Major MIA Updates
This past week I’ve been in Salem for September Legislative Days at the Oregon capitol. I'm wanted to share a few updates based on eight(!) meetings with Members from both chambers of the Assembly.
First and foremost is that the chair of the Senate Committee that oversees veterans, Sen James Manning II, has offered MIA 15 minutes at the December Leg Days. His vote of confidence in offering this time is huge, and it represents a big step toward making human dignity for soldiers and veterans a mainstream issue. The next is to get the press and our battle buddies there to bear witness to the importance of civil rights for military families.
The second thing is a resolution, being introduced by Sen. Kim Thatcher, called a Memorial. Essentially it is a formal letter from the Oregon Legislative Assembly asking Congress to take some kind of action. In this case, OR would be asking the Members of Congress to hold public hearings on anti-military bias and to make sure hate crimes protections are enforced. Here is the Google Doc;
Third, I am working with Rep. James Hieb to introduce the nation's very first military civil rights act. Whereas at the federal level there are a handful of laws in need of amending (an easier task), Oregon has few laws upon which to start. The first step is a Bill of Rights for military families, which has already been drafted. Here is that Google Doc;
At the federal level, we are still getting a lot of support from Sen Ron Wyden's office. As with the state level stuff, I have focused on hate crimes because it is already law and it is a simpler, higher contrast issue than discrimination. You'll notice in the Oregon Memorial that I am trying to point Congress in the direction of opening up public discourse on anti-military bias generally. The hope is that it may then be more intuitive to see how that influences employment, accommodations, etc.
I’ll be sure to share more as things develop, but the Oregon Legislative Assembly doesn’t meet until next calendar year. Until then, keep your eyes out for a Veterans Day teach-in on military civil rights at a university here in Oregon before the December Leg Days and my presentation before the Senate Committee.
