Janelle S. Bynum

Supporting VA Families Act

in committee

Wildfire Aerial Response Safety Act

in committee

SPUR Housing Act

in committee

“Ms. BYNUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate and honor Anshu Mukherjee as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Oregon's 5th District, for the creation of Grub.io, an innovative app designed to combat food waste at large events. The colleagues in this room know exactly what I'm talking about. Platters of fresh, delicious food, thrown right into the trash, because we didn't have a plan, so we didn't have a choice. Now we have a plan. Grub.io lets event organizers and guests share and claim leftover food in real-time, cutting the waste and getting more food to more people. It's easy to use. Register an event, get a code, and post or claim surplus food. It also tracks your environmental impact so you can make every event count--literally, pounds of food saved. Every great idea comes from something in real life. Anshu was at FIRST Robotics World Championship in Houston when he saw hundreds of teams in the competition order heaps of food with time running out on the clock. Some never got to their plates in the first place, while others only had time to eat a few bites. The result: untouched pizzas and trays went right to the trash. This wasn't the first time Anshu saw this pattern. He saw the same thing at a tailgate at the University of Oregon--Go Oregon Ducks--and realized this was a solvable problem. We don't have a lot of those, do we, colleagues? At that time, existing food-rescue apps weren't built for fast-moving, temporary events. In Oregon, where 2 billion pounds of food are wasted annually-- despite 1 in 8 residents facing food insecurity--the potential impact of reducing event waste is especially urgent. Anshu is already exploring partnerships with organizations like Urban Gleaners and Waste Not Food Taxi to strengthen connections between event leftovers and local hunger-relief networks. This year's Congressional App Challenge was the largest in the program's history, with 394 Members of Congress hosting district competitions and more than 13,800 students submitting over 4,600 original apps addressing real-world challenges. Among these, Grub.io stood out for its social impact and scalability. Anshu plans to beta- test the app at upcoming robotics competitions hosted by Team 1425 and ultimately aims to deploy it at the Robotics World Championship-- bringing it full circle. Grub.io reflects the creativity, engineering skill, and civic-minded innovation the Congressional App Challenge was designed to celebrate, and that my great state has in large supply. I am incredibly grateful for Anshu and his work. I have a hunch this is just the start of an incredible and impactful life's purpose on this beautiful earth. I thank him for making Oregon proud. ____________________”

