Rep. Smith reflects on 2023 session
By Terry Murry on Tuesday, November 28th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
HEPPNER – When Oregon State Rep. Greg Smith (R-Heppner) looks back on the 2023 legislative session the first thing that comes to mind is not the denial of a quorum walkout by Republican senators. It is, instead, that so many of the lawmakers and leaders were new to their jobs.
“The last legislative session really represented a generational change in Oregon,” he said. “We had a brand new governor. We had a brand new speaker of the house. We had a brand new Senate president.”
Smith added that about 70 percent of the legislators were also new.
Because of COVID, those freshmen of two to three years ago had never been in the building,” he said. “Many of the folks were trying to figure out where the restroom was, let alone how to pass legislation.”
Because of the relative inexperience, Smith said the low point of the session was the majority party’s unwillingness to listen to the Republican minority.
“It was really challenging serving in the minority and have the majority not willing necessarily to come to the table to work through issues that, in the past, previous speakers and Senate presidents would have,” he said.
Smith added that he felt that was due to the inexperience on the parts of both parties, as Republican leaders were new as well. He’s hoping that, with one session under their belts, that will begin to change when the 2024 session begins on Feb. 5.
