Legislative Agenda of the Democratic Party of Oregon for 2010

Article 1: Our Responsibilities and Rights as Individuals and Family Members

Shelter, Food, and a Living Wage: Securing the Basic Necessities of Life 

Legislative Action Items

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:

1. Provide incentives to encourage the sustainable production and consumption of locally grown food, which will improve the health of individuals, boost and diversify local economies and reduce dependence on fossil fuel transportation.

2. Provide full federal funding for all veterans, including members of the Oregon National Guard, Reservists, and their families to address their ongoing needs for medical care, mental health services, dental care, basic housing, employment services, and other programs that assist in their transition back into civilian society. 

3. Define and advance a living wage adequate to meet the minimum requirements of housing, food, health care, and other necessary services for families and individuals in all regions of the state.

4. Ensure basic food and housing needs are met for vulnerable populations, including but not limited to children, seniors, the disabled.

5. Assist all Oregon cities and counties to develop plans to prevent and mitigate homelessness, considering models such as Housing First, through financial support to cities, counties, non-profit organizations, individuals, and families for implementing those plans.

Health Care: Promoting a Healthy Life

Legislative Action Items 

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:

1. Adopt a comprehensive Oregon health care system that provides universal coverage accessible to all Oregonians, which includes a publicly administered, not-for-profit health care plan as one of the options.

2. Provide basic health care to all Oregonians, which includes medical, dental, vision, mental health care, addiction treatment and preventive care by any licensed provider.

3. Strengthen and fully fund Oregon's Project Independence and make continued advances to assure that Oregon leads the nation in home and community based long-term care systems to allow for maximum independence and quality of life for all our elderly and disabled citizens. 

4. Establish a single-payer health system.

5. Integrate comprehensive mental health education into local and state community services.

6. Allow the importation and re-importation of F.D.A. approved prescription drugs by individuals, businesses, and governments.

7. Provide incentives for transition of health care plans from a fee-for-service model to an evidence-based outcome service model.

Human Rights: Guaranteeing Equal Rights for all People 

Legislative Action Items

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:

1. Ensure all Americans freedom from unfair, unlawful discrimination based upon sexual orientation and gender identity as modeled by the Oregon Equality Act. Ensure every American has the opportunity to serve their country, marry, and live life solely in accordance with their ability and desire without specter of unlawful discrimination.

2. Repeal or amend Oregon Constitutional Amendment Article 15, Section 5a (Ballot Measure 36 of 2004) that bans marriage equality for same-sex couples. Ensure full marriage equality for same-sex Oregon couples and effect full legal recognition for same-sex unions of other jurisdictions.

3. Ensure individuals have the right to make birth control, reproductive, and end of life decisions without interference.

4. Direct the U.S. Government, its military personnel, agents, and civilian contractors to ban torture and rendition, and strictly adhere to the Geneva Conventions and U.N. Convention on Torture. Principles of these conventions shall apply to all individuals, wherever held by such entities. 

5. Extend the right of Habeas Corpus to individuals held against their will by the United States Government, or any governmental entity with the power of incarceration, or any contracted entities of the United States Government. We oppose any executive order, administrative action, or legislation that permits otherwise.

6. Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and reinstate status and benefits for service members previously discharged under DADT.

7. Ban the death penalty.

Article 2: Our Responsibilities and Rights as Members of a Community

Public Education: Taking Responsibility to Prepare for Life Long Learning 

Legislative Action Items 

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to: 

1. Provide for long term financial stability, adequacy and equity for all Oregon public education, based upon the Quality Education Model, a K-12 school year of at least 175 full instructional days with appropriate class sizes, supporting in-state students, restoring lower tuition and vital programs in public higher education. 

2. Adequately fund and expand federal and state scholarship, grant (including Oregon Opportunity Grant) and loan programs so that students from all economic backgrounds can attend and graduate from public vocational, community college, college and university programs.

3. Support a consistent general fund revenue stream for higher education.

4. Provide for the breadth and depth of services Oregon's students need; for example parenting, early childhood education, Head Start, adequate counseling, critical thinking, citizenship, civics (including how tax dollars are spent), art, physical education, music, vocational, special education, Democratic process, health education and library services for every student.

5. Expand access to broadband internet services throughout Oregon to promote quality distance learning, virtual schools, specialized education, and flexible scheduling. 

