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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 23, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, July 23, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Local legislators recap the session balance through the shifts, standing It’s a low-paying, high-stress by his conservative ideals while MRE<RXFDQ¶WWHOOZKLFKRI\RXU working well with the opposition. It colleagues are true allies and which has paid off. Rare for a Republican are false friends. A portion of your in Democrat-dominated state constituents are going to mistrust you based solely on the color of your government, Smith sits on and chairs important committees. Thanks to campaign button, and the rest can turn quickly if you don’t bring home KLVVHQLRULW\DQGDELOLW\WR¿QG consensus, he is one of only a few what they’re looking for. Welcome to the life of a legislator. House Republicans who hold the purse strings. We know it’s a tough one, but it Biggest win: Smith brought home LVDMREVRZHRIIHUHQGRIVHVVLRQ thoughts on our three representatives the bacon. In addition to being a linchpin in the Umatilla Basin water ²*UHJ6PLWK*UHJ%DUUHWRDQG package, he secured $1.5 million Bill Hansell — and include their for the Eastern Oregon Trade and thoughts on the Legislative session Event Center, $2 million for the that was. Condon Airport and $1.6 million for • The training wheels are off DQHDUO\OHDUQLQJFHQWHUDWWKH3RUW for Sen. Hansell, a longtime RI0RUURZ+HDOVR Umatilla County restarted Eastern commissioner who The low-paying, Oregon University’s MRLQHGWKHVHQDWH program, Republicans in the high stress 2015 wrestling a big deal from the 2013 session. stint in Salem father of a wrestling In that session he faced the same is over. So how family. Biggest steep learning curve loss: Smith is a Rep. Barreto faced did it go? concentrate-on- this time around, the-positive type of and Hansell came guy. He was disappointed about gun back with a Rolodex full of new regulations and other Democrat-led allies from both sides of the aisle. priorities, but much of that he often That was crucial for bringing home lets wash under the bridge. the $50 million state water funding Takeaway: Smith is well- package, which Hansell played a key part in after years of work by his positioned for one more shift. Where will it take it him? predecessors. The Umatilla Basin • Rep. Greg Barreto, a freshman should get a large chunk of the $50 Republican from Cove and small million. EXVLQHVVPDQLVIUHVKRIIKLV¿UVW It’s Hansell’s ability to appeal session. to reason that we appreciate most, He acclimated himself to his as well as his optimistic approach new surroundings, working his way to a legislator’s role. He knows not through the often dumbfounding every day in Salem is going to be a world of politics. He told us of the win, but he’ll come back and play seven-day-a-week work schedule, anyway. the quirks of the Capitol and the Biggest win: Water funding was a must-have piece of legislation, and frustration of trying to be heard in a place where it’s as much who you made the session a success for that know as what you know. part of District 29. He also helped He pledged from the beginning to 0LOWRQ)UHHZDWHUDQGRWKHUFLWLHV avoid costly annexation with simple work on building relationships with people from a variety of political exemption legislation and increased ideals. He admitted to his temper protections for abused women. getting the best of him at times, and And then there’s the demolition torching some of those relationships. DQGWUDQVIHURIWKH%OXH0RXQWDLQ His Facebook page remains Recovery Center, which we hope peppered with insults of the other turns into a win for the city of party, something not that uncommon 3HQGOHWRQ in this age of partisanship, but Biggest loss: Hansell bemoaned uncommon compared with his hits taken by small business, including mandatory sick leave, and fellow local legislators. Biggest win: He secured funding the fact that Oregon seems to forget of the $1.25 million Elgin rural about the ag industry when creating health care center (along with statewide requirements. Hansell) and paved the way to speed Takeaway: If reputation is limit