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


     
     
                            TRIBUTE TO PETER COURTNEY
     
        Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, when the Oregon Legislature 
     comes into session on January 9, it will embark on a new era because, 
     for the first time in 38 years, it will convene without Oregon's 
     longest serving legislator and longest serving senate president, Peter 
     Courtney, among its ranks.
       Since the day he stepped off that greyhound bus in Salem, back in 
     1969, Peter has been a captivating presence in Oregon politics. Through 
     6 years on the Salem City Council, 7 terms in the Oregon House and 12 
     in the senate--10 of them as senate president--Peter has sought to not 
     only make government work by pushing to make the legislature meet 
     yearly rather than once every 2 years, but to work on behalf of the 
     people of our State. And he has certainly been a tireless advocate for 
     his community, exemplified by his support for the Salem YMCA he loved 
     so much and once called ``home'' for 2 years and through this year's 
     groundbreaking on the 34-unit which will serve veterans in need of 
     affordable housing.
       As senate president, Peter helped usher a number of landmark bills on 
     everything from housing, to healthcare, to jobs. Among them are the 
     rainy-day fund that I worked with him to establish in order to 
     safeguard our State from sudden economic downturns; the Healthy Kids 
     Act which provided health insurance to 90,000 uninsured children and 
     30,000 low-income adults; and through the Housing Opportunity Bill 
     which created a new trust fund to increase affordable rental housing 
     development, help more Oregonians become homeowners, prevent 
     homelessness,and maintain and expand the network of community-based 
     nonprofit housing providers.
       But there is no question that, of all the issues he has worked on 
     over the years, mental health care is that Peter is most passionate 
     about. Peter has long been recognized throughout Oregon as a champion 
     for providing mental health services to those who need it. This passion 
     began when, visiting the Oregon State Hospital back in 2004, the same 
     hospital where ``One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' was filmed, Peter 
     and a group of local leaders discovered the unclaimed cremated remains 
     of more than 3,500 Oregonian patients sitting in a neglected storage 
     room in corroding copper canisters. Finding those remains and the lack 
     of care with which they were treated set Peter off on a personal 
     mission to ensure that Oregonians suffering from mental illnesses get 
     the care they need and that they are treated with dignity and respect. 
     He led the charge to replace that old State hospital with a new modern 
     facility that also had a boost in staffing so patients could get the 
     care they need. He pushed through a mental health parity bill in 2005 
     which said that insurance companies had to cover mental health 
     treatment the same as they did physical health treatment. And Peter was 
     also the driving force for successfully increasing our State's 
     cigarette tax and dedicating the extra funding it generates to mental 
     health treatment.
       And if there is a second issue that Peter is most passionate about, 
     it would probably have to be preparing our State for a Cascadia 
     Subduction Zone earthquake. He once gave each Democrat in the House a 
     small piece of marble with an engraved image of the State capitol once 
     repairs were finished after the damage caused by the 1993 Scotts Mill 
     earthquake as symbol of the importance of this issue. That commitment 
     to safety led Peter to successfully shepherd 12 seismic safety measures 
     into law. And schools and emergency services facilities across Oregon 
     are now safer in the event of an earthquake thanks to the Seismic 
     Rehabilitation Grant Program that he created.
       It is hard to imagine what Oregon State politics is going to look 
     like, starting in just a few weeks, without Peter Courtney running the 
     State senate. But as work continues on a multiyear project to retrofit 
     and prepare our capitol in Salem for an inevitable and long overdue 
     earthquake in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, I know that Peter's legacy 
     and his work on so many important issues will continue to touch the 
     lives of Oregonians for a long time to come.
     
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