CORVALLIS — Rep. Dan Rayfield (D-Corvallis) has been appointed by Speaker of the House Tina Kotek to serve another term as the House co-chair of the Ways and Means Committee, the representative’s office announced.
It will be Rayfield’s second term in the position, which serves as the chief budget writer on the House side.
Over the past two years while serving as co-chair, Rayfield’s record has included work in the areas of Affordable Care Act access, Student Success Act in support of schools and economic strategies related to COVID-19 and summer wildfire impacts.
“I look forward to building on the progress of the past two years and to the new challenge of developing and setting Oregon’s budget for the 2021-23 biennium,” Rayfield said in a press release.
Rayfield represents House District 16, which includes Philomath and Corvallis.
The 2021 Session will kick off Jan. 19 with legislators returning to Salem with several goals in mind, including closing the budget on the 2019-21 biennium, allocating further relief to those who have been affected by wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic and laying the groundwork for a successful 2021-23.
According to his office, Rayfield is ready with a slate of elections bills that will take steps toward establishing campaign finance limits, spreading ranked choice voting to the state level and more. Campaign finance reform has been a top priority of Rayfield’s office since his election in 2014.
“Our office has a lot of elections legislation ready for this session,” Rayfield said. “We are really excited with the concepts we developed. I believe that we can make significant progress towards making our elections more accessible to Oregonians.”