A lifelong resident of Portland, Oregon, Congressman Earl Blumenauer is one of Oregon's innovative leaders. Raised in SE Portland, Earl attended Centennial High School. While still a college student at Lewis and Clark College, he led the campaign in Oregon to lower the voting age. He was a key player just two years later as one of the youngest legislators in Oregon's history in a landmark session for school funding, ethics reform and Oregon's groundbreaking land use laws.
As a Multnomah County Commissioner and member of the Portland City Council, Earl's innovative accomplishments in transportation with light rail, bicycles and the street car, planning and environmental programs and public participation helped Portland earn an international reputation as one of America's most livable cities.
Eight years after the collapse of the financial markets, corporations have returned to making record profits while Oregon’s unemployment rate remains over 9 percent, homeowners are underwater, and students are drowning in debt. The wealthiest ten percent of Americans control 76 percent of American’s net worth. Households in the top 1 percent now average an income more than 100 times the size of incomes in the bottom 20 percent. This level of inequality is shameful. Congress must take action to protect America’s working families and to make government work for them, not special interests.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), is an important step towards rebalancing priorities and strengthening the financial system to clamp down on banker’s risk-taking and to protect families.