State Sen. Bill Morrisette, D-Springfield, whose district includes parts of Linn County around Sweet Home, will be chairman of the Senate Health Policy Committee in the 2003 Oregon Legislature.
He was named to the post Tuesday by new Senate President Peter Courtney. It is the first committee chairmanship for Morrisette, who served two sessions in the state House of Representatives before moving to the Senate in 2001.
The Health Policy Committee will focus on the Oregon Health Plan, which provides medical services to low-income citizens of the state. Morrisette will also be vice chairman of the Senate Human Resources Committee, which will deal with other health issues for the coming biennium.
Sen. Bill Fisher, R-Roseburg, will be chairman of the Human Resources Committee and vice chairman of the Health Policy Committee. Morrisette said the two committees and the two chairmen will work together closely.
Like many other state functions, the Health Plan is short of money and long on higher costs. Morrisette said he sees his chairmanship as “an excellent opportunity for me to be involved in saving the Oregon Health Plan.”
At the same time, he added, “the Health Plan may have to share the pain” of state budget cuts. “We have to take a look at whether what we’ve been doing is efficient,” he said.
As a state representative in the 2001 session, Morrisette tried to get more funding for various programs affecting public health, senior citizens, and the disabled, using money from the state’s tobacco lawsuit settlement and from a beer and wine tax increase. But those efforts were stifled by Republican leaders in the House.
As a senator, Morrisette can’t introduce revenue-raising bills, which must originate in the House. “But I’m willing to support bills that can somehow provide more money to save or reinstate these important programs,” he said. “Senior and disabled citizens are our most vulnerable and it’s unconscionable not to protect them.”
Morrisette will also be a member of the Senate Education Committee.
And he is drafting legislation that would put limits on campaign spending, make the Legislature non-partisan, prohibit state preemption of local government jurisdiction over primarily local matters, and make it easier for local jurisdictions to collect overdue fines and penalties by denying license renewals to deadbeats.
Morrisette can be reached at his Senate office by calling 503-986-1706, e-mailing him at [email protected], or writing him at Room S306, State Capitol, 900 Court St., NE, Salem 97301.