Today, Fred Granum, the Dudley Campaign Representative for Debates, sent the following letter to the Kitzhaber Campaign offering ten dates for a televised debate:

September 3, 2010

DELIVERED VIA EMAIL

Patricia McCaig Derek Humphrey
John Kitzhaber for Governor
3016 SE Division Street
Portland, Oregon 97202

Dear Patricia and Derek:

Chris Dudley looks forward to meeting Governor Kitzhaber on the public stage to debate the issues confronting our state.

As you know, KGW and The Oregonian have offered to host a televised debate on a date that is mutually agreeable with the respective campaigns. Chris Dudley embraces this opportunity and will make himself available during one evening on any of the following ten dates for a televised debate with these sponsors:

• September 28
• September 30
• October 2
• October 3
• October 4
• October 5
• October 6
• October 7
• October 9
• October 10

We invite Governor Kitzhaber to select any one of these dates to join in a debate with Chris Dudley.

If you choose to accept this invitation, please notify me so that we may work in concert with KGW and The Oregonian to make arrangements for the debate the citizens of Oregon so richly deserve.

Very truly yours,

Fred M. Granum
Campaign Representative for Debates
Chris Dudley for Governor

cc: The Oregonian
cc: KGW TV

Original blog posted at http://www.chrisdudley.com/blog.html

• League of Oregon Cities (Eugene, September 25th)
• Eastern Oregon Rural Alliance (Burns, October 1st)
• KGW/The Oregonian (Portland, October 7th)
• KOBI (Medford, October 12th)

Tentative Schedule:

• Music and fun: 5:00 – 6:00 pm
• Meet and Greet: 6:00 – 8:00 pm

For more information about Chris Dudley issue overview click here

For video coverage on issues and interview click here

About Chris Dudley:

Chris Dudley was born in 1965. His father was a professor and a minister and his mother a teacher. He was raised with an intense understanding of the importance of education and the opportunities it will open. At times his family struggled to make ends meet but Chris and his sister Natasha focused on their studies, working hard and helping out their parents any way they could.

At the age of 16, Chris was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Dealing with the constraints of the disease, Chris decided that he would do what it took to overcome the difficulties and defy the odds. He learned to truly appreciate the value of working harder than the rest and how far that could get you. After living with the disease for 28 years, he is now a leader in the effort to find a cure and has inspired countless others to live their lives to the fullest.

In 1994, Chris and his wife, Chris Love, founded The Dudley Foundation which is dedicated to kids with diabetes, and provides educational programs, advocacy and supports diabetes research. Through the foundation, Chris was able to establish the only basketball camp in the country for children with diabetes right here in Oregon.

His continued leadership did not go unnoticed; in 2005 and 2006 Chris addressed the United States Senate committees on the topics of diabetes funding and research. For his generosity and community action, Chris has been recognized nationally with many awards including, the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, USA Today’s Most Caring Athlete Award and the Freedom Corp Award.

Chris excelled at Yale University where he graduated with a degree in Economics and Political Science in 1987. While playing basketball at Yale, Chris decided to pursue a career in the NBA even though no other professional basketball player in the history of the league had played while dealing with diabetes.

Once again defying the odds, Chris played for a total of 16 seasons in the NBA, including six seasons with our Trailblazers. During his playing days, Chris was a known leader in the league, not only representing the players association as the executive treasurer and participating on the negotiating committee, but more importantly was considered a role model for his extensive charity work. Chris retired from basketball in 2003.

Following a successful career in the NBA, Chris was a senior vice president at M Financial and is now a partner in a small financial company in Oregon. Chris and his family are active members of their community serving on countless charitable boards and participating in a wide range of activities – everything from coaching youth sports to their work raising funds for the Oregon Health Science University Circle of Giving.

Chris and his wife Chris Love, a 5th generation Oregonian, are raising their three children, Charles, Emma and Sam in Lake Oswego.

“As a small business owner for nearly 22 years, I’m shocked that these jobs cost taxpayers nearly $195,000 each,” U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said.

