[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 199 (Wednesday, December 21, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9773-S9774]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     
     
                              TRIBUTE TO KATE BROWN
     
        Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, today I would like to pay 
     tribute to my State of Oregon's outgoing Governor, Kate Brown, who has 
     not only led the Beaver State for the last 8 years but has devoted much 
     of her life to public service.
       Governor Brown got her start in Oregon politics when she was 
     appointed to fill a seat in the Oregon House in 1991, which she would 
     continue to serve in for a total of three terms before going on to 
     serve another three terms in the State senate. Recognized for her 
     leadership, she was elected by her peers to serve as majority leader in 
     2003 and would go on to serve in that position until leaving the senate 
     in 2009. Her 6 years as majority leader were marked with an impressive 
     list of major accomplishments and bills passed. And I was fortunate, 
     during a portion of that time--between 2007 and 2009, to be exact--to 
     work alongside her as speaker of the Oregon House and push through a 
     number of those bills that have had such a positive impact on the
     
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     people of our State--bills like the Oregon Equality Act, which banned 
     discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and the 
     Oregon Family Fairness Act, which created domestic partnerships for 
     same-sex couples. We established a rainy-day fund to help guard Oregon 
     against sudden economic downturns and updated the Oregon Bottle Bill 
     for the first time since it was passed in 1971 in order to add water 
     bottles to the list of containers with mandatory deposits.
       Working together, we made those 2 years some of the most productive 
     in the history of our State. But in 2009, we each set off on new 
     chapters of or lives and our careers--me to serve in the U.S. Senate 
     and Governor Brown to serve for two terms as Oregon's secretary of 
     state, where she made expanding the right of every Oregonian to vote 
     and breaking down the barriers to registration her top priority. As 
     secretary of state, Governor Brown implemented online voter 
     registration, which 87,000 Oregonians availed themselves of within the 
     first year of its enactment. She pushed the use of tablets and iPads to 
     ensure our elections were increasingly accessible to every Oregonian. 
     And because of her efforts, our State became the first to use tablets 
     to help voters with disabilities actually mark their ballots, a 
     practice which has since caught on across the country. And she crafted 
     and pushed for passage of the ``motor voter'' program to automatically 
     register voters when they get a driver's license that she would 
     actually go on to sign into law and implement once she became Governor.
       Like her time in the legislature, Governor Brown distinguished her 
     tenure as secretary of state by her work to bring fairness and 
     opportunity to our State. And that continued into the Governor's 
     mansion where she always strives to put the best interests of 
     Oregonians first, especially working families. Under her watch, 
     Governor Brown oversaw historic investments in education with the 
     Students Success Act. She signed a transformative 10-year, $5.3 billion 
     package to improve our roads and highways, while creating more 
     pedestrian- and bike-friendly communities.?? She expanded the Oregon 
     Health Plan so that every child and 94 percent of all adults in our 
     State have some form of health coverage today. Her budget plan included 
     some of the most ambitious goals in the country for taking on climate 
     chaos by reducing carbon emissions and moving to 100 percent clean 
     energy sources. And, of course, Governor Brown saw our State through 
     the dark and difficult days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
       Her career in public service has been defined by working to improve 
     our State and help lift up families everywhere. And it is important to 
     remember that, time and again, she had to do so while breaking down one 
     barrier after another. She was the first woman to serve as our senate 
     majority leader, the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected as a secretary 
     of state in the country, and then the first as Governor. It takes 
     immense courage to be the first at anything--to be a pioneer. And it is 
     her courage which has made Governor Brown such an inspiration to so 
     many in Oregon and across the Nation who have questioned their own 
     place in the world and seeking their own path in life.
       As she prepares to transition into the next phase of her life, I am 
     going to miss having Governor Brown there in Mahonia Hall, leading our 
     State through good times and bad. I am going to miss the regular phone 
     calls that we have shared, almost every month, for nearly 8 years. But 
     I know that this is far from the end. I know that, even as she leaves 
     office, Governor Brown will continue to make important and meaningful 
     contributions to the lives of her fellow Oregonians. And I, for one, 
     cannot wait to see what she decides to do next.
     
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