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To contact me, please click here: Rep.EmersonLevy@oregonlegislature.gov
Hello Friends,
This week marks the final week of the 2024 Legislative Session. Today, in exciting news, my Co-Pay Fairness Bill passed the Senate unanimously. This bill is now on its way to Governor Kotek’s desk!
Earlier today I had the opportunity to talk to KTVZ about passing Trenton’s Law, which is also on its way to Governor Kotek’s desk. You can catch the story on the evening news.
It’s been a big week: we passed reforms to Measure 110 (the ballot measure that decriminalized drugs in 2020) through the Oregon Drug Intervention Plan (ODIP) and passed a Housing and Homelessness Package to continue our work getting affordable housing within reach of all Oregonians. Read more below about exciting legislation that has passed this week!
Through the ODIP, we are bringing home $1.5 million dollars for our Deschutes County Stabilization Center. While this is a treatment-first plan, we are giving law enforcement the tools they need to help people get into treatment if they choose. A big thanks to our District Attorney, Steve Gunnels, Bend Police Chief, Mike Krantz, and Rep. Kropf for working on these important reforms. We all deserve to feel safe and there should be easy paths to recovery for those experiencing substance addiction.
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The Housing Package (read a deep dive down below) focuses on increasing the supply of homes. As we all know, we are short on the supply of homes we need in Deschutes County. In order to keep home costs down for middle-income families, we made several investments in infrastructure, including bringing more than $2 million dollars to Redmond.
Lastly, we passed funding for Summer Learning! There is now $30 million dollars allocated to fund summer learning programs this summer, and this lays the groundwork for continuing to invest in our students year-round.
Most of this week will be spent voting on the House Floor. The legislature has until March 10th to complete the 2024 Legislative Session.
As always, it’s an honor to be your representative in Salem. I am so proud of the good work we’ve achieved this week, and I’m looking forward to a strong finish.
Warmly,
 Representative Emerson Levy
House District 53
Prescription Cost-Share Fairness Passes Senate Healthcare
Today, Representative Levy’s Co-Pay Fairness bill (HB 4113), passed in the Oregon Senate unanimously after passing in the House unanimously last week. (Look below at all the green, yes votes in the Senate! Rep. Levy introduced this concept to address healthcare affordability and lower everyday costs.
In Oregon, some patients must either pay out of pocket for prescription drugs or stop taking them altogether because, under some commercial insurance plans, insurance companies aren't required to accept financial assistance toward an enrollee’s annual deductible. Discontinuation of medication can lead to irreversible or life-threatening health consequences for chronic disease patients.
Levy’s legislation, HB 4113 requires insurers to accept third-party financial assistance toward an enrollee's annual deductible to pay for life-saving medicines. A special shoutout to Madonna McGuire Smith with PNW Bleeding Disorders, Jonathan Frochtzwajg with Cascade AIDS Project, and Meghan Moyer with Disability Rights Oregon for their support and many years dedicated to advocacy.
Oregon is the 20th state to pass similar legislation. The bill is now on its way to the Governor's desk.
Passing Trenton’s Law
On Monday, HB 4103, known as Trenton’s Law in memory of Trenton Burger of Bend, passed the Senate and is now on its way to the Governor’s desk. Following the tragic accident last summer in which Trenton lost his life, Central Oregon community stakeholders came together to brainstorm ways to make our road safer in light of a surge in the use of e-bikes. Following the lead of Trenton’s parents, Bend leaders have undertaken a community education and awareness campaign, particularly targeted at school-aged youth, and have contracted a consultant to identify potential changes to city infrastructure to improve safety for families. Representative Levy, for her part, introduced Trenton’s Law to update the definitions of electric-assisted bicycles in the Oregon Vehicle Code - a section of the code that hadn’t been looked at since 1997.
The bill brings Oregon law in line with federal regulations by creating 3 classes of e-bikes based on features, capabilities, and modifiability. Updating these definitions to the standards set in federal law is just the first of many steps in strengthening Oregon road safety and addressing youth ridership.
Housing Package Targets Workforce Housing and Homelessness Relief
The Legislature identified housing and homelessness relief as a top priority for the 2024 Legislative Session and this week we delivered. Continuing to demonstrate our commitment to affordable housing for all Oregonians, the Legislature passed the Housing Stability and Production Package (SB 1530 and SB 1537) with bipartisan support. The funding and policy package uses innovation and out-of-the-box thinking to address some of the most significant gaps in Oregon’s housing landscape including funding and building homeless shelters, creating opportunities for workforce housing, and leveraging limited state investment to give localities the tools they need to fund infrastructure and development projects.
Among the funding for shelter programs included in the package is Project Turnkey, the program that funded the extensive renovations that transformed the Rainbow Hotel in Bend and the Greenway Hotel in Redmond into shelters. This program can continue to reclaim existing underutilized buildings in service to houseless communities around the state.
Even people with good, working class jobs like teachers, mill workers, and nurses are feeling the pinch of the housing crisis. Often, new developments don’t target these folks and their families because workers making 80-120% of the median wage still can’t make enough to pay what a developer would have to charge for homes to cover their land and development costs. The Revolving Loan Fund is an innovative way the legislature will help break down these barriers to quality, affordable housing for those who provide such critical services to our communities. The state will seed the Fund with $75 million, which local jurisdictions can borrow from to make grants for workforce housing developments. The city will repay the loan to the state using the property tax amount from the new development and the repaid loan funds will, in turn, be reinvested in future projects in new localities. In this way, the seed funds invested today will create a sustainable source of support for workforce housing into the future
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Among the creative uses of state funding and policy to help more Oregonians stay in their homes, and improve the quality of those homes, the Healthy Homes Program aims to increase home efficiency and reduce utility costs. The Program supports home repairs and improvements, including mold and lead mitigation, ensuring homeowners have access to the tools and materials they need to repair, weatherize, and modernize their homes. These improvements will lower utility bills and increase health and quality of life in Oregon homes. This is a common-sense way the Legislature can help meet the needs Oregon families have now, to remain housed and healthy.
Restoring Competition to Consumer Electronics and Appliance Repair Market
This week, the Legislature passed HB 1596, Oregon’s Right to Repair Act, a commonsense bill that will make a difference to many Central Oregon families. Corporations often make it difficult or impossible to repair our own phones, computers, and appliances by restricting the distribution of detailed manuals and the sale of replacement parts to only those shops and specialists they choose. Some require consumers to bring their phones or computers into branded repair shops, or hire specific professionals - even when there is only one in the area with no price competition.
 These restrictions have created a longstanding expectation that the costs of replacement parts and repairs are many times over what a consumer or a third-party repair shop might spend to repair the same product, but we have long felt we have had no choice. This is even more clearly the case in rural areas like ours with fewer options and longer wait times for authorized professional repair services, pricey shipping costs, and long distances that broken appliances, devices, or parts must travel to be returned or repaired.
Oregon’s Right to Repair Act aims to reduce these restrictions and restore competition in the repair market, lowering costs. People with the skills and knowledge to extend the lifespans of their consumer electronic equipment will be able to access the manuals, parts, and other items they need to do so. The Act will have positive environmental benefits as well, as lengthening the lifespan of consumer electronics, made possible by more accessible and less expensive repairs, will reduce manufacturing pollution and e-waste.
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1453
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-486, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Rep.EmersonLevy@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/levye
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