By Elena Rae and Sheila Ramerman
Virtual Lobby Day was held via Zoom on Thursday, March 18. First, Trish Garner gave a tutorial titled “Tips for Communicating with Legislators” that was full of practical advice such as how to find out what’s in front of the Oregon legislature, how to prepare for a conversation with a legislator, how to find out who’s in favor and who’s opposed, how to identify a legislator’s staff, how to present your information, how to listen to what the legislator is saying (nuance is important!), and how to close the conversation. It’s important to be prepared – not only with what you want to say, but with information or data to counter opposition.
Then Trish introduced a panel that consisted of:
- Rep. Karin Power (Milwaukie)
- Carrie Leonard, PhD (Physical Oceanography), Chief of Staff to Rep. Power
- Alicia Temple, Legislative Advocate at Oregon Law Center
This is Rep. Power’s 5th year/3rd term in the legislature. She is an environmental law attorney, who enjoys learning about things she previously knew nothing about. She has worked on Oregon’s environmental policy (cap & trade). This term she is working on early childhood issues, and is also on I-5 bridge replacement committee, among 3-4 other committees. She is also championing the bill to require publicly traded corporations to have a minimum number of women and people from underrepresented communities on their boards of directors.
Her strengths are being able to look at the landscape and figure out what’s feasible, who’s needed, what needs to be done, what’s not working, how to make progress in this session. She’s helped finish the Clean Air Oregon Program, helped to get Cap & Trade and Diesel phase-out bill for the Portland area passed in the House, and removed ‘very old’ trans-phobic language that has been in law for a long time and others were afraid to tackle.
Ms. Leonard has been in the legislature for about 1 year; she came to work for Rep Power because of her technical background as an earth scientist and expertise in environmental issues. Legislative aides are generally the first person a member of the public talks to, so they become good researchers and help make connections or know who to talk to about a topic or problem. The Chief of Staff helps with policy work, drafting bills & amendments, meets with stakeholders, identifies who should be involved, and what they don’t know that they need to know! She attends meetings and events if Rep. Power can’t attend.
Ms. Temple wants to reclaim the title “lobbyist” for low income communities. Typically, there is a lot of preparation work to understand the policy, meet with constituents, etc. This year has been different because of the procession of urgent issues: housing/rent relief, food relief/SNAP benefits, etc. and all done virtually. There’s been no chance to meet and get to know people, which she’s found to be a good way to get to know what’s happening.
Rep. Power described how an idea becomes a bill, and how a bill becomes law, which is often a multi-year process – to educate fellow legislators, garner support, determine the opposition’s objections, potential stumbling blocks and how to address them. It’s not uncommon for a bill to span multiple sessions.
The panelists each talked about work they succeeded at, and bills/projects that failed. Their personal commitment and the personal aspect of trying to do the work was powerful. All three panelists reiterated that more money had to be allocated to doing this work; legislators are currently paid very little for part-time work, and are expected to essentially give up any other employment for the 3 or 6 months that the legislature is in session. Staff are also not paid for year-round work. So getting single moms into positions in government that could actually affect their lives, and where they could add their experience, is very difficult.
Keeping momentum during the pandemic has been difficult. But the budget issues that were originally anticipated haven’t been realized, and now there’s soon to be an influx of cash from the last stimulus bill that will need to be allocated and managed. There is potential to address some long-standing issues like funding for childcare providers in the near term, and supporting the profession of child care in general with this cash. Renters’ assistance is another issue that can be addressed with the stimulus money.
AAUW can help by:
- Supporting the “modernization” of the legislature. The current structure (1 long session, 1 short session) is not enough to get any significant work done. It also doesn’t work well for parents.
- Being aware of timing (the legislative schedule) before approaching a legislator.
- Providing as complete a proposal as possible, rather than just an idea; give the legislator something to work with.
- Making time to talk to your legislator during the off-season (when the legislature isn’t in session); that’s when they have time to really have a conversation and can prepare for the next session.
At the end, Rep. Power shared a little about what it was like to work her, and her staffs’, behinds off, only to arrive to the Republicans walking out. The issues were eventually taken up at an extended session, but the disappointment with trying to work with folks who were only interested in obstruction was so poignant. Rep. Power also spoke to what she sees as a sense of entitlement to the “only correct position” so that discussion of issues is difficult.
View the session on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZej3P6lxOA&t=21s