By Rep. Jeff Helfrich
We are only a few weeks away from the 2024 election, and a few months away from the 2025 legislative session. During that session, we will look to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing our district and our state. With that in mind, I wanted to highlight a few things for the upcoming session that I feel are important.
A few weeks ago, HD 52 hosted the Joint Committee on Transportation roadshow. This vital committee is tasked with addressing what many believe to be the focal point of the 2025 legislative session: a new transportation package. It will look to improve on many of the shortcomings from the 2017 transportation package. Oregon has aging infrastructure that needs to be updated and repaired. This district alone has several bridge projects that need funding to be able to continue our economic viability in the future. Rural communities like Hood River, The Dalles, and our friends on the mountain rely heavily on highways and back roads, many that have not seen substantial repairs in years. These roads form the backbone of our firefighting efforts during wildfire seasons and become the only way by which people can receive assistance during our winter storms. Without significant investment, many communities will be left to struggle during natural disasters.
As much as I expect transportation to be a focus of this upcoming session, we know that Oregon has other pressing needs. Along with fixing our aging infrastructure, in 2025 my caucus and I will fight hard to try to get us back to basics on many of our top priorities like education and public safety, while also looking to expand on the work we did in the 2024 Short Session to address our housing and drug crisis. When it comes to education, Oregon is the only state in the union where quality has continued to decline after COVID-19. It is my belief that the primary focus of the classroom should be teaching children how to read and write and preparing them to interact effectively with society upon graduating. By shifting our focus away from enforcing these standards over the last few years, we have done future Oregonians a huge disservice. It must be addressed.
While we recriminalized hard drug use during the 2024 Short Session, we must do more to get people into treatment and crack down on drug distribution until we can restore public safety and health back to their prior levels. Cleaning up our streets, so people can start to recognize their cities and feel safe in them again, has to be a priority this coming session. Building a brighter future for our state will take hard work and compromise, but I’m confident we will be able to put partisan bickering aside and get things done.
As always, you can reach me at Rep.JeffHelfrich@oregonlegislature.gov or 503-986-1452. My office and I would love to hear from you.