Big news for Tigard–and my new role
Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin at 03/21/2024 06:36 PM PDT
Dear friends and neighbors,
First, a quick announcement: I hope you can join me Saturday, April 13th at 10 am for a Town Hall with my colleague from HD 26, Rep. Courtney Neron. We’ll talk about the work we did during the 2024 session and the work we’re planning moving forward. I would love to hear your thoughts on the session and your priorities for 2025. Come with any questions, comments, or ideas!
After a fast-paced and highly productive short session, I am back in House District 25. That means I am spending a lot more time in Symposium Coffee and other spots around Tigard and Beaverton. I won’t attempt to speak to the 115 bills we passed but I’ll cover some highlights.
Meanwhile here is an infographic with some data on the trends of this session.
Housing Wins for Tigard!
Housing is one of the top issues on the minds of most Oregonians–specifically, the lack of supply and the high cost. Two of the largest investments we passed this session, SB 1530 and SB 1537, were directed specifically to address this challenge! You may remember that last session, one key housing bill died on the last day. This time, with lots of work and collaboration by the Governor’s Office, it sailed through the legislature.
I am incredibly proud that Tigard is one of Oregon’s leading cities on affordable housing and has taken meaningful steps to partner with developers and organizations to fund affordable housing developments. One of the biggest challenges all new housing projects face, including locally, is updating infrastructure to make build-ready sites. This was the case for the 63-unit affordable housing development in Tigard, Woodland Hearth. Thanks to our partnership with the city of Tigard and their advocacy in the legislature, we secured $1.5 million specifically to be used for sewer and stormwater infrastructure costs at this site, overseen by Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH).
Longtime City of Tigard partner, CPAH, was able to continue construction of Woodland Hearth thanks to SB1530’s bold housing investments.
In the same housing package, Washington County received $1.5 million in housing-related support, too. Nonprofit organization Bridges to Change received this investment for down payment assistance and operational support specifically for folks living and struggling with housing insecurity in our county. With prices for housing increasing nationwide, we must tackle the high barriers to homeownership.
I want to thank Washington County and the City of Tigard for their continued advocacy in providing the housing that our residents need! I was proud to work with them to secure this funding and I am looking forward to seeing these projects come to fruition.
Oregon Drug Intervention Plan (ODIP)
Another top priority for the legislature this session was taking substantive steps to solve our drug and addiction crisis. Last fall, the Joint Committee on Addiction and Community Safety Response was formed and tasked with addressing this crisis head-on. Their efforts resulted in two bills: HB 4002 and its fiscal companion bill, HB 5204. You can read more about these two bills here.
These two bills in tandem invested hundreds of millions in Oregon’s behavioral health system. I was particularly glad to see $8.9 million invested towards Washington County’s new Center for Addictions Triage and Treatment (CATT). CATT will expand to provide critical services to community members struggling with addiction, including sobering centers, residential and outpatient treatment, and crisis services. These services are vital to the safety and health of our community in Washington County. I toured the CATT last fall and am very excited for it to be fully open and operational.
Additionally, Washington County is receiving $20.7 million to participate in an addiction Deflection Program. In short, the Deflection Program prioritizes treatment for individuals suffering from addiction by providing accessible routes to participate in treatment services, instead of receiving criminal penalties. Diversion programs tend to take place further into the criminal justice process, usually after arrest and before a final verdict is reached. Deflection, instead, generally occurs before or during arrest and tends to result in a clearing of charges and an expungement of any criminal record. I am very glad to see Washington County working hard to address this crisis and sustain a treatment-first approach to this widespread public health and safety crisis.
The bill was personal for me. Addiction has had a devastating impact on my family–causing irreparable harm not just to my family member, but to the rest of the family, too. What I found is that whenever I would share my personal story with a colleague, constituent, or advocate – they would have a similar story. It’s a sad reflection of how pervasive the drug crisis is, but it underscores how important it is for us to continue to take meaningful action.
The passage of this legislation is just one step–but it is a critically important one. It will continue to fill some of the gaps in Oregon’s behavioral health system that have been underfunded for decades. My colleagues and I will be carefully monitoring how the new system in HB4002 is rolled out; large policy shifts often require fine-tuning and adjustment.