WASHINGTON, D.C. —A Government Accountability Office report released Thursday shows that the Department of Energy has spent more than $1.9 billion in stimulus funds to create 10,018 jobs through May, an average of $194,213 spent per full-time job created.

“As a small business owner for nearly 22 years, I’m shocked that these jobs cost taxpayers nearly $195,000 each,” U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said. “Taxpayers deserve more for their investment. This is more evidence that the private sector is far more capable than the federal government at creating the long-term jobs required for a sustainable economic recovery.”

“It looks like the Department of Energy got in over its head when it was handed $6 billion in stimulus money to create jobs by accelerating environmental cleanup work. This report says that DOE managed its timetables well enough, but it also indicates that so far, the jobs that DOE created cost $194,213 each,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

While DOE reports that it created 10,018 jobs through May of this year, the department has also used a more unorthodox methodology to inflate job creation in some of its reports, a methodology the GAO says may mislead the public. For example, using the method GAO was critical of, the agency reports roughly 20,000 jobs created through May of this year, counting the number of “lives touched” in some documents

Barton and Walden, then-ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, asked the GAO in March 2009 to examine the Department of Energy’s management of the stimulus funding for environmental cleanup. U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, later joined the request when he became the subcommittee’s ranking member.

“It seems our concerns about DOE’s ability to effectively and efficiently used the funds given to them have become reality. This is yet another example of how, despite the White House’s assertions, the almost $1 trillion of stimulus funding has failed to stimulate anything other than government bureaucracy,” Burgess said.

The lawmakers were concerned about the department’s ability to manage the extra $6 billion in funding DOE was provided in the stimulus effort, given the agency’s difficulty in managing environmental cleanup spending in a cost-effective manner. The funds were supposed to create jobs and promote economic recovery by expanding and accelerating the environmental cleanup of hazardous and radiological waste at the nation’s nuclear weapons complex.

The report shows DOE has taken some positive steps to manage the spending and meet project timetables, but also finds that DOE does not clearly show how the funding has impacted job creation or will reduce environmental risks and future cleanup costs.

A copy of GAO report can be found here.

Walden: Taxpayers want lawmakers to understand legislation before voting on it

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On the day Gallup reported that the American people’s confidence in Congress has fallen to a record low, House Republicans launched a renewed push to highlight and enact “read the bill” reforms demanded by the American people.

“Everywhere I go, taxpayers want to know why they don’t give Congress and the public enough time to read and understand these enormously costly bills, ” U.S. Rep. Greg Walden said. “This is a no-brainer. It’s time to let the sun shine in and change how the House operates.”

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has posted on America Speaking Out an idea that Rep. Walden a bipartisan coalition of members have been promoting to prohibit the House from considering any bill that has not been publicly available via the Internet for three days. This is the first idea Leader Boehner has posted on America Speaking Out, which was launched by House Republicans in May to engage the American people in building a more responsive government and a better country.

“One of the reasons why Americans have such little confidence in Congress is because of the practice of rushing massive, expensive bills to a vote without giving lawmakers or the American people time to read them,” Boehner said. “This is the people’s House: ‘read the bill’ should not be just an afterthought – it should be the first and only thought.”

“Read the bill” reform is the first plank of the transparency initiative House Republicans released last fall. In September, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) filed a discharge petition to force a floor vote on bipartisan three-day public review legislation authored by Reps. John Culberson (R-TX) and Brian Baird (D-WA). To date, the petition has garnered 182 signatures – including five rank-and-file Democrats — 36 short of the 218 needed to secure a vote on the floor. Leader Boehner, a co-sponsor of the Culberson-Baird measure, has pledged that Republicans would implement “read the bill” reform should they earn back the majority.

“At a time when record high spending bills are passing the House, this resolution would give Members of Congress and the American public a chance to read legislation before a vote,” said Culberson. “This resolution will enhance public participation in our democracy and help restore the public trust in government by raising the level of transparency, order, and discourse.

