Rep. Peter DeFazio met with 25 students at Carson Dining Hall on Thursday afternoon to hear a broad political spectrum of student concerns and to speak about his 12 terms of experience in Washington.
The luncheon was part of University Housing’s Lunch with Leaders program and allowed DeFazio to discuss with students what they can do to make their voices more audible to legislators. DeFazio explained the difficulty of communicating with constituents in Washington, D.C. and encouraged students to write personal letters to legislators instead of submitting formula letters with signatures.
OSPIRG came prepared to send its message to DeFazio and presented him with a 10-foot homemade poster with footprints thanking the representative for his leadership on environmental issues.
DeFazio spoke about his perspective on a new “Cap, Regulate and Reduce” program that, unlike simple cap-and-trade programs, would require businesses to cut their carbon emissions or pay heavy fines. Unlike cap and trade, the regulation program does not allow Wall Street to get involved in trading carbon credits and requires businesses to take full responsibility for managing their pollution.
Other students voiced concern about the stimulus package’s lack of funding for higher education. University junior Demic Tipitino asked DeFazio if he were governor, would he have chosen to allocate the money entirely to K-12 education like Gov. Ted Kulongoski had.
“There are inadequate levels of funding for education at all levels. It is a tough decision to make. The truth is we need a bigger pot than we have available to us,” DeFazio said. “We need to have a serious discussion about taxes in this state and I think we might find a solution there.”
Despite DeFazio’s avoidance of a student question addressing the rumor of his running for governor in 2010, his concern for students’ issues was well-received.
“I am a registered Republican, so I inherently disagree with DeFazio’s politics, but I respect how independent of a Democrat he is,” Tipitino said. “He stands up for what he thinks is right even if it isn’t what Clinton or Obama agree with, and I think that is really admirable.”
[email protected]