Morrisette served two terms in the Oregon House and has been a member of the Senate since 2002. Morrisette currently serves as chair of the Senate Human Services & Rural Health Policy Committee and also serves on the Senate Health Care and Veterans’ Affairs Committee. He has served on Education Committees in both the House and Senate and sponsored numerous education improvement bills.

Morrisette has sponsored bills and a ballot measure that created and expanded the Oregon Prescription Drug Program, which allows all Oregonians discounts on their prescribed medications. He was the chief sponsor for three sessions of a bill that ultimately passed in the 2007 session to require schools to phase out sales of junk food.

Morrisette was one of the leaders in a successful effort to establish health education standards for Oregon and is sponsoring a current bill to foster further study of the impact of physical activity on student learning. In 1999, he introduced the first bill to improve accountability of state agencies by requiring them to meet performance measures.

A supporter of many bills to improve the lot of working men and women, he is the chief sponsor of a bill in the 2009 session to provide more home care workers with basic state wage and health insurance coverage. He is also the chief sponsor of a bill to create a state prescription drug monitoring program aimed at reducing “doctor shopping” by those obtaining addictive drugs to resell on the black market.

In 2005, Morrisette was one of three Oregon citizens and the only legislator to be named a School Health Champion by the Healthy Kids Learn Better Coalition.

Morrisette received many other awards and honors. Among them: 1992 Lane County Elected Official of the Year, 1994 Oregon Mayor of the Year, and 1997 Springfield Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Citizen of the Year.

Among his many years of public service, Bill Morrisette is the former mayor of Springfield (1989-1999). He is a long-term resident of Springfield and taught Social Studies at Springfield High School for 28 years until retiring in 1990. In addition to being mayor, Morrisette has served on the Springfield City Council and the Lane County Council of Governments. He has also sat on the Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority, the Metropolitan Waste Water Commission and the Metropolitan Policy Committee.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science from Carroll College in Helena, Montana and a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Oregon.

Morrisette and his wife, Janice, have eight children, 14 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.