increases in Eastern Oregon, a evidence of success, Hansell is longstanding wish list item for many. doing something right in Salem. Biggest loss: Barreto sought He’s getting tabbed for the big increased wolf kill compensation for FRPPLWWHHVMRLQWZD\VDQGPHDQV his ranching constituents, but after emergency board) and is setting a bait-and-switch on the bargaining himself up to be an even bigger table it disappeared before his eyes. force next time around. +HFKDONHGLWXSWR³QDLYHWp´+H • Rep. Greg Smith has seen plenty of changes in the last 16 also watched a handful of other years. But the last 18 months have bills die at the hands of House dramatically changed the Heppner Democrats. Republican’s role in Salem. His Takeaway: Barreto took some district was redrawn to include lumps during the past six months, Hermiston in 2013. His fellow but came out of the session with a northeastern representatives Bob couple bills that are exactly what his -HQVRQDQG'DYLG1HOVRQUHWLUHG constituents wanted and a deeper making him the most senior member understanding of the process. He of the contingent by a long shot. didn’t spend all of his time in Salem But Smith has maintained his MXVWDVDGH¿DQW³QR´YRWH Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. OTHER VIEWS Backing up wager with Iran F rom the minute Iran detected that 2. Congress should pass a resolution the U.S. was unwilling to use authorizing this and future presidents its overwhelming military force to use force to prevent Iran from ever to curtail Tehran’s nuclear program becoming a nuclear weapons state. ²DQGWKDWGDWHVEDFNWRWKH*HRUJH Iran must know now that the U.S. W. Bush administration, which would president is authorized to destroy — neither accept Iran’s right to a nuclear without warning or negotiation — any fuel cycle nor structure a military or attempt by Tehran to build a bomb. diplomatic option to stop it — no 3. Focus on the Iranian people. The Thomas perfect deal overwhelmingly favorable Friedman celebrations of this deal in Iran tell to America and its allies was ever us that “the Iranian people want to be Comment going to emerge from negotiations 6RXWK.RUHDQRW1RUWK.RUHD´QRWHV with Iran. The balance of power .DULP6DGMDGSRXU,UDQH[SHUWDWWKH became too equal. Carnegie Endowment. We should reach out But there are degrees of imperfect, and to them in every way — visas, exchanges and the diplomatic option structured by the scholarships — to strengthen their voices. Obama team — if properly implemented and Visiting Iran taught me that Iranians have augmented by muscular diplomacy — serves had enough Islamic fundamentalism to know core U.S. interests better than any options I they want less of it, and they’ve had enough hear coming from the deal’s democracy to know they want critics: It prevents Iran from more of it. (Iran’s hard-line SURGXFLQJWKH¿VVLOHPDWHULDO 5HYROXWLRQDU\*XDUGVNQRZ to break out with a nuclear this well, which is why they weapon for 15 years and are still trying to persuade creates a context that could ,UDQ¶VVXSUHPHOHDGHUWRUHMHFW empower the more pragmatic this deal and its opening to the forces inside Iran over time — world.) at the price of constraining, but 4. Avoid a black-and-white not eliminating, Iran’s nuclear YLHZRIWKH0LGGOH(DVW7KH infrastructure and sanctions idea that Iran is everywhere relief that will strengthen our enemy and the Sunni Arabs Tehran as a regional power. our allies is a mistake. Saudi Supporting this deal doesn’t Arabia’s leadership has been PDNH\RX1HYLOOH&KDPEHUOLQ a steadfast U.S. ally in the opposing it doesn’t make you &ROG:DUPDQ\6DXGLVDUH Dr. Strangelove. Both sides pro-American. But the Saudi have legitimate arguments. But leadership’s ruling bargain having studied them, I believe is toxic: It says to the Saudi America’s interests are best served now by people that the al-Saud tribe gets to rule focusing on how to get the best out of this deal and in return the Saudi Wahhabi religious and cushion the worst, rather than scuttling it. establishment gets billions of dollars to That would be a mistake that would isolate us, transform the face of Sunni Islam from an not Iran, and limit our choices to going to war open and modernizing