Engage with the Oregon Legislature

Your Action of the Week is to
"Engage with the Oregon Legislature!"



The Oregon legislature is in full swing. You can be engaged with the process by attending committee meetings, and commenting on specific pieces of legislation.
Here is how to get started!
A good starting point is with the Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS).  OLIS is a data base with bills and their current status and committee hearing information.  Go to the OLIS system:   https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2019R1   
You see four icons on the right upper portion of this page:  Session, Bills, Committees, and More.  We encourage you to click and explore on each of these, but right now we will look at the "Bills" icon.  
Clicking Bills gives us three tabs - Bill Number, Bill Text, and Bill Sponsor. The Bill Text tab allows you to enter a Bill Number and find it.  You can also click on Senate Bills or House Bills to get a full list of all bills in either of those chambers.  You can hover over any of the bill numbers to view a very short summary of the bill.  Clicking on any bill number will take you to the bill page with links there to the bill text, sponsors, committee assigned to and lots more.  
Note that if you already have a specific bill number, enter it in the search box and click Go to go directly to that specific bill.  When at that specific bill, you can click on Follow this Bill: to set up a alert.  If there is a change to the bill or something else happening with it, like a Committee hearing on it, you will receive an email.  This is best way to keep track of what is happening to a bill you are especially interested in.  
Clicking on Committees icon, allows you to enter the name of a committee or look for a Senate or House Committee as well as a couple of other options.  If you want to see all the Senate committees, just click on Senate.  Let's select the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.  This reveals a committee members list, staff and the regular meeting schedule.  And if you click on Assigned Measures, you have a list of all the measures which have been assigned to the committee, if the measure has had or will have a hearing or work session and other information. .
Very important on providing testimony
If you want to provide testimony on a specific bill, you have to submit it when the bill is scheduled for a public hearing.  That is why it is important to set up the notification regarding specific bills.  In each such notice will be information on how to submit written testimony at least 24 hours before the hearing.  So find those bills and click on "Follow This Bill."  You will also find the "Follow this committee" links for specific committees.
Some Bills you might want to follow
This is a list of bills suggested OR UU Voices for Justice  board members.  Please let us know of others the UUs might find important.  
Some bills of interest regarding corrections   
HB2631 -  establish pilot program to provide legal services for women who are incarcerated at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility
Some bills of interest regarding democracy
SJR 20 - allows same-day voter registration
HJM2 - Urges Congress to call Art. V Constitutional Convention to consider constitutional amendment declaring corporations are not people and money is not speech
HJR13 - proposes amendment to Oregon constitution to allow limits on political campaign contributions
HB2704 & HB2578 - would cause Oregon to join the National Popular Vote compact
HB2716 - Requires disclosure of person who funds political communications
SJR 8 & 11 - regarding redistricting
And we will follow the progress of the Small Donors Elections legislation.  It has not been assigned a bill number yet.
Some bills of interest regarding environmental issues
SB256 - continues moratorium on oil, gas and sulfur leasing in territorial waters
SB444 - regarding small nuclear reactor.  Bill changes present approval requirements from vote by all Oregon voters to vote by voters of cities/counties.
HB2020 - creates a Cap and Trade carbon reduction system (aka, Clean Energy Jobs bill)
HB2509/HB2653 - Prohibits use of single use checkout bags except in certain cases
HB2623 - prohibits use of fracking for oil, gas exploration and production
HB2656 - relating to forestland that supplies drinking water systems.
HB2659 - relating to forestland tax assessments - repeals special assessments
HB2800 - prohibits certain restaurants from offering single use straws
HB2883 - prohibits food vendors from using polystyrene containers in many cases
Some bills of interest regarding health care
SB770 - related to creation of state-wide health care program (affordable, universal healthcare)
SB409/HB2689 - creates program to allow importation of prescription drugs from Canada
HB2658 - requires 60-day notice before price increases on prescription drugs
Here are three bills regarding substitution of generics and biological products (HB2753, HB2754 and HB 2755)
Some bills of interest regarding housing    
SB608 -  would cap rent increases and put an end to no-cause evictions  
HB2001 - Requires certain sized cities/counties to allow development of Middle Housing on property zoned for single-family
Some bills of interest regarding ending gun violence 
HB2251 - Gov Brown's proposal for ending gun violence
HB2505 -  requires safe storage of firearms
HB2605/SB275 - requires firearms to be secured
HB2929 - regarding the illegal use of bump-stocks
SB501 - comprehensive gun violence control law
See this article in the Salem Statesman Journal summarizing various proposed bills regarding ending gun violence
Some bills of interest regarding farming
SB103 - establishes a moratorium on new industrial 'mega-dairies' in Oregon until certain rules are strengthened
SB104 - Strengthens the ability of local communities to adopt stronger rules for 'mega-dairies'
HB2729 - aims to prevent the loss of farmland to non-farm uses
SB449/SB287/HB2790 - all relate to agritourism, aiming to create additional revenue sources for farm enterprises like farm cafes, farm breweries and amends rules for outdoor mass gatherings
HB2882 - allows farmers that have been harmed by contamination for genetically engineered crops to sue the patent holders of those crops
HB2619 - Prohibits the sale or use of products containing neonicotinoid pesticides in Oregon 
Some bills regarding tax revenue
HB2146 - Increases corporate tax on S-corporations
HB2160 - expanses corporate minimum tax to out-of-state corporations with sales in Oregon
HB2163/SB208 - increases corporate minimum tax on certain corporations (note: these are not the same bills)
SB607 -   Repeals provisions relating to use of incremental baseball tax revenues to finance major league stadium
SB319/SB674 - eliminates the estate tax for those dying before Dec 31, 2018 (these are exactly the same bills)
SB701 - establishes automatic adjustment to amount of estate on which an estate tax can be applied
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