Campaign Finance Reform
There were a few surprises in the short session, but the biggest surprise was probably the passage of a historic change in our campaign finance laws in Oregon–passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis. HB 4024 limits statewide campaign contributions to $3300 (currently, Oregon has no limits at all) and institutes other reforms to our campaign finance law. Learn more here!
Other 2024 Session Accomplishments!
There were many other legislative priorities passed, including those relating to education, healthcare, and the arts. Here are some more highlights! In 35 short days, the Oregon legislature passed bills to…
- Restructure Oregon’s homecare system to an “Agency with Choice” model. This change helps meet the needs of Oregon’s seniors, people with disabilities, and their caretakers. The Homecare Modernization Act, a bill that I sponsored, provides administrative support to dedicated, overworked, and underpaid in-home caretakers.
- Invest in students during the summer months. We passed a bill to invest $30 million toward Summer Learning across 197 school districts statewide. We also secured $12.2 million for the Summer EBT program for families experiencing food insecurity during the long summer months without meals at school.
- Protect student safety on school buses. HB 4147 allows school districts to put cameras on school buses, giving citations to people who put children’s lives at risk by overtaking school buses on their route.
- Protect your right to repair your electronic device. SB 1596 requires electronic manufacturers to make tools, parts, and manuals available to consumers and third-party repair shops. Senator Sollman championed this important bill.
What about that corporate practice of medicine bill?: Looking Towards 2025.
If you have been following along the past few months, you may remember one of my top priorities: House Bill 4130. The bill passed the House of Representatives with a strong bipartisan majority. But disappointingly, it did not advance to a formal vote in the Senate. Why?
The answer is complicated and has to do with politics, procedural setbacks, and stalling mechanisms. Opponents of HB 4130 kept the bill “stuck” at certain legislative checkpoints–and in the context of the compressed 35-day session, the clock simply ran out. A disappointing conclusion, no doubt about it.
But, I feel energized by the widespread support from Oregon’s medical community and Oregonians from all across the state. We are in the midst of an unprecedented and accelerating surge in private investor takeovers of healthcare providers, driven largely by private equity firms and multi-billion dollar corporations, and I believe the voices of physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals were loud and clear that this is unacceptable. 90% of the over 400 pieces of written testimony submitted were supportive–and I heard consistently from national experts about the importance of our legislation.
I am grateful for the bipartisan support for this bill. My colleague on a Healthcare Committee, Rep. Cyrus Javadi eloquently spoke from his professional experience as a dentist in Tillamook, saying: “As a medical provider and a business owner, I understand the important balance that independent practices have to strike between making enough money to run their businesses and providing patients with the best care possible. This bill continues Oregon’s tradition of local control in health care, with medical decisions made by licensed providers and patients.”
Presenting HB 4130 to my colleagues on the House floor. HB 4130 was also featured on OPB Think Out Loud– listen here!
What does this mean going forward? I will bring the bill back in the 2025 session! In the meantime, I will be continuing conversations during the interim to refine and improve the concept. I still firmly believe that no private equity firm or multi-billion dollar corporation should get between patients and their doctors.
Lastly, I am writing to you with some other news! Yesterday night, I was voted in by my colleagues in the Democratic caucus as the new Majority Leader for the House of Representatives. I feel honored to be chosen by my colleagues for this job. But, in case you think this is a fancy gig, rest assured it’s not. Here’s how Dirk Vanderhart of OPB described it in his story about my election: “Despite the lofty title, the role of majority leader is sometimes seen as more of a burden than a prize. It comes with no additional pay, but lots of extra work.” That line made me laugh–but it is true! Still, it’s a real honor to be chosen.
And while I’m excited to launch into this new job, I also want you to know that, first and foremost, I am a representative for House District 25. All of the constituent work, local meetings and coffees, and partnerships with local leaders and organizations will continue just as before. Please continue to write with your ideas, feedback, and concerns.
I hope to see you all on April 13th at Tigard High School.
One final note: we are now entering the “legislative blackout period” as we approach the primary election–so you won’t be hearing from me in this newsletter for a couple months. Until then, I hope to see you around.
Thanks for reading,
Ben Bowman
Oregon State Representative
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