faith to a puritanical, or tolerating an Iran much closer to nuclear anti-women, anti-Shiite, anti-pluralistic breakout, without any observers or curbs on one. The Saudis have lost control of this the ground, and with crumbling sanctions. SXULWDQLFDO6DOD¿VWWUDQVIRUPDWLRQRI,VODP “The nuclear agreement is a deal, not a and it has mutated into the ideology that JUDQGEDUJDLQ´DUJXHGWKH:LOVRQ&HQWHU¶V LQVSLUHGWKHKLMDFNHUV²RIRI 5REHUW/LWZDNDXWKRURI³,UDQ¶V1XFOHDU whom were Saudis — and the Islamic State. &KHVV´³2EDPDDQG,UDQ¶VVXSUHPHOHDGHU Iran aided the U.S. in toppling the Taliban (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei, are each making regime in Afghanistan, and, at the same time, a tacit bet. Obama is defending the deal Tehran, and its cat’s paw, Hezbollah, have in transactional terms (that it addresses a propped up the Syrian regime while it has discrete urgent challenge), but betting that perpetrated a genocide against its own people, it will empower Iran’s moderate faction and mostly Syrian Sunnis. We need to confront put the country on a more favorable societal Iran’s regional behavior when it contradicts WUDMHFWRU\.KDPHQHLLVPDNLQJWKHRSSRVLWH our interests, but align with it when it EHW²WKDWWKHUHJLPHFDQEHQH¿WIURP comports with our interests. We want to the transactional nature of the agreement balance the autocratic Sunnis and Shiites, not (sanctions relief) and forestall the deal’s SURPRWHHLWKHU1HLWKHUVKDUHRXUYDOXHV potentially transformational implications to )LQDOO\ZKHQLWFRPHVWRWKH0LGGOH(DVW SUHVHUYH,UDQ¶VUHYROXWLRQDU\GHHSVWDWH´ broadly, we need to contain, amplify and We can, though, do things to increase the innovate: Contain the most aggressive forces odds that the bet goes our way: there, amplify any leaders or people building 1. Don’t let this deal become the decency there, and innovate on energy like Obamacare of arms control, where all the crazy to keep prices low, reduce oil money to energy goes into the negotiation but then bad actors and reduce our exposure to a region that is going to be in turmoil for a long, long, the implementing tools — in this case the long time. YHUL¿FDWLRQWHFKQRORJLHV²GRQ¶WZRUN Ŷ 3UHVLGHQW%DUDFN2EDPDVKRXOGDSSRLQWD Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer UHVSHFWHGPLOLWDU\¿JXUHWRRYHUVHHHYHU\ Prize for commentary. aspect of implementing this deal. Supporting this deal doesn’t make you Neville Chamberlin; opposing it doesn’t make you Dr. Strangelove. YOUR VIEWS Oregon should support stronger food labeling laws The Oregon congressional delegation should support the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act (HR 1599). Lack of federal action in past years has spurred states to create their own mandatory labeling standards. However, the federal government is the proper place for this regulation because consumers deserve to have accurate and reliable food labels in every state. Finally there’s a sensible solution in Congress that will apply to all the states and won’t harm Oregon agriculture. The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act is a voluntary system in which food producers can choose how to market their goods without increasing food prices. A study last year by Cornell University found that a mandatory state-based approach could force families to pay up to $500 more per year for groceries. Thousands of products labeled “USDA &HUWL¿HG2UJDQLF´DQG³1RQ*023URMHFW´ help consumers identify foods made without *02LQJUHGLHQWVDQGZHVKRXOGVXSSRUW WKDWFXUUHQWPHWKRGRILGHQWL¿FDWLRQ7KLV system allows the consumer to decide if they wish to pay the higher costs associated with SXUFKDVLQJIRRGVWKDWGRQRWFRQWDLQ*02 LQJUHGLHQWV(YHU\PDMRUVFLHQWL¿FERG\DQG regulatory agency in the world has reviewed WKHUHVHDUFKDERXW*02VDQGGHFODUHGWKH\¶UH safe. By creating a national voluntary standard for labeling, the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act ensures that families and farmers in Oregon are not burdened with the FRQVHTXHQFHVRIVWDWHE\VWDWH*02ODEHOLQJ I hope our delegation supports this pragmatic legislation. Ian Tolleson, government affairs director Northwest Food Processors Association Portland LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
