2006 Issue Priorities

Winning Health Care for All
Oregon Action believes all people have a right to affordable, quality health care when they need it from a provider of their choice. We are working to pass the Hope For Oregon Families initiative to require the legislature to make that happen.

Expanding Affordable Housing
Oregon Action believes everyone deserves a decent place to live at an affordable cost. We are working to win increased funding for affordable housing, to protect renters and mobil homeowners when they are displaced by development plans, and to repeal state limitations on local options to build affordable housing.

Eliminating Racial Profiling
Oregon Action opposes racial profiling. Not only is it unjust to judge a peron's character by the color of their skin, it promotes bad policing by creating barriers between the police and the community they serve and by wasting police resources that would be better spent actually stopping observed criminal behavior.

Opposing Oppression
Oregon Action values all people and believes that each person is worth respect and dignity — deserving of the same rights and benefits in society. That’s why we examine how issues we work on are influenced by racism, sexism, classism and other oppressions which discourage people on the downside of power from seeking to use their political power and exert their rights.

Increasing Civic Participation
Oregon Action believes that increasing the participation those on the downside of power in the political process will improve government's ability to serve the public good.

Winning Affordable Precription Drugs
Oregon Action believes government action is needed to reduce the cost of prescription drugs for all people, of all ages. We propose expanding the prescription drug purchasing pool and reforming the national program to cut  costs.

Other Issues We Care About
Oregon Action works on issues that profoundly influence people’s lives — jobs, health care, housing, hunger, criminal justice, taxes and an entire range of social and economic justice issues that touch all of us and affect our quality of life.  Although we prioritize a few issues at a time, we continue to weigh in on other issues that matter to our members to make sure their voices are heard.

Defending Voter-Owned Elections
Oregon Action believes that government works best when people have the power to hold it accountable. Public financing of elections is the only way to make sure everyone's voice gets heard when policy is made in Congress, the State Capitol or at City Hall.

Defending Consumer & Worker Rights/Asbestos
Oregon Action believes workers and their famlies have a right to hold employers and companies accountable for exposing them to asbestos.   We oppose congressional efforts to restrict the legal rights of those damaged by asbestos exposure.

Defending Consumer Rights/Tort Reform
Oregon Action believes people have a right to hold manufacturers, employers and health care providers accountable for their actions. We oppose state and federal efforts to restrict the legal choices of those who were harmed by recklessnes, negligence or other malfeasance.  

Controlling and Eliminating Predatory Lending
Oregon Action believes that government must act to limit extortionate and exploitive interest rates demanded by unregulated moneylenders such as payday and title loan companies.

Promoting Fair Taxation
Oregon Action advocates a fair, adequate and stable tax system to fund necessary public services.

Expanding Food Stamps
Oregon Action believes there is no excuse for hunger in the richest country in the world.

Defending the Oregon Health Plan and Medicaid
Oregon Action believes all people have a reight to quality health care. The safety net that provides health care to the poor and the working poor must be strenghtened. We oppose further cuts in Medicaid and the Oregon Health Plan and support restoring services that have been eliminated.

Defending the Safety Net
Oregon Action supports maintaining a secure safety net for low-wage workers and those who are between jobs, unable to find work or unable to work.

Saving Social Security
Oregon Action supports protecting Social Security as a universal retirement insurance program for all of us.

Maintaining Immigrant Rights
Oregon Action believes that all people have inalienable human rights that cannot be denied because of their country of origin.

Eliminating the Job Gap
Oregon Action supports job creation strategies that create jobs that pay a living wage. Even during times of high employment, many jobs do not pay enough to support a family.

Winning a Living Wage
Oregon Action supports ordinances that require employers who received tax subsidies or benefit from public contracts to pay a living wage.

Defending Workers' Rights/Minimum Wage
Oregon Action believes full-time workers should be paid more than poverty wages -- and the minimum wage is a step in the right direction.

Promoting Peace
Oregon Action believes war is the last and worst resort and opposed the invasion of Iraq and oppose our continuting occupation of Iraq. We believe there were better, non-imperialistic methods of opposing Saddam. Our Statement of Opposition to the War in Iraq lists non-military, non-imperial options that we never considered by our government, but which should have been the first resort.

Could you be an OA leader?
Any Oregon Action member can become a leader by attending OA meetings and trainings and by volunteering on our campaigns. Oregon Action is committed to leadership development and training, because that is how we become stronger and more effective. Please join us.

Contact us for more info

Updated January 17, 2007