6. Legally challenge or decline to implement unfunded mandates for our schools and the Federal Government fulfill its promise to fund previously mandated programs.

7. Provide adequate funds to support those supplemental services judged to be effective and needed to help K-12 students who are at risk for school failure. 

Revenue Policy: Paying a Fair Share and Endowing Future Generations 

Legislative Action Items 

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:

1. Dedicate unexpected revenues, including all Kicker funds, to a Rainy Day Fund until that Fund reaches at least 20% of the previous General Fund budget. Preference shall be given to investments in Oregon.

2. Restore the power of the legislature to adopt legislation related to raising revenue and adjusting the tax system by a simple majority.

3. Sunset and/or periodically review all tax expenditures, credits and unintended tax consequences of the Oregon Revised Statutes to verify that they are still serving a valid purpose and repeal or reform as needed. When considering budget cuts, treat tax credits/expenditures with the same legislative scrutiny as budget items.

4. Require initiatives that impact the State budget to include a fiscal impact statement identifying either revenue sources for spending mandates or budget cuts required to implement tax-cutting initiatives.

5. Require repayment of business tax credits received if qualification terms are violated.

6. Support continuation of the Secure Rural Schools Self Determination Act, which provides assistance to formerly timber-dependent counties in wake of declining timber sales.

7. Institute an incentive structure and eliminate tax expenditures/credits to encourage the utilization of our natural resources within Oregon, in order to protect those resources and vital economic interests.

Article 3: Our Responsibilities and Rights as Workers and Business People 

Business and Economic Development: Creating a Viable Economy

Legislative Action Items 

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:

1. Invest in the expansion of internet broadband infrastructure across the state in order to foster job growth, educational opportunity, and economic development throughout Oregon, with emphasis in rural counties.

2. Continue to invest in comprehensive, multi-modal transportation systems. Prioritize investments in roads, bridges, rail, marine and transit projects across the state using the criteria of sustainability, economic value and safety. 

3. Support sustainable economic development with long-term goals to generate green business practices. Promote transfer of ecologically sound technology to business development.

4. Following the North Dakota model, create a state-run Bank of Oregon as a way to foster economic growth and to provide financial stability.

5. Provide tools and resources to support small business through assistance with business planning, marketing, and financial management.

6. Promote and protect Oregon's economic viability and jobs in recreational and commercial fishing, shipping, and trade that will be jeopardized by the exclusion zones, priority passages, navigation delays and dangers from LNG and other mega-tankers and terminals.

7. Promote and expedite the creation and expansion of business by streamlining the permitting process and rationalizing fees. 

Forest, Field, Range, and Fisheries: Supporting Oregon's Farmers, Ranchers and Foresters 

Legislative Action Items 

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:  

1. Make forest restoration a priority. Oregon's remaining old growth forests must be preserved. Best forest practices should be followed in all logging to protect watersheds. Support companies whose logging practices protect and enhance the health of forests.

2. Protect Oregon's richest farmlands from the unnecessary encroachment of urban sprawl by establishing perpetual farm protection boundaries that preserve fertile land for farming, while allowing for future population growth by encouraging use of existing underutilized sites within the urban growth boundaries. 

3. Support the continuation and increase of the Farm to School program, which provides nutritional meals for our school children, reduces the carbon footprint in transporting food, and supports our family farms. Encourage and support school gardens. 

4. Prevent the further privatization, commodification, trade, or export for commercial purposes the waters of the State of Oregon.

5. Encourage and increase support for organic and sustainable farming by providing assistance with but not limited to research, product development, certification, and marketing.

6. Protect West Coast fisheries so naturally spawning, native fish stocks are maintained and increased, using fish reserves, ocean reserves, marine protected areas, dam removal or improvements, habitat restoration, pollution reduction measures, or other science-based methods.

7. Support production of non-genetically-modified Oregon-adapted crops for food, forage, fuel and fiber, such as hemp, switch grass, and giant cane.

Labor: Ensuring Workers Rights, including Retirement Security

Legislative Action Items 

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:

1. Oppose the privatization of Social Security and cutbacks to Medicare to preserve retirement security for American Workers. Prohibit employers from avoiding their pension responsibilities and collective bargaining contracts through the bankruptcy courts. Require that pension funds be fully funded. 

