🧵THREAD: How Oregon Could Lose Millions Under the New Homelessness Executive Order 1/
"If you build it, they will come." Oregon’s homeless-industrial complex just got a massive reality check. A new federal executive order ties funding to enforcement. Here’s how Oregon could lose big.👇

There's so much that's wrong with this statement from the ONA. Short 🧵

oregonrn.org/general/custom… First off, poor references.

The Williams Institute report uses data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, which is not a randomized or clinically validated sample, but a self-selected online survey — a key concern raised by Cass regarding bias and lack of longitudinal evidence.

🚨HORRIFIC BILL ALERT🚨

Oppose House Bill 2200 and Protect Oregon's Pension Fund from Politicized Investments

The base bill is bad enough, but this gut-and-stuff amendment to HB2200 is worse. The Oregon State Treasurer aims to decarbonize PERS at the expense of its financial health. The amendment fundamentally conflicts with the fund’s pecuniary (monetary) duty to its beneficiaries.

The biggest red flag? The bill explicitly shields the Treasurer and the Oregon Investment Council from any liability for the inevitable financial consequences. If "going green" were truly in the best financial interest of pensioners and taxpayers, why would the Treasury need protection from lawsuits? If this were a sound investment strategy, there would be no need for legislative intervention or legal immunity.

The reality is clear: This amendment politicizes pension fund management by prioritizing climate activism over fiduciary duty. Oregon’s public employees and taxpayers deserve better. PERS exists to secure retirement futures, not to bankroll an ideological agenda with uncertain, speculative returns.

This amendment is not yet publicly posted, but plans are in motion to fast-track it with a hearing in the Emergency Management, General Government, and Veterans Committee as soon as Thursday. Oregon taxpayers and retirees—you are on the hook if this fund underperforms. Now is the time to speak up and demand responsible stewardship of PERS!

Reject HB 2200 and protect Oregon’s pension fund from reckless, politically motivated investment strategies. 🧵

The bill says "Whereas the urgency justifies taking every possible action in the fund portfolio to reduce investment risks associated with a rapidly changing climate."

Supporters of this bill believe that if Oregon removes PERS carbon investments, we will reduce wildfire risk.

Sorry, that's not at all how investments, forest management, or the environment work.

DEI in Oregon K-12 must go.

Governor Kotek and AG Dan Rayfield, you are on notice.

Direction from the US Department of Education is unequivocal - eliminate discriminatory DEI practices or lose funding. 🧵

ed.gov/media/document… "All educational institutions are advised to: (1) ensure that their policies and actions
comply with existing civil rights law; (2) cease all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on
the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends;
and

Oregon's Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) is underwater by $30B (much more by some estimates.) In recent years Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read made investments that were not necessarily in the fiduciary interests of the fund, instead focused on 'decarbonizing' our investments. This may be why our fund has underperformed.

This year, he has introduced a bill to take it even further and mandate a 'net zero' fund by 2050.

I have a bill to prevent this, and I need to your help to make sure it gets a hearing. 🧵 Our public pensions should have a fiduciary duty of loyalty. This means that the fund must prioritize the interests of the plan participants and beneficiaries above all other considerations.

It also means they must make prudent investment decisions focused on maximizing returns and ensuring the long-term financial stability of the fund, and avoid investments motivated by non-financial factors (e.g., political agendas) if those decisions could compromise the fund's financial health. 2/7

🧵 The news about Oregon’s “Economic Equity Investment Program”, or EEIP, has garnered worldwide attention due to one fund recipient, Hacienda CDC, that advertised home mortgage grants but only for non-US citizens.  Thank you to @maryrooke and @dailycaller for bringing attention to this.
1/13dailycaller.com/2024/08/21/hac… Yesterday I spoke with the CEO of Hacienda CDC, Ernesto Fonseca and his public relations manager John Audley.

