House District 25 Representative Ben Bowman is a Democratic member of the House of Representatives. Bowman is a Tualatin High School grad who served as the Tigard-Tualatin School District Board Chair prior to beginning his career in the State Legislature.
The Legislature just completed its month-long 2024 Short Session that began on Feb. 25, 2024 and ended on March 7, 2024. The session was a productive one for the Legislature: 115 bills were sent to the governor for signature, 170 house bills and 96 senate bills were introduced and 501 amendments were proposed.
During the session, each legislator could introduce up to two measures, while the legislative committees, the governor and the Chief Justice could introduce three. While Bowman works on all sorts of issues, his focus is on housing, Oregon’s addiction crisis and health care. In an interview with The Wolf, Bowman reflected on the biggest accomplishments made by the House of Representatives this session.
“The legislature passed three major bills: first, a bill to address our state’s addiction crisis, including new resources that will dramatically expand access to treatment. Second, a housing package that will empower Oregon to build more housing of all types. Finally, we passed a campaign finance reform package for the first time in decades. Even better: all three of these bills passed with overwhelming support from members of both parties,” Bowman said.
While the entire Oregon legislature can work on passing bills, there is often opposition, and it can be difficult for individual representatives to pass bills they have drafted or sponsored. This session, Bowman made health care his top priority.
“On a personal level, I worked hard on a health care bill seeking to curb the alarming trend of private equity firms and large corporations buying medical practices and negatively impacting patient care. The bill passed the House with bipartisan support, but got stuck in the Senate at the end of the session. I plan to bring it back in the next legislative session in 2025,” said Bowman.
As part of this session, Bowman was voted by the other legislators in the Democratic caucus as the new Majority Leader for the House of Representatives. This honorable title is only given to the best and brightest Democratic leaders who have the best interests of their district and state at the forefront of their decision-making.
“My main goal is to support my caucus, the House Democrats, in addressing the major challenges facing the state,” Bowman said. “My vision is for Oregon to be the best state in the country to live, work and raise a family. We have made a lot of progress over the last few years, but there is still more work to do.”
