Thank you for visiting my legislative webpage. I am honored to represent the people of House District 29 from West Hillsboro, Cornelius, and Forest Grove in the 82nd Legislative Assembly. I am committed to working hard for our families and communities to keep Oregon a great place to raise a family, work, attend school, and recreate.
I am thrilled to serve as Co-Chair of the Joint Transportation Committee, Co-Chair of the I-5 Interstate Bridge Committee, Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Education Appropriation, and a member of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education, and the House Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources, and Water Committee. You can learn more about these committees in the “Committees" tab on the left of this page.
It is important to me that we focus on issues affecting Oregon families, such as transportation safety, school funding, protecting our environment, and supporting our farms and all businesses. We must also increase government accountability and transparency to ensure the best use of taxpayer funds. I know from my conversations with constituents over the past few years that these issues matter most to our community.
Current Projects
As we gear up for 2025, I have been working on the following to prepare for the upcoming Legislative Session:
Education:
As a member of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education, I have been focused on several budget related issues surrounding education in Oregon:
- Continuing my work from the 2024 legislative session, I am working on finding a way to fit Summer Learning into the school investment. Funding is also a topic of discussion.
- I have been looking into how we fund education in Oregon, looking at what we use to determine the K-12 Current Service Level (CSL).
- Following my work as a member of ODE's Educator Advancement Council, I am looking at how we can better support our classrooms and educators.
- The Legislature is looking at options for updating the Quality Education Model
Transportation:
Alongside my Co-Chair and the other members of the Joint Committee on Transportation, we are currently traveling the state as a part of our Transportation Safety and Sustainability Outreach Tour. This tour is giving us an opportunity to hear from professionals, advocates, and citizens from around the state. Your input is important to us as we begin to craft our 2025 Transportation Package and Investment.
Our transportation work in 2025 will be focused on stabilizing funding for maintenance, operations, and safety, as well as prioritizing unfinished projects. Oregon needs a multimodal transportation system that is safe, functional, and efficient. We all want safer roads and stronger public transportation and to be able to maintain our multimodal transportation systems. To be able to maintain our transportation system, we need to update and modernize the funding tools that the state and ODOT rely on for our services.
For more information on the tour stops that have passed and that are coming up, visit the OLIS page for the Joint Committee on Transportation. Each tour stop will have the opportunity for people to sign up for in-person testimony. Additionally, a recording of each Public Hearing will be available on OLIS for you to view at any time.
In the 2024 legislative session, I was proud to chief sponsor four bills that passed through the legislative process:
Senate Bill 1553 - Public Transit Safety: I co-chief sponsored this bill, which was introduced by Senator Kate Lieber. This bill relates to public safety on public transit and adds the use of illicit drugs to the crime of Interfering with Public Transportation. This classifies drug use on transit as a drug-designated misdemeanor, which may allow individuals to access state-funded treatment.
I am proud of the successes of the 2024 legislative session and am looking forward to working on policies for the 2025 session during the Interim!
Listening to you is my number one job, and I want to ensure that you have a strong voice in Salem advocating for the issues that affect our community. I hope you’ll continue to share your questions and concerns with me by email at rep.susanmclain@oregonlegislature.gov, or by calling my office at (503) 986-1429.
You can keep up with what I am working on by signing up for my e-newsletter on the right side of this page or clicking this link.