 56%; Idaho
Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, at 55%;
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Demo-
crat, at 55%; and Nevada Gov. Steve
Sisolak, a Democrat, at 50%.
dick Hughes has been covering the
Oregon political scene since 1976.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Well, actually
T
he Astorian has repeated an error it
first misreported 10 years ago. The
Nov. 16 “Water Under the Bridge” column
reprints a report from 2011 ascribing the
song “Little Boxes” to Pete Seeger.
Actually, “Little Boxes” was written in
1962 by Malvina Reynolds, and covered
by Seeger in 1963. The Daly City subdi-
vision described in the song is still visible
from Interstate 280 south of San Francisco.
MICHAEL FALLERT
Warrenton
Wow
read with amusement and bewilderment
in the New York Post, an article writ-
ten by Jack Morphet on Nov. 7, stating that
“President Joe Biden let out a long, loud
fart while speaking with the Duchess of
Cornwall at the COP26 summit.” Wow,
is this presidential? Do we have a com-
mander in chief or a commander of farts?
As reported, Camilla Parker Bowles
“hasn’t stopped talking about” the 78-year
old’s “long fart.” An informed source on
site stated the pair were making small
talk at the global climate change event in
Scotland when our president broke wind.
The source described it as “long and loud
and impossible to ignore.” It must have
made quite an impression on the British
monarchy!
President Biden was having quite a day,
as earlier he appeared to nod off during
the opening remarks at the climate change
conference, while the speaker was warning
that global warming threatened “our ability
to grow food, and even to survive.”
Unfortunately, the Democrats are using
climate change, racism and COVID-19 to
destroy our country and keep us all afraid
of the next big disaster to strike us. Their
goal is to control us, and remove our free-
doms, and they will succeed if you allow
them! Please, do not be like Sleepy Joe!
GREG KENNEY
Astoria
I
Fragile
hank you for helping me prove my
point, Robert Liddycoat, with your let-
ter “Distrust” (The Astorian, Nov. 9).
While we citizens bicker amongst our-
T
LETTERS WELCOME
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selves about who, where, how and why
our beliefs and our loyalties to freedom
lie without listening to one another, the
moguls who make money from that hate
and discontent make more money.
A free democracy is exactly like a mar-
to other letter writers should address
the issue at hand and should refer to
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97103.
riage. It has good and bad times. There are
spikes and valleys of emotions. But at the
end of most every day, you learn to agree
to disagree and say, “I love you,” because
you know that is the right thing to do. Our
society is behaving like a spiteful divorc-
ing couple. Each side, red and blue, want
their partner to suffer and be left on the
curb.
Any media that promotes proven facts
to be false, and uses gossip as evidence of
proof, is undermining the integrity of that
free democracy. Everything worth having
is worth working extremely hard to obtain,
but even more difficult to keep.
It is time for this “blue said, red said”
crap to stop, and seek counseling. A third
and more independent party may be able to
help a strained relationship learn to listen
to others. It would at least get some adults
in the room.
One thing I’m sure of is too many
Americans have lost their perspective
of what is at stake and, in today’s social
atmosphere, how fragile free democracy
truly is right now!
TROY HASKELL
Astoria