NOTE: Americans are fed up with Congress passing bills no one has read. Speaker Pelosi and Democratic leaders have rushed hugely consequential and expensive legislation through the House without giving the American people time to review the measures. Here are just five high-profile examples:

• Trillion-Dollar ‘Stimulus.’ In one of the most infamous displays of brazen partisanship, Democratic leaders posted the text of their ‘stimulus’ bill in the dark of night well past midnight only to turn around and force members to vote on it less than 12 hours after it was made public.

• ‘Cap-and-Trade’ National Energy Tax. House Democrats passed a national energy tax bill loaded with special-interest giveaways no one had discovered because a 300-page, never-before-seen amendment to their already massive 1,200-page bill was unveiled at 3am the day of the vote.

• $500 Billion Omnibus Spending Bill. When trying to beat a path out of Washington last December, Democratic leaders rushed a 2,500-page, half trillion omnibus spending bill to the floor with less than 24 hours notice and just an hour of debate

• DISCLOSE Act. At the last minute, Democratic leaders produced a new 46-page manager’s amendment to their 84-page campaign bill that was chock full of backroom deals and carve outs for special interest groups.

• SCHIP. The Democrats brought their flawed State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill – which shortchanged low-income children and expanded coverage to illegal immigrants and adults – to the House floor for a vote less than 24 hours after it had been unveiled.

Representative Greg Walden is the House Republican Leadership Chairman and represents Oregon’s Second Congressional District, which is comprised of 20 counties in eastern, southern, and central Oregon.

ENTERPRISE, Ore — Congressman Greg Walden hopes to hear from local business owners at a no-host community breakfast on Wednesday, July 7th at Lear’s Mainstreet Pub and Grill in Enterprise.

The Breakfast will run from 7:30am to 9:00am. As a small business owner for 22 years and 2009 winner of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Spirit of Enterprise Award Greg understands the difficult economic times Wallowa County is facing.

Please come and share your perspectives about what needs to happen to get the economy moving and create jobs in Wallowa County.

The event is sponsored by the Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce.

A no host breakfast will be available for $8.00

Listen to Greg Walden…

WASHINGTON, D.C. — YouCut, the popular new online initiative launched by House Republicans just weeks ago, passed 1 million votes on wasteful federal spending projects.

“I’m not surprised at all by YouCut’s popularity. The American people want to see Congress cut back wasteful spending and focus on creating jobs, instead of just making government bigger and bigger,” Rep. Greg Walden said. “The American people are watching this Congress rack up staggering record deficits that will be left to our children and grandchildren to pay off, and are wondering, ‘Where are the jobs?’ As a small business owner for nearly 22 years, I know what it takes to grow a business and create jobs — and it’s not more government.”

The YouCut project is designed to challenge Congress’s culture of spending. It is a first of its kind effort that engages the public in refocusing Congress’s priorities. With a deficit near $1.5 trillion, it shouldn’t be too much to ask of Congress to spend some time debating bills to actually reduce spending.

How it Works:

The project revolves around a very simple two-step process:

1. Each week, House Republicans will post online (at http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut …or just Google “YouCut”) a list of five proposals to reduce wasteful or unnecessary federal spending. The public will have a chance to vote online or on their cell phones on the proposal they would most like to see Congress take up the next week.

1. And the next week House Republicans will force the House to vote on whether or not to take up and debate the bill.

Here are the projects that are being voted on this week at YouCut:

Consolidate and Reduce Funding for Federal Advisory Committees

Savings $34 million next year and $340 million over ten years

In 2008, the Federal government spent $342 million on 917 active Federal Advisory Committees. These committees had nearly 64,000 total members. Many of these Committees are duplicative. For example the National Endowment for the Arts spent $1.3 million on two separate advisory panels both of which makes recommendations to the NEA chairman. At the U.S. Geological Survey, the Scientific Earthquake Studies Advisory Committee actually recommended the creation of the National Earthquake Prediction Council. Now taxpayers fund both committees at a cost of nearly $200,000 a year. These earthquake committees are in addition to a third committee run by the Department of Commerce that costs taxpayers another $43,000. In 2005, the Department of Interior even created an advisory committee to advise it on dog management at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Three years later, this committee cost taxpayers $41,000. Consolidating existing Advisory Committee and with a goal of reducing overall funding by 10% would save taxpayers $34 million next year and $170 million over five years.

