Jump to topic:

• After School and Summer Care

• Behavioral Health and Related Public Safety Issues

• Education K-12 related Bills 

• Healthcare

• Higher Education

• Housing

• Immigration/Refugee

• Violence Prevention and Gun Policy

• Volunteers Needed

After School and Summer Care

By Katie Riley

LWVOR wrote testimony supporting a bill which would have provided $50 million to support summer learning through ODE to school districts. HB4082, which included an appropriation of $30 million for 2024 summer care plus additional funding for ODE administration and authorized formation of a work group to plan for future afterschool and summer programs was passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor. ODE has notified school districts of allocations and a process for applications for 2024 summer funding. The task force has not been set up to date.

Behavioral Health and Related Public Safety Issues

By Karen Nibler and Jean Pierce

HB4002 A, the “Oregon Drug Intervention Plan'' was signed by the Governor and took effect April 1st. This version is very similar to HB 4002-24, for which the League wrote testimony. Here is a flow chart which describes the provisions. 

Companion Bills: The Governor also signed

• HB 4001 A to study specialty courts for drug offenses and costs of deflection programs in the Oregon Health Authority programs; 

• HB 5204A which provides $211M to implement HB 4002 in the community corrections programs and $4M to train behavioral health workers; 

• HB 4151 B which supports the University of Oregon work on the youth behavioral health workforce;

• HB 4136 A to provide funds to increase health care access and divert from emergency rooms in Eugene, which is recognized for its mobile teams for substance abuse incidents.

Education K-12 related Bills 

By Anne Nesse 

Bills that we did not testify on, but did pass into law, that significantly relate to education:

SB 1557 E, requiring the Oregon Health Authority to ensure that all children or youth up to age 21, who are eligible for home or community-based services in mental health receive the services to which they are entitled, passed the Legislature on 3/7. The Governor signed this into law on 4/4.

Subsidized childcare will be funded at approximately $170 M, for the Employment Related Day Care program. A program which pays almost the entire cost of child care for about 12,000 low-income families, preventing a budget deficit, noted in an article located here. Funding was allocated inside the omnibus funding Bill, SB 5701 A.

An historic public/private partnership was announced by Governor Kotek on 4/17 to allow even more increased funding for child care. that adds $5 million from the Oregon CHIPS Act, and will be allocated to the new Oregon CHIPS Child Care Fund created by HB4098E, bringing the total starting capacity of the fund to $7.5 million. Business Oregon will establish a work group to adopt recommendations for requiring certain businesses to make a financial contribution to the CHIPS Child Care Fund. The work group will report to the committees of the Legislative Assembly related to child care and workforce development by November 15, 2024. Business Oregon Director Sophorn Cheang said. “This program plays a big part in addressing this need within the semiconductor sector and can serve as a model for other industries in years to come.” Here is the announcement .

Bills we did testify on, and that did pass into law in the short 2024 Session:

SB 1552 B, creating a State Youth Advisory Board, and many other educational changes needed in an Omnibus Educational Bill, passed the Legislature on 3/7. Our LWVOR testimony in support of this Bill is here. The Governor signed this into law on 4/4.

The following Bills which we testified on, but did not have time to pass the legislature in the short 2024 session. A few of these Bills, may return in the long Session of 2025:

SB 1583 A , prohibited discrimination when selecting instructional materials, or books used in state public schools, had passed the Senate on 2/27, but remained in House Rules as of 3/6, without passage. This Bill had included additional language, already existing in current law, that had prohibited discrimination in selection of materials in public schools. Our LWVOR testimony is here.

HB 4078 A , directed ODE to implement a standardized method for school districts to electronically collect, and use student data, did not have time to pass during the short session. Our LWVOR testimony supporting this Bill is here.

HB 4079, attempted to remove the percentage cap on the amount of moneys that are distributed from the State School Fund to school districts for students eligible for special education. Our LWVOR testimony supporting this Bill is here.

Healthcare

By Christa Danielson

HB 4149 Requires Pharmacy Benefits Managers to be licensed by the Department of Consumer and Business Services; requires PBMs to report specific information to the DBcS; and allows policy holders of insurance to choose their pharmacy. The bill also  prevents "claw-backs”- preventing PBMs from requesting repayment of funds it initially paid. 

