Sine die! -- The Session has concluded

Dear Neighbor,

The 2024 Legislative Session has concluded, with Speaker Rayfield gaveling out his final session as Speaker on Thursday March 7^th, 2024. This was my first Short Session, and my second session as your State Representative for House District 45.

I want to extend my sincere gratitude to everyone who engaged in the process this session. To my constituents who wrote in, called in, and stopped by the office to share their thoughts on the issues and legislation important to you, thank you.

During this Session, in addition to meeting with advocates and stakeholders to serve you, I proudly served on the following committees:

• Joint Committee On Conduct
• House Committee On Behavioral Health and Health Care
• House Committee On Judiciary
• House Committee On Emergency Management, General Government, and Veterans - Vice-Chair
• House Committee On Conduct

I am also proud to serve as the Co-Chair of the Veterans’ Caucus alongside Senator Mark Meek.

Every first Friday of the month, my office hosts a Power to the People constituent gathering at my in-district office. I would love to see you for our April gathering on Friday, 4/5 @5:30pm at my district office: 4526 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR 97213. We invite you to share your concerns and policy ideas alongside friendly neighbors.

Looking ahead, we also have our Power to the People events for May 3rd and June 7th at 5:30pm, please add these events to your calendar now! Due to regulations, we will be unable to send an email reminding people about this event for May, and this will be our last newsletter until May.

Priority Bills This Session

This session, I moved two priority bills through the legislative process. Unfortunately, neither piece of legislation made it through to law. Given the fast pace of the 33 day short session, it is common for complex bills to die. Often, bills require more than one session to be worked before they pass.

HB 4096, Firearm Holding and Suicide Prevention would have enabled people having suicidal ideations to create time and distance between themselves and their firearm(s) by providing a place they can be temporarily stored. I’m not giving up on saving lives, and look forward to working with stakeholders to reintroduce this life-saving piece of legislation in the 2025 session.

HB 4097, Expungement Reform would have closed loopholes and inefficiencies for criminal justice impacted people trying to clear their criminal record. We worked with a strong team of advocates, including the Clean Slate Coalition, to fix the court system and give people a pathway to housing, employment education, and more. Unfortunately, this bill did not move forward this session.

While I am disappointed by this outcome, I am ready continue this work with stakeholders to reintroduce this important piece of life-changing legislation in the 2025 Session. To everyone who emailed, called, testified, submitted written testimony, and helped advocate for this bill, thank you so much for your support.

2024 Session Recap

In all, we made great progress this legislative session. I am particularly proud of HB 4083, “the COAL act”, which I was a co-Chief Sponsor on with Representative Khanh Pham. This piece of legislation safeguards the Economic and Environmental future of Oregon by requiring divestment from coal companies and funds containing coal companies, and I was excited to see it pass both chambers.

I was also happy to see the passage of SB 1596, the Right to Repair bill. As a co-Sponsor of the bill, I am excited by what it represents for small repair businesses and consumers in Oregon. I am also excited by the potential for reducing e-waste leading to better environmental outcomes for our state.

Last week, I also voted in support of HB 4002 and its associated funding bill, HB 5204. The Oregon Drug Intervention Plan will give providers and law enforcement the tools they need to keep people safe and save lives. We will also be investing more than $200 million in urgently expanding treatment, prevention, and strengthening the connection between law enforcement and treatment to get people more efficiently from crisis to stability.

The Oregon Drug Intervention Plan will: 

1. Urgently expand drug treatment to save lives, reduce drug overdoses, and get more Oregonians into recovery.
   1. Investing in shovel ready projects and building out the behavioral health workforce.
2. Prioritize prevention and education Stopping kids from experimenting with hard drugs and making sure they have the resources and knowledge they need to stay safe and healthy. This means more prevention education.
   1. Direct investments in prevention programs, including public awareness campaigns and recidivism prevention.
3. Intervene on drug use, providing first responders with the tools to confiscate drugs, stop public drug use, and get people into treatment with accountability. 
   1. DEFLECTION: Deflection programs are when law enforcement and behavioral health providers combine forces. Deflection could consist of a peer support specialist calling a detox center and arranging for them to pick up an individual that law enforcement initially intervened with. Deflection could also be a crisis response team (ex: CAHOOTS in Eugene) arriving on-scene and providing an individual with medically assisted treatment (MAT).
   2. The “deflection” step will be different for every county, allowing different areas around the state to meet the unique needs of their communities.
4. Stop drug dealers profiting off the addiction of others, enhancing sentences for dealers who target people living in shelters, people living with addiction, and people in parks.

The Emergency Housing Stability and Production Package: 

Every Oregonian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. That’s why in 2024, House Democrats are taking action to address the homelessness and affordable housing crises by passing The Emergency Housing Stability and Production Package. This package (Senate Bill 1530 and Senate Bill 1537) addresses Oregon’s immediate housing and homelessness needs by funding homeless shelters to get people off the streets and into shelter, supporting renters, and boosting housing production and infrastructure.

This package leverages our limited state resources to make significant investments in our major homelessness relief and affordable housing goals. Funding highlights include: 

• $100 million in direct allocations for shovel-ready projects within the existing Urban Growth Boundary to invest in infrastructure and build more housing 
• $65 million for ongoing homeless shelter support 
• $40 million to Oregon Housing and Community Services for rental assistance, with a set aside for culturally specific organizations
• $18 million for Recovery Housing to house people recovering from drug addiction
• $10 million for land acquisition to convert buildings into affordable housing
• $3.5 million for air conditions and air filters provided on an emergency basis to at-risk individuals
• $4 million to the Residential Heat Pump Fund so Oregonians can warm and cool their homes
• $7.5 million to Healthy Homes, to support home repairs and improvements to lower energy usage and make homes safer.

This legislative session, I Chief Sponsored or Sponsored 18 bills:

I hope to see you at one of our upcoming constituent events, and please reach out to my office any time!

In solidarity,

Representative Thuy Tran
House District 45

Capitol Phone: 503-986-1445
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-285, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Rep.ThuyTran@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/tran​