What Ernesto stated during our conversation is that Business Oregon hired a 3rd party consultant to produce the flyer for the mortgage grants.  This is the flyer that @oregoncitizen_ shared on socials, and was highlighted in the @dailycaller article.  And, Hacienda believed that by orienting their program to non-US citizens they were fulfilling the intent of the EEIP program, especially given the nature of their work helping new migrants. The wording from the flyer was taken directly from the Business Oregon Request for Proposal, which Ernesto shared during our call. 2/13

Some people who've heard about the Hacienda CDC program don't believe it. The taxpayer-funded program which gives out $30,000 grants to new homeowners, but only if they are not US citizens, is so egregious that they can't believe it is true.

Well, it is true.

I have written extensively about the Economic Equity Investment Program (EEIP) which is part of Business Oregon, the state's economic development agency. The EEIP is inherently unconstitutional, violating the equal protection clause of the US Constitution - the state's own non-partisan legislative counsel agrees.

When @oregoncitizen_ came across the Hacienda program, I worked with her to confirm that it was an EEIP grant. Follow this thread for more details. 🧵

https://x.com/oregoncitizen_/status/1821750764785824084

The Business Oregon Government Affairs Manager confirmed that the program was funded by EEIP.

🚨Ranked Choice Voting Testimony Alert🚨
Ranked Choice Voting is on the ballot in Oregon this November - Measure 117.

My testimony email objecting to the measure's Explanatory Statement is attached.

In short, the Explanatory Statement for Measure 117 contains false information, is missing information vital for voters to make an informed decision and is violating the recent OR Supreme Court ruling.  For these reasons I urge a re-write of the Explanatory Statement.

The public has an opportunity to provide testimony on the wording of the measure. Deadline is tomorrow, August 2nd, 5pm. Email your testimony to elections.sos@sos.oregon.gov.

@907honest @Stop_RCV norankedvoting.com The full explanatory statement can be found here.

drive.google.com/file/d/1EkUJNh…

🧵 Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) breaks the monotonicity rule, a basis expectation for any election system.
1/6 2/6

Measure 110 reform bill HB4002 passed in the House yesterday. 🧵

I voted "No" and here's why:

First, I’d like to start by saying that I believe that HB4002A is a step in the right direction.  By recriminalizing hard drūgs and requiring treatment, we followed through on Oregonians demands for both accountability and care for those in the throes of addiction.  And we told the Drùg Policy Alliance, the east coast group that funded Ballot Measure 110 and continues to promote drûg decriminalization in Oregon through campaign donations, that their deadly and unproven ideas are no longer welcome in our state.  I support the bill moving forward.  I also support House Republican Leader Helfrich and the rest of our caucus that joined with me and pushed so hard to move this bill in the right direction despite fierce opposition from the left.
1/

WATCH my floor speech: I voted NO on the bill yesterday to raise attention to the serious flaws in this bill.  I am very concerned that citizens will not see the results that they are demanding due to a lack of fiscal accountability, conflicting priorities, and poor local implementation in the Portland Metro Area. 
2/

🧵 BAD BILL ALERT - SB1583

There are a number of concerning bills this session, but this bill may be the worst I have seen so far. SB1583 is a direct attack on local control of our schools, on the rights of parents, and on the dignity of children. #orpol #orleg

https://twitter.com/coclarified/status/1755613893421142047

Senate Bill 1583 dramatically curtails the rights of local school boards to control the curriculum in schools.  It limits local control of textbooks and other instructional materials.  The bill is thinly disguised as protecting against discrimination.  But the intent is clear - to prevent local school boards from removing ideologically-driven content that could harm our kids.  They are doing this because all across Oregon, communities are pushing back against this agenda that goes against their values and common sense.

Oregon Democrats gave a preview of their "fix" to Ballot Measure 110 today. It is a fake fix, and is simply kicking the can down the road.

In their effort to strike a middle ground between their extreme left base and the majority of Oregonians who are demanding evidence-based solutions and an end to measure 110, they have come up with with a useless compromise.

