A day on Capitol Hill with our Oregon team

On Wednesday, staff from Environment Oregon and OSPIRG met with the entire Oregon congressional delegation in Washington D.C. to talk about federal legislation that impacts two of our priority issues: right to repair and wildlife crossings.

It’s common sense to fix something you own when it breaks but manufacturers increasingly limit consumers’ ability to repair their own devices or to have them repaired by third parties. These restrictions affect products ranging from tablets to toasters to tractors and results in surging consumer costs as manufacturers monopolize repair and massive amount of waste as consumers throw away old devices that are costly or difficult to fix and buy new ones. There’s two bills, not yet introduced, in D.C. that seek to address this issue. The Freedom to Fix Act tackles copyright laws that manufacturers are abusing, and The Servicemember Right-to-Repair Act makes it easier for American servicemembers to repair essential and often life-saving equipment when out in the field. 

Wildlife populations are in decline for many reasons but the biggest factor is declining and deteriorating habitat. Every day, one million vertebrate animals are struck and killed on our roads and wildlife-vehicle collisions result in 200 human deaths annually. To save animal and human lives, we need to reconnect habitats that are currently split apart by human development. Wildlife crossings are a part of that solution. That’s why we’re advocating for The Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act (H.R. 717) which improves habitat connectivity and give animals the room they need to roam as well as supports a grants program to develop more crossings. 

Our team was advocating for both these issues and how they’d be improved if these pieces of legislation were passed. These issues have broad bipartisan support and we’re thankful to all of the Representatives, Senators and their staff who took time to learn more about them.