Civil Rights
"Black Americans have lived in fear for too long. The Senate must pass the #GeorgeFloydJusticeInPolicingAct to help end the targeting of Black communities by police," tweeted Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.).
Oregon's current congressional leaders praised her leadership: "She was a trailblazer and an inspiration to many—including me," said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), who now serves in the 1st District seat Furse held. "Elizabeth Furse made the world a better place, and she will be missed."
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici: "George Floyd's murder is a tragedy and a painful chapter in our country's history of systemic racism. His family and his community in Minneapolis have experienced heartbreaking anguish. They deserve accountability, and I wish them peace and healing. "Today his family got justice, but this verdict cannot bring back George Floyd. Black Americans have lived in fear for too long. The Senate must pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to help end the targeting of Black communities by police.
U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, who was elected to the 1st District seat in 2012, offered a tribute to her predecessor. "As an immigrant and the third Oregon woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, she was a trailblazer and an inspiration to many — including me," the Democrat from Beaverton said in a statement. "It was an honor to know Congresswoman Furse and to call her a friend and mentor. She was committed to tribal sovereignty, social justice, and peace, and she led and legislated with these noble values always in her heart and on her mind.
U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici prefers comprehensive legislation, but she and other Oregon Democrats voted to pass House bills to create a path to citizenship for young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children, and to give more security to migrant farmworkers and their families. Both bills head to the Senate, where their fate is uncertain in a chamber split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Although Vice President Kamala Harris holds the tie-breaker, it takes 60 votes under current rules to break a potential filibuster.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., stated, "The last thing sexual assault victims should have to think about is whether their own words could be used against them when they seek help." These incidents raised red flag warnings for survivors of sexual assault, racism and other protected class violations to be wary of what they tell any employee of an institution in which they have been harmed.