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Dear friends,
On Sunday, June 25, the 2023 Legislative Session adjourned sine die. Despite another Senate Republican walkout that lasted 42 days, we concluded a successful session that saw a number of policy and budgetary achievements to improve the lives of Oregonians. Democrats prioritized legislation addressing homelessness and building affordable housing; making Oregon communities safer; growing family-wage jobs and reducing the cost of living; ensuring access to health care; supporting a sustainable environment and wildfire prevention; investing in Oregon's students and schools; and promoting good government. Highlights of these accomplishments are below in this newsletter. Future editions will feature –– by topic area –– more detailed summaries of key legislation that passed.
Click here for a listing of Lane County Fourth of July community events. With hot and dry weather in the forecast, please exercise care to prevent wildfires by avoiding use of open flames, fireworks and driving in grass.
Finally, "save the date" for a Eugene-area legislative delegation town hall on the weekend of Saturday, August 12, when my colleagues and I will discussion the 2023 session. I'll send notice with details once arrangements are finalized, but it will either be Saturday or Sunday.
Below you will find information on:
- DMV Data Breach: The Latest from ODOT
- Session Accomplishment Highlights
- ODOT Wildfire Cleanup and Recovery
- Habitat for Humanity of Central Lane Opening Homeownership Applications
- Springfield's Rainbow Water Receives Safe Drinking Water Grant
I hope this information is helpful and informative for you or someone you know. As always, feel free to share your comments, questions or concerns with me by phone, mail or e-mail. Have a safe and happy Fourth!
DMV Data Breach: The Latest from ODOT
As part of a global technology hack that affected many organizations across the world who use the MOVEit transfer software tool, Oregon's DMV was victim of a malicious attack that enabled unauthorized access to files transferred between DMV and other partner agencies. This hack affected more than 2,000 organizations worldwide and included nearly 3,000 ODOT files. DMV reported that during the broad-based attack, some of its data was copied and taken while DMV was sending it through that software.
Individuals who have an active credential (license, permit, ID card) should assume information related to that credential is part of the breach. DMV took steps to secure its servers and prepare to notify folks who have been affected. They advise Oregonians to:
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Regularly check your credit and consider freezing your credit
- You are entitled to a free copy of each of your three credit reports, one each maintained by the national credit bureaus each year, available from: www.AnnualCreditReport.com.
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To freeze your credit, contact the three major credit monitoring agencies:
- Equifax — equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services or 1-800-685-1111
- Experian — experian.com/help or 1-888-397-3742
- TransUnion — transunion.com/credit-help or 1-888-909-8872
- Additional questions can be directed to AskODOT@odot.oregon.gov.
DMV set up this webpage for the breach. The agency has also established a call center/customer hotline: 503-945-5000. Staff are ready and standing by to help Oregonians better understand what happened and how they can best protect themselves/their identities.
Oregonians can also call the DOJ Consumer Protection hotline at 877-877-9392 if they suspect fraud.