2. Require enforcement of "Equal Pay for Equal Work" laws and regulations to include all protected classes. 

3. Provide career and technical education classes in every middle and high school, emphasizing construction, manufacturing, and growth industries such as renewable energy and health care. 

4. Restore Bureau of Labor and Industry (BOLI) funding to support staffing levels adequate to effectively implement current employment and civil rights laws. 

5. Support and advocate for the Employee's Free Choice Act, granting workers "card check" to gain union representation without penalty or interference from the employer. Prevent employers from hiring strikebreakers during a labor dispute. 

6. Pass a Paid Family Leave Act.

7. Create an Oregon "Works Project" to foster job growth, revitalize infrastructure and enable unemployed Oregonians to return to work.

Article 4: Our Responsibilities and Rights as Active Citizens

Election Reform: Opposing Privatization of the Vote and Guaranteeing Transparent Elections that Reflect the Will of the People 

Legislative Action Items 

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:

1. Require voter-verified paper ballots and audits for all federal elections.

2. Prohibit the use of paid signature gatherers on all state and local ballot measures.

3. Mitigate the harm to democracy from the SCOTUS Citizens United decision through all legislative means, including immediate legislation to increase transparency and accountability of all contributions. Ultimately, amend the Constitution to assure Congressional and State authority over corporate political speech, and prohibit all corporate financial contributions to political campaigns.

4. Establish publicly funded campaigns at all levels.

5. Develop an effective Federal Fairness Doctrine in order to provide the American public with substantive information from all candidates and to counter bias in the corporate media.

6. Direct Oregon Secretary of State to develop, use, and maintain public ownership of open source software in all aspects of elections, including election management, creation of ballot definition files and vote tallying.

7. Amend existing state election audit legislation to meet the goal of confirming to at least a 90% degree of confidence that a complete manual recount would not change the outcome of the race.

Public Safety, Justice and Civil Liberties: Preserving Our Personal Freedoms, While Ensuring our Safety

Legislative Action Items 

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:

1. Provide additional and improved facilities and programs for individuals experiencing mental illness to reduce law enforcement contacts and incarceration of those individuals.

2. Repeal all portions of the USA PATRIOT Act I and USA PATRIOT Act II that infringe on constitutional rights, including but not limited to surveillance without warrants, no-fly lists, and sneak and peek searches. 

3. Classify the management of prisons as an essential government function and make it ineligible and unsuitable for outsourcing to the private sector.

4. Assign responsibility to the Attorney General's Office to serve as the State's attorney in the investigation of, or possible prosecution for, all homicides by law enforcement officers.

5. Provide additional and enhanced law enforcement officer training and certification requirements specifically designed to reduce incidents of excessive force while maintaining a high standard of officer safety.

6. Repeal the portions of the No Child Left Behind Act that require schools to allow military recruiters to be present in schools and have access to students and their private information.

7. Require drug testing of officers immediately following any use of physical force that results in death or serious physical injury involving law enforcement officers.  

Government Accountability and Oversight: Demanding Honesty, Integrity and Competence in Government

Legislative Action Items 

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:

1. Support the rights of individual, natural persons over any and all rights that have been extended to artificial entities and establish that corporations shall not be considered "persons" protected by the Constitution of the United States or by any State Constitution. 

2. Reverse the consolidation and concentration of media ownership in order to protect an effective Fourth Estate with a free and fair media (e.g., newspapers, broadcast, talk radio, internet). 

3. Require full disclosure of State government contracts, economic development subsidies and grant agreements to include cost/benefit reporting in a free, online searchable database accessible to all. 

4. Institute annual legislative sessions and annual budgeting in Oregon. 

5. Prohibit state agencies from granting to third parties permits for access or occupation of private property without the consent of the property owner, except by the lawful use of eminent domain, and to ensure adequate compensation for partial takings under eminent domain.

6. Defend Oregonians' property rights against unjust takings, impairment, and other abuse by energy and other private companies.

7. Support state efforts to evaluate, upgrade and implement Information Technology systems and services to improve oversight and the efficiency, access and delivery of services.

Article 5: Our Responsibilities and Rights as Global Citizens

Ecology and Natural Resources: Providing for our Needs, While Preserving the Earth

Legislative Action Items 

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:

1. Support the participation of the United States in international negotiations leading to an effective treaty to reverse the trend toward climate change.