Terminate Duplicative Federal Bicycle and Walking Program

Saves $183 million a year or $1.8 billion over ten years

Created in 2005, the Federal “Safe Routes to Schools Program” finances both infrastructure and non-infrastructure (10 to 30% of total funding) projects to “empower communities to make walking and bicycling to school a safe and routine activity once again.” The infrastructure components of this program, such as sidewalks and bike paths, have traditionally been viewed as local responsibilities. The non-infrastructure portion includes items such as public awareness campaigns and training volunteers. The program even requires that every state employ a full-time person dedicated to coordinating this federal program despite the fact that the law already requires every state to employ a separate full-time person to coordinate bicycle and pedestrian activities. Returning these responsibilities to state and local officials and removing federal mandates would generate savings for taxpayers.

Suspend Federal Land Purchases

Saves $266 million next year and $2.66 billion over ten years

Last year Congress spent $266 million acquiring additional federal lands at the Departments of Interior and Agriculture. This is a 138% increase over the comparable amount of funding just four years ago. Given that the federal government already owns 29% of the land in America and has a multi-billion dollar maintenance backlog to maintain current land holdings, suspending new federal land purchases would permit the government to focus on maintaining existing property while also saving taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

Require Collection of Unpaid Taxes From Federal Employees

Savings of potentially $1 billion +

In 2008, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reported that over 97,000 federal employees were delinquent on their federal income taxes, owing a total of $1 billion in unpaid taxes. This includes 1,151 employees who owe $7 million at the Department of Treasury which oversees the IRS. By requiring at a minimum that the IRS to work with federal agencies to withhold a portion of each employee’s paycheck who is determined to have a “seriously delinquent tax debt,” we can ensure that federal employees are paying their fair share of taxes. Failure to pay required taxes should result in disciplinary actions designed to ensure that the taxpayers are made whole. In addition to collecting back taxes already due, this reform will ensure future unpaid taxes are also collected.

Taxpayer Subsidized Union Activities

Saves potentially $120 million a year and $1.2 billion over ten years

Currently, some federal employees spend up to 100% of their workweek, paid by taxpayers, doing work for their union. Federal employees unions collect millions in revenue each year and spend significant amounts on political activities and lobbying, should they also be subsidized by the taxpayer for their official functions? In 2008 the Federal government spent $120 million paying employees for their time spent working on union activities (over five years this would total a minimum of $600 million.) (Also proposed as part of the RSC Sunset Caucus.)

Representative Greg Walden is the House Republican Leadership Chairman and represents Oregon’s Second Congressional District, which is comprised of 20 counties in eastern, southern, and central Oregon.

SALEM— Rep. Greg Smith (R-Heppner) today voted to pass a bipartisan ethics reform bill to establish a one-year “waiting period” on former legislators before they can seek and obtain non-elected positions in the state’s executive branch.

“Oregonians are understandably cynical about potential conflicts of interest in government, especially when legislators exchange their elected office for high-paying agency positions,” Rep. Smith said. “To eliminate any doubt, I supported HB 3638 to impose a one-year “waiting period” on legislators before they can seek and obtain these salaried, non-elected positions in the executive branch.”

HB 3638 was a product of bipartisan compromise and was unanimously supported on the House Floor. While the bill imposes a one-year waiting period for legislators to take agency positions, it exempts positions that require Senate confirmation, which are already subject to public scrutiny and debate.

An additional compromise allows a former member to take a position in state government as long as recruitment for position is advertised, the minimum qualifications do not include legislative service, and employer considers other qualified applicants. Rep. Smith said this measure ensures a fair and competitive hiring process for all Oregonians seeking state employment.

“This bill is an example of how Democrats and Republicans can work together to improve Oregonians’ confidence in their legislature,” Rep. Smith said. “The Senate should approve this bill and send it to the Governor’s desk before adjournment.”