This session I am serving on three committees: Agriculture Land Use and Water, Sub-Ways and Means Transportation and Economic Development, and as Co-Vice Chair of the Human Services committee.
The following are highlights of those committees last week. .
Agriculture, Land Use, and Water:
HB 4128 - Zoonotic diseases. It was moved out of committee and to the floor where it passed and is on its way to the Senate. It establishes a process for identifying and addressing zoonotic diseases. I was a courtesy yes out of committee to move it to the floor, but I was a no vote on the floor. I am not a fan of OHA having jurisdiction over Agriculture issues no matter what the reason.
HB 4061 – Cannabis/water theft. This bill is still being carefully worked in committee to address illegal water hauling to illegal cannabis grows while protecting those that legally haul water for other uses.
HB 4062 – Pesticide applicator. It is still being worked in committee and is in the process of being amended to create a new category of pesticide applicators rather than relinquish legislative authority to ODA allowing them to do it through rule making.
Human Services:
HB 4012 – Child welfare service provider rate structure. This requires the Department of Human Services to review child welfare service provider rates across the state and report back to the Legislature by 2/28/23.
HB 4088 – Restaurants taking SNAP. The bill establishes a workgroup that will determine guidelines and processes for restaurants to accept SNAP benefits. There are 6 other states across the US that already do this. I requested an amendment to the bill to make sure that restaurants were represented in the workgroup and to make sure the program remains an “opt in” not a mandatory program for all restaurants.
HB 4122 – Program for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). I was a NO in committee on this bill. The bill gives every DACA eligible individual in Oregon, approximately 9,700, a one-time check of $495 and up to an additional $200 to help them renew their DACA paperwork. The bill sponsor stated it was because DACA holders had been disproportionally affected by COVID 19 and many lost their jobs. However, there was no statement of need required to get the money, so it was just a handout of $7M of Federal ARPA money to DACA individuals.
HB4079 – Sales Tax on luxury items. Our office received hundreds of emails on this bill. It would have placed a 3% tax on cars, boats, RV’s, guns, purses, clothing, etc. that were above certain dollar amounts and the revenue would go to $750 a month checks to those in poverty. I picked this bill apart, and the morning it was to receive a hearing I met with the staff of the only sponsor of the bill, Rep. Witt, to discuss the unconstitutionality of taxing motor vehicles for anything other than the road tax as well as the welfare program that he intended to create. I informed them that if the bill was heard in committee there would be some major question I would bring to the public hearing about the bill. Before committee started the bill was removed from the agenda and is now dead.
Sub-ways and Means Transportation and Economic Development:
Until current session bills are assigned by the full Ways and Means to this committee, it only hears agency reports and some grant application approvals.
Department of Consumer and Business Services Grant - Pandemic Response – I was a NO vote on this request. It was for a $2M Federal match grant that would allow BOLI to play a shell game with COVID enforcement costs. I will not support any more COVID enforcement on businesses in this state.
Department of Transportation (ODOT) - Federal Grant Application for Congestion Management Technical innovation. I was also a NO on this request. It is intended to finance expanded tracking on vehicle use of roadways to allow for more data collection. However, ODOT could not guarantee that the data would not be used down the road for congestion pricing or highway tolling.
House floor Remonstrance:
On Friday I gave a remonstrance at the end of floor session for the day. A remonstrance is time set aside during floor session for members to express concern or disagreement with things happening. No topic is off limits. I wanted to address the Governor’s March 31st mask mandate expiration and its application to State employees and their public health records. It appears by a Department of Administrative Services (DAS) memo sent to all executive branch State employees that after March 31st, if they are on the exception list (unvaccinated), they will need to continue to wear a mask. In other words, they need to self-identify their private medical information. This is completely unacceptable. To watch the video of my speech, Press Here.
Coming up in week 3:
February 14 is the deadline for all work sessions to be completed on bills in the chamber where they started or they die (with a few exceptions). Ironically it is also the State’s Birthday! I can’t think of a better gift to give the State than to kill a few more bad bills.
It will then be time for the House to begin hearing Senate bills as the clock ticks down to March 7th.
As always, please contact my office if you have any concerns or questions on bills, need to know how to submit testimony or sign up to testify, or if you would just would like to come to the Capitol and say hi. I’m there every day working for you and I would love to have you stop by the office.
