I can hardly believe six weeks have flown by since I took my oath of office. Every day, I’m thrilled and honored to represent our communities of Lake Oswego, West Linn, Tualatin, Durham, Rivergrove, and Southwest Portland.

I’m inspired by my colleagues, who showed me how remarkably bipartisan our policymaking approach can be. Even if we disagree on priorities, we are often able to work together to focus on our state’s needs. The 2018 legislative session was brief, but we achieved important wins for Oregonians.

I’m especially proud of the work we did on the Senate Judiciary Committee to strengthen and protect our community. With over half of female homicide cases involving domestic violence, we made the crime of strangulation a felony and passed House Bill 4145, closing the so-called “boyfriend” loophole and keeping guns away from convicted domestic abusers and stalkers. I‘m so proud of the young people who are making their voices heard. Over 200 of our local high school students showed up for Governor Brown’s bill signing ceremony to advocate for stronger gun safety. Oregon is moving quickly toward common sense action to improve our gun laws.

With unanimous support, we passed the landmark Cleaner Air Oregon Act to reduce toxic air pollution. And we passed legislation creating an Oregon Carbon Office to research and develop a Clean Energy Jobs bill in 2019.

We partnered with our seniors to pass legislation creating more transparency and accountability in prescription drug pricing.

We passed legislation providing additional resources for first-time home buyers as well as emergency housing assistance.

On education, we provided $950,000 to place mental health therapists in schools so that students will have additional help when they are hurting.

We balanced the two-year state budget, including a $100 million reduction to the state’s PERS liability.

With session over, I’m focusing on connecting with our community to plan for 2019. I’ve been hearing about needed legislation and resources to prevent sexual violence, ongoing progress toward equitable educational opportunities in our schools, strengthening career pathways, and critical investments for our region. I know there’s so much we can do.

Call me, email me, chat me on Facebook, I want to hear from you!

Rob