Senator Jeff Kruse - June 28th, 2013

 

Senator Jeff Kruse
R-Roseburg, District 1

Phone: 503-986-1701    900 Court St. NE, S-211 Salem Oregon 97301
Email: sen.jeffkruse@state.or.us     Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/kruse
E-Newsletter                 

 Working Hard For You

 

 

June 28, 2013

 

 

Today was the original target date for the end of this Session.  The new target date is July 3rd.  Several things need to happen for us to achieve this goal.  The first two happened Wednesday with the passage in the Senate of the K-12 budget and the hospital tax.  Today in the full Ways and Means Committee the last of the major budgets will be passed, leaving basically just the bonding package and the infamous Christmas tree bill, which I am assuming will pass out tomorrow.  I would point out that no one outside of the leaders of both chambers knows what is in either bill at this time.

 

The Senate will be in Session tomorrow, not because our agenda is that full, but because we need to have a “legislative day” to advance the calendar.  By rule, a bill is “first read” when it arrives at the desk of either the Senate President or the Speaker of the House.  From there it is assigned to a committee.  When the committee has finished with the bill it goes back to the presiding officer and will then be “second read” on the floor.  If things happen normally the bill would them be “third read” the next day and come up for a vote.  The reason for this time line and process is to give legislators a sufficient amount of time to review the bills before we vote on them.

 

The only other major issues still unresolved are what is now being called “The Grand Bargain”.  What this includes is a tax increase bill and a further PERS reform bill.  At one point this might have been called the bi-partisan plan, but the Senate Democrats basically rejected all of our suggestions.  It is called the grand plan because both bills have been written by the Senate Democrats.  The bills were heard in the Senate Revenue Committee yesterday, but did not move.  I expect additional hearings on these bills later today, but have no idea what additional amendments will be offered or what action will be taken.

 

As of right now many things are kind of up in the air.  As we will be here tomorrow I will give you a further update at that time.

 

Sincerely,

 

Senator Jeff Kruse

  

 

 

 

 

 

If you are interested in reading my past newsletters please click on my webpage link below:

 

http://www.leg.state.or.us/kruse/

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