2. Continue to expand a network of marine protected areas and marine reserves in Oregon's coastal waters, based on the best available scientific research, in order to ensure the long-term health and biodiversity of our ocean consistent with OAR 660-015-0010(4). 

3. Permanently ban new West Coast offshore drilling.

4. Reduce landfill waste by promoting sustainable packaging, charging for plastic bags and developing commercial-scale composting facilities. Expand the Oregon bottle bill to include all plastic, metal and glass beverage containers. Ban "free" distribution of non-recyclable plastic bags and packaging through commercial outlets.

5. Provide incentives for the use of green and renewable building methods and materials in private residences and businesses as well as in public buildings and infrastructure. Encourage the construction of buildings that attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification at the highest level.

6. Develop safeguards to prevent the transfer of lands and resources of the Commons to private for-profit corporations. This includes, but is not limited to, air, space, beaches, parks, public lands, water resources and territorial seas, rangelands, national parks and refuges, forests, oil reserves and mineral estates. 

7. Provide adequate funding to state and federal agencies to effectively implement all state and federal environmental laws, e.g. Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and Resource Conservation Recovery Act.

Energy and Transportation: Practicing Conservation while Tapping Human Ingenuity to Fuel the Future

Legislative Action Items 

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:

1. Provide federal funding for an expanded and upgraded national rail system with a reliable, low-cost, passenger friendly, fuel-efficient alternative that includes high-speed rail system. Ensure that this system is safe, low-cost, and capable of carrying passengers and freight between both urban and rural locations.

2. Invest in Oregon industry based on the development, production and use of low-carbon alternative fuels and renewable energy technologies, such as solar, non-food based bio-fuels, high energy yield windmills, geothermal, wave, and low-impact hydro energy systems. Include technologies that are deployed as distributed electricity or heat generation (e.g., low-profile windmills).

3. Create, expand, and subsidize effective low cost mass transit systems appropriate for each city/region and for transport of commuters, passengers, and freight, while providing incentives for their use. Increase CAFE standards for all cars and trucks, and regulate fuel quality. Maximize reuse of existing bridge and highway infrastructure. 

4. Encourage decentralized net metering and feed-in tariff programs, including public partnering with investors to install solar systems on public properties, generating electricity, and selling excess power back to the power grid, to the public's benefit. U.S. investors would get use of available green credits and tax incentives.

5. Provide financial, regulatory, tax, and other incentives for energy conservation programs for citizens, businesses, and public institutions; include the Energy Trust of Oregon, "green building" standards, updating existing heating systems, and encouraging energy use during off-peak hours.

6. Ban hydro-fracturing for the production of natural gas in the State of Oregon due to the risk of groundwater contamination.

7. Support and promote policies that prioritize the maintenance and repair of our highways and bridges over new construction of roads. Enhance efforts to have specific types of road users pay for the damage they cause, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation's cost responsibility studies. 

Foreign Policy and National Security: Engaging the World through the Strength of Diplomacy, Justice and Rule of Law

Legislative Action Items 

Create, fund, or enforce legislation to:

1. Support initiatives to stop nuclear proliferation, and to reduce and secure standing arsenals of nuclear weapons worldwide. 

2. Ban use of private corporations, contractors, and mercenaries from military combat and support functions. 

3. Institute a well-funded national-service program as an alternative to military service. Service may include jobs in medicine, preventive care, dental and eye care, teaching in underserved areas, conservation, and the development of sustainable energy and agriculture. Service shall include training and benefits comparable to military service.

4. Significantly reduce the sale and supply of United States arms to other nations. Ban the sale and use of weapons that target civilians and/or endanger the long-term livability of the environment, such as cluster bombs, land mines and depleted uranium. Provide leadership in cleanup of dangerous war residue. 

5. Remove American forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, exceeding required official timelines, and without leaving residual U.S. military or contract forces there for any objective other than protecting the security of American diplomats. Divest ourselves of American bases in those countries.

6. Re-direct all U.S. aid to the Middle East from military to civilian programs to encourage Israel, Palestine, and all other regional parties to actively engage in the peace process and reach a final settlement that is fair, equitable, and lasting for all parties.

7. Ban use of depleted uranium in weapons and tank armor. Compensate victims of DU-related illnesses, including cancer and birth defects, among veterans, their children, Iraqis, and Afghans. Fund victim compensation via a weapons excise tax, with provisions that tax-costs cannot be passed to taxpayers through increased prices.