“Anything short of reclassifying deadly drugs as a Class A misdemeanor crime will be inadequate to effectively steer more people into more treatment more quickly,”

#orpol #ENDM110
@ORSenDemocrats @ORSenateGOP

opb.org/article/2024/0… One element of their proposal calls for the state to conduct a study of barriers to youth treatment, and provide a report in the fall of 2025. Calling for a study in a time of crisis is a severe lack of leadership!

🧵 The State of Oregon is wasting millions of your tax dollars on DEI hires within all government entities. Meanwhile, ODOT is forced to cut down the amount of plowing and sanding it will do this winter, making Oregon’s highways less safe.

The state of Oregon has abandoned Merit, Fairness, and Equality, and replaced these time-tested standards with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or DEI.  It permeates every state agency.

The state spends at least $63,728,000 per year on DEI employees across all state agencies per an LFO survey from May 2023.  These positions are either dedicated DEI positions, or positions where a substantial portion of their work is devoted to DEI.  I say 'at least', because this price tag does not represent DEI related work that some employees may be doing on a part-time or rotational basis.  It also doesn't include 53 unfilled positions.

This list also doesn't include the DEI positions at the public schools, government-funded nonprofits, and other organizations funded by our tax dollars.  I estimate that Oregon taxpayers are spending in excess of $100 million a year on DEI related salaries alone.

There are a total of 309 DEI positions within the state agencies, 256 of which are filled.  The average cost for these 256 employees is $248,938 which including salary, benefits, and burden (overhead).

As just one example, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Administrator 1" position is costing the state $451,148.

The Oregon Health Authority alone has 167 DEI employees, costing taxpayers over $40 million dollars annually.

With DEI, every outcome is measured in terms of racial disparity.  Any racial disparity means that there must be bias in the system, and action must be taken to remove this 'systemic ra$ism'.  It leads to some ridiculous policies.
#orpol

For example, in education: DEI in school disciplinary actions:

“When a student exhibits "continuous disruptive behavior," the agreement says, school officials must develop a "support plan" for the student, which can include disciplinary measures such as detention. That plan "must take into consideration the impact of issues related to the student's trauma, race, gender identity/presentation, sexual orientation … and restorative justice as appropriate for the student,"

freebeacon.com/campus/portlan…

🧵 Yesterday, I posted the @ORDeptEd ‘2023 Oregon Health Education Standards’ with a link to submit feedback. Today, we have a summary of those standards that highlights many more deeply concerning changes.

Starting early in Kindergarten, 5-6 yr olds will be encouraged to explore gender identity.

First graders (6-7 yr olds) will
“Analyze the differences and similarities in how people with different gender identities are expected to act.”
#orpol Fourth graders will be taught to “Recognize that people can show love and care for other people in different ways, including consensual kissing, hugging, and TOUCHING.”

In an interview one year ago, Dr. Blair Peters of @queersurgeon provides proof that what he and his team are doing at @OHSUsurgery to adolescents in the name of ‘Gender Affirming Care’ IS experimental.

In the clip he responds to a question regarding the psycho-social… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Watch the full interview here:

🧵 If detransition is real, the whole "gender identity" house of cards collapses.

I received confirmation this week from Legislative Legal Council that House Bill 2002-A specifically EXCLUDES DETRANSITION TREATMENTS from insurance coverage.

With this bill, Medicaid and private insurance are mandated to cover treatments when your "gender identity" and sex don't align. But, if you believe you have made a mistake and want a procedure to align with your sex, coverage will not be mandated.

We had a long session Monday night to discuss Oregon's House Bill 2002, a bill which greatly expands abortion and so-called "gender-affirming treatment" in this state. This bill removes ALL parental consent for abortion at any age, and greatly expands access to "gender treatments" without ANY safeguards to protect our vulnerable children and young adults.

We have NO way to tell the difference between a young person who is transgender and a person who is temporarily gender dysphoric, yet we are pushing our youth into permanent,