Representative Tina Kotek is serving her third term in the Oregon House. She is the House Democratic Caucus Leader and the Co-Chair of the House Committee on Rules.
In the 2011 Legislative Session, Representative Kotek focused on the human services budget, health care reform and early childhood. She was Co-Chair of the Human Services Subcommittee of Ways and Means and also served on the full Joint Ways and Means Committee. In addition to her role in the budgeting process, she served on the Joint Special Committee on Health Care Transformation and worked closely with the Governor on his efforts to integrate human services, education, and other programs for children via the creation of the Early Learning Council.
Some of Representative Kotek’s recent legislative accomplishments include: maintaining funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF); passing a statewide menu labeling bill to provide consumers with calorie information in fast food restaurants; restricting the use of a job applicant’s credit history when making hiring decisions through the passage of the Job Applicant Fairness Act; and implementing a vision screening demonstration project to explore the best ways to ensure every child receives routine vision screening.
During her first session in 2007, Representative Kotek was the only freshman legislator to chair a committee, the House Subcommittee on Health Policy. She championed a redesign of the state’s welfare program, led the fight to establish statewide nutrition standards for food sold in schools, and helped to pass landmark legislation that ended discrimination based on sexual orientation and created domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.
Before her first election to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2006, Representative Kotek worked as the policy director for the non-profit advocacy organization Children First for Oregon. Prior to joining Children First, she was a public policy advocate for the Oregon Food Bank.
Representative Kotek holds a B.S. in religious studies from the University of Oregon and an M.A. in international studies from the University of Washington. She lives in the Kenton neighborhood of North Portland with her partner Aimee Wilson and their dogs Maya and Rudy.
