CIR BILL IS GOING TO THE SENATE!

Yesterday, with some great testimony from Representative Harker and Kappy Eaton of the League of Women Voters, HB 2895A passed out of the Senate Rules Committee and now heads to the Senate floor. Following the vote, Tyrone and I had a conversation about our early work in the Legislature. During the first two months of the session, we met with nearly every legislator- explaining the Citizens' Initiative Review, describing Healthy Democracy Oregon and discussing how we can shape HouseBill 2895 to accomplish our goals. We worked with staff from the Secretary of State's office and met with initiative advocates. Throughout that process, we got lots of feedback. Mostly positive, but some of our skeptics out there found details we needed to address in the bill, first in the -1 amendments and then in the -2 amendments. The result was a better bill- one more closely aligned with our intent.  Now we're reaping the benefits of all that hard work: HB 2895A is moving quickly and already we're on the full Senate. Success doesn't seem so far away anymore. Representative Harker(D) and Senator Whitsett(R) have played key roles in the process. We're very grateful for their support. And we're very pleased to have established such good working relationships with members of both parties and look forward to HB 2895 bringing Oregon more robust Citizens' Initiative Reviews in 2010.