2026-04-22 · Economy

“Ms. BYNUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of a mentor and true friend, Oregon State Senator Avel Gordly. Senator Gordly, the first Black woman to serve in the chamber, brought a presence that was regal and distinctive. Sadly, her tenure as an elected Black Oregonian was so rare that when she came to visit me on the House floor, many in the chamber thought she was a relative rather than the esteemed public servant who had dedicated and delivered so much to Oregon. I will miss her phone calls, her inspirational texts, and most of all, her high expectations of me. I include in the Record the following obituary as an esteemed account of Senator Gordly's impressive life: February 13, 1947-February 16, 2026 Avel Louise Gordly was born February 13, 1947, and was a daughter of Fay Lee Gordly and Beatrice Bernice Coleman Gordly, a sister to Fayetta (Faye) Burch and Tyrone Lee Gordly. She was the mother of one son, Tyrone Waters, whose loving care enabled Avel to live comfortably and peacefully at home during the last years of her life. She is also [[Page E211]] survived by her niece, Michelle Burch, and her great-nieces, Yasmin Woodard and Mikaela Woodard. Avel grew up in Northeast Portland, where the seeds of her activism were sown early by her mother and father, her grandmothers Alberta Randolph and Lessie Gordly, and by the women in her community. Avel was committed to building. serving, and celebrating the Beloved Community, a central tenet of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's leadership. A few weeks ago, Avel said she wanted to be remembered as a Brown Girl from Northeast Portland who believed in justice, hard work, and taking care of each other. At every stage of her remarkable life of service, Avel communicated what she believed through well-chosen words and through how she showed up for others. In the Oregon Legislature, with her students at Portland State University, in her faith community, in her many mentoring relationships and friendships, Avel conveyed what a former legislative colleague described as ``a moral clarity'' and what one mentee described as ``a warm embrace.'' After graduating from her neighborhood elementary school, Avel attended Girls Polytechnic High School. As one of the few Black students, this was her first experience of being in an environment that did not welcome her presence, actively encourage her learning, or value her intellect. She felt the contrast between the warmth and affirmation of her early years in Portland's Black community and her experience in a mostly white environment. It was during these years that Avel became aware of racism and developed ways to succeed despite ever-present barriers to achievement. Although she felt like an ``alien, in unwelcome territory'' at Girls Polytechnic High School, with her mother's help, Avel resisted being steered into vocational education classes and instead enrolled in academic and business courses. Her advocacy and preparation led to her first job after high school at Pacific Northwest Bell. Even though it was a good job with benefits, Avel was eager to work for the betterment of her community. She enrolled at Portland State University, where she was active in Black Cultural Affairs and the Black Liberation movement while earning a degree in the Administration of Justice. While at Portland State, she participated in Operation Crossroads Africa, student exchange program that brought her to Nigeria, Benin, Togo, the Ivory Coast, and Ghana. This trip to Africa was transformational, broadening her horizons as she experienced life outside of the United States in countries where she was no longer a minority. This was the beginning of her a love of African history and culture. Her reverence for Black history and culture was reflected in the art and books she collected and shared throughout her life. Returning to Oregon, Avel continued her advocacy. As a member of the Oregon Chapter of the Black United Front (BUF), she coordinated the BUF's Saturday School. Working with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Avel helped secure key anti-apartheid victories in Oregon and during the 1980s and ran programs for the Urban League and the House of Umoja to provide opportunities for youth in North and Northeast Portland. Avel's entry into political life came at the urging of those in her community and felt like an extension of work to which she was already committed. As someone who did not seek the limelight, she learned the power of well-prepared, respectful, and clear communication to change minds, hearts, and, importantly, laws. Initially appointed as a State representative in 1991, Ave was subsequently elected to serve three terms in the Oregon Legislature. As an elected official, she focused on building relationships with her colleagues on both sides of the aisle and statewide. As she gained confidence and realized the power of her voice, she modeled both courage and vulnerability in her leadership. These qualities made her a trus”

2026-03-12 · Civil Rights

“Ms. BYNUM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the impressive efforts of Kyla Guerrero, a constituent of mine from Bend, Oregon. Kyla has used her Gold Award Girl Scout project to tackle the issue of food waste, taking leftover food and repurposing it to sustain a local farm. I am truly impressed by her innovation and hard work. This creative compost system keeps our community eco-friendly and helps protect our planet for future generations. I thank and congratulate Kyla. I include in the Record this article from the Central Oregon Daily written by Jakob Salao that details Kyla's hard work: BEND, Ore.--More than one-third of all available food in the country goes to waste, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A Central Oregon Girl Scout is hoping to change that by taking that waste and using it to sustain a local farm. ``I've always had a passion for supporting environmental efforts and I feel like this was a way I could create a project that suits those passions,'' Girl Scout Kyla Guerrero said. ``And working with a local farm has been super fun.'' Guerrero is one of two local Girl Scouts working on a Gold Award Project. She's partnered with Around the Bend Farms to get youth involved and make farming a little more eco-friendly. ``We're creating this food scrap to compost system where the food scrap waste from the Bethlehem Inn kitchen gets delivered here and turned into compost which is used for the farm's agriculture,'' Guerrero said. Those food scraps contain vital nutrients for vegetables that would otherwise rot away in a landfill. ``By throwing those nutrients into a compost pile and into that kind of system, we can re-collect the nutrients and re-integrate it into our soil to rebuild that cycle,'' Urban Farm Manager Josh Lesko said. ``Then, our plants are just re-feeding themselves and feeding us more in the future.'' The compost system also helps keep the farm eco-friendly. ``We're lowering the amount of costs we're putting in,'' Lesko said. ``We're lowering the amount of transportation for things we need to pick up. We're letting the natural cycle do its thing and kind of working alongside it.'' But for Guerrero, it's starting to plant the seeds for the next generation. ``It's a great opportunity to have high school students come out and share this with their friends and be like `oh there's a farm here and we can all help together.' I really like that aspect of it,'' Guerrero said. ____________________”

2025-09-11 · Climate