Session Accomplishment Highlights
Here's a rundown of key policy and/or funding packages and important bills from the 2023 session:
Homelessness & Housing
- Building more shelters and housing in every part of Oregon; Funding for local
governments to clean up public spaces (HB 2001)
- Converting commercial buildings to residential housing inside the UGB (HB 2984)
- Protecting renters from out-of-control inflation (SB 611)
Community Safety & Justice
- Establishes grant program to crack down on organized retail theft (SB 900)
- Increases penalties for possession of Fentanyl (HB 2645)
- Regulates unserialized ghost guns (HB 2005)
- Restructures the state’s public defense to uphold Oregonians' constitutional rights (SB 337)
Jobs/Cost of Living
- Oregon CHIPS Act to take advantage of Oregon's once-in-a-generation opportunity to create family-wage jobs and grow the semiconductor economy (SB 4)
- Semiconductor research and development tax incentives (HB 2009)
- Interstate 5 Bridge Replacement Project (HB 5005)
- Expanding access to rural broadband (HB 3201)
Health Care & Reproductive Rights
- Reproductive health rights and access and gender-affirming care coverage (HB 2002)
- Improving M110 behavioral health services (HB 2513)
- Centralizing 9-8-8 hotline for behavioral health crisis intervention (HB 3426)
- Reducing prescription drug prices (SB 192)
- Establishing nurse-to-patient staffing ratios to improve quality of care and reduce nurse burnout (HB 2697)
Environment & Wildfires
- Natural climate solutions to reduce carbon, grow the green economy, upgrade resilience-efficient buildings, and make other climate investments (HB 3409)
- Municipal waste incineration air emission monitoring (SB 488)
- Polystyrene ban (SB 543)
- Department of State Fire Marshal wildfire community engagement and state wildfire hazard map (SB 80)
- Wildfire related protections for homeowner insurance (SB 82)
Education
- Historic $10.2 billion investment in the State School fund, $15.3 billion total in funding for Oregon schools (HB 5015)
- Joining the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact to address educator workforce shortage (SB 279)
- Educator retention and training funding and initiatives (SB 283)
- Investing in early childhood literacy (HB 3198)
- Enforcing students with disabilities' right to full-time education (SB 819)
Government Accountability & Transparency
- Ensuring secure ballot handling (SB 53)
- Protecting free and fair elections (SB 166)
- Strengthening public meeting laws (HB 2805)
ODOT Wildfire Cleanup and Recovery
Earlier this week, ODOT provided me an update on their work to clean up after the 2020 wildfires. ODOT, the Department of Environmental Quality, and the Oregon Emergency Management agency have led the effort as a collective "Oregon Wildfire Debris Management Task force." ODOT had led the contracting efforts and managed the crews performing the cleanup work. Since October 2020, they've removed 300,000 pounds of household hazardous waste and materials from impacted sites and removed ash and debris from nearly 3,000 home and business sites. The state covered all upfront costs of debris removal cleanup to help Oregonians get back into their homes as quickly as possible – a nearly $360 million cost.
ODOT is now seeking reimbursement through FEMA's Public Assistance Program. However, FEMA will only reimburse the State after property insurance information has been verified and it has been determined there has not been a duplication of benefits. A duplication of benefits occurs when insurance funds for debris cleanup were available and/or distributed to property owners who participated in the no-cost state-led cleanup program. When they originally signed up to participate in the state's debris removal program, property owners were notified that this verification process would occur.
As ODOT works to meet FEMA's compliance requirements to enable maximum federal reimbursement, they will be contacting property owners and their insurance companies to determine whether any insurance proceeds need to be collected by the state. This process will begin this month for the 1,300 impacted property owners.
For more information on this coordinated efforts, click here: https://wildfire.oregon.gov/cleanup.
Habitat for Humanity of Central Lane Opening Homeownership Applications
Habitat for Humanity of Central Lane (HFHCL) will be opening applications for homeownership from Monday, July 17, to Friday, August 25, for homes in Fischer Village in Springfield. (The Application for Homeownership will not be available until July 17). These applications will be for a two-story, two-bedroom, one-bath home in the Fischer Village development.
The time before July 17 is intended as "pre-planning" to gather information needed to apply and collect documents needed for submission with the application. Applicants selected will spend 9-15 months in the HFHCL program before qualifying for a low interest mortgage that is no more than 30 percent of gross income.
Please visit https://habitatlane.org/new-home/ to find out more about qualifications and https://habitatlane.org/new-home/process/ for more about the application process. When applications open on July 17, there will also be a link to download the application.
Springfield's Rainbow Water Receives Safe Drinking Water Grant
Congratulations to the Rainbow Water District on being selected for a state Safe Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund grant in the amount of $19,500 for its Treatment Feasibility Study.
The study will include the following:
- Review available water quality data and identify critical data needs;
- Assess the level of PFAS in groundwater sources and compare to levels in area surface waters;
- Identify current and potential PFAS removal goals;
- Review Springfield Utility Board's previous pilot testing work and reports and consider useful application to Rainbow Water District's sources;
- Evaluate the feasibility of various PFAS treatment technologies for Rainbow Water District's source water quality and available space;
- Estimate full-scale design parameters; and
- Estimate full-scale capital, operations and maintenance costs of the selected treatment(s).
Congratulations on the successful application!
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