Rep. Yunker: Legislative protocols being compromised

Rep. Yunker Responds to Yesterday’s Letter to Speaker Fahey on Democrats’ Shredding Legislative Norms Before Next Week’s Legislative Days and Emergency Tax Hike
By Oregon State Representative Dwyane Yunker,

GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Representative Dwayne Yunker (R–Grants Pass) today issued the following statement in response to yesterday’s letter from the House Republican Caucus attorney to Speaker Julie Fahey regarding the erosion of legislative norms in Oregon’s Capitol.

“Democrats hammer Trump for supposedly breaking political norms, but here in Oregon they’re actually doing it: keeping the legislature in session indefinitely, trampling tradition, and twisting the rules to hang onto power,” said Representative Yunker. “It’s hypocrisy, plain and simple.”

Representative Yunker highlighted how the Democrats’ partisan abuses have personally targeted him. On September 11, Speaker Fahey notified him that he had been stripped of all but one of his policy committee assignments.

“Last December I was stripped of my Health Care Committee assignment after speaking out about Oregon’s Medicaid abuses,” said Representative Yunker. “Earlier this month I was removed from my Education and Workforce Committee after the Democrats’ failed attempt to censure me for speaking out about the radical policies in Oregon’s schools and after calling out the unconstitutional discrimination in Oregon’s workforce programs. Thanks to Speaker Fahey, today I am down to just one policy committee assignment. This is what weaponizing government power against political enemies and breaking political norms really looks like.”

Despite the Democrats’ gameplaying, Representative Yunker pledged to keep pressing on behalf of his constituents.

“I was elected to fight for my district, not to hand out courtesy ‘Yes’ votes to failed leadership,” said Representative Yunker. “If Democrats think committee games will shut me up, they’re wrong. I’ll keep exposing their misuse of power and defending the people of southern Oregon.”