The league advocated for supporting 4149 to increase transparency and clarify the hidden costs of pharmaceuticals. Also the bill helps rural pharmacies by allowing the patients to choose their pharmacies and preventing charging more after the sale of a medication.

There are many more aspects of the bill and of the topic in general. There will be a work group over the summer to address these. 

Signed by Governor Kotek 4/4/2024

HB 4130 Strengthens bans against Corporate Practice of Medicine.

The league advocated for the bill to prevent corporations from taking over the practice of medicine and to allow healthcare providers to make decisions about patient care. 

This bill is also in line with the National League’s Position on health care which supports a national health insurance plan financed through general taxes and is opposed to a strictly market-based model of financing healthcare. The league supports the single payer concept as a viable and desirable approach to implementing league positions on equitable access, affordability and financial viability. See the LWV Health Care Reform TOOLKIT.  

Also HCR4US works well. 

Bill was at the Senate President’s desk at adjournment. 

Higher Education

By Jean Pierce

LWVOR wrote testimony supporting a bill which would have provided $6 million to public universities to train additional mental health professionals. There is currently a mental health workforce shortage in practically every county in Oregon, and this is preventing people with substance use disorders from obtaining the treatment they need. HB 5204 A, which included an appropriation of $4 million for the training, was signed by the Governor.

The tuition and fees required for public 4-year colleges in Oregon rank in the top third of the nation for expense. Furthermore, tuition and fees only account for 47% of the total cost of attendance of attending a public college in the state. HB 4162 would have provided funds to help pay for basic needs of students such as food and housing. Despite the League’s support, the bill did not advance.

Housing

By Debbie Aiona, Nancy Donovan 

A number of organizations advocating for sufficient funding to preserve existing low-income housing, including the League, were not successful in their request that the Legislature provide $30 million in lottery-backed bonds for housing preservation in HB 5201. 

The League supported and the legislature passed SB 1530, the governor’s housing investment package that included funding for housing stability, infrastructure development, housing production, climate impacts, and recovery housing. Unfortunately, the final version of the bill did not include $15 million for affordable homeownership the League supported. It did include $5 million for the Individual Development Account program, less than the $10 million the League urged the legislature to allocate in order to maintain current service levels. Here is the Governor’s signed letter. 

A large number of organizations with an interest in land use, the environment, and housing signed on to a group letter stating their support for Oregon’s land use system and environmental protection with information on steps Oregon can take to produce more housing while at the same time adhering to established practices.

The League supported, but the legislature did not pass, HB 4099 that would have given affordable housing developers more time to pay their System Development Charge fees in order to reduce the overall cost of development.

HB 4134, which the legislature passed and the League supported, provides state grants for specific infrastructure projects in communities throughout the state intended to make land available for housing development.

Immigration / Refugee

By Claudia Keith

HB 4085 A – Directs DHS to give grants for legal assistance to help noncitizens get lawful immigration. Fiscal $6.3M, adds 2 positions / 1.2 FTE. League testimony, currently in J W&Ms. Feb 19 HB 4085 -1 Preliminary SMS. Policy bill died in JWM. This funding may appear at the end of session JWM omnibus bill - see below.

SB1578A which directs the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to establish and maintain a management system to schedule appointments and process billing for health care interpreters was amended to limit the service to Oregon Health Plan Members. The amended bill was passed by the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Capital Construction March 1st and was referred to the full committee. The Staff analysis of the measure reports that these interpreters are needed to facilitate communication between healthcare providers and patients with limited English proficiency as well as the deaf and hard of hearing. According to the latest U.S. Census American Community Survey, there are 216,654 people in Oregon with limited English proficiency. Passed, Governor was asked to veto that request was denied. Twenty-Nine GOP Lawmakers Ask Kotek to Veto Medical Interpreter Bill. | Willamette Weekly

SB5701 End of Session JWM

Funding

Violence Prevention and Gun Policy

By Marge Easley 

SB 1503, supported by the League, was one of the few violence prevention bills to make it through the session. It establishes the Task Force on Community Safety and Firearm Suicide Prevention, whose 17 members include legislators and representatives from state agencies, behavioral and public healthcare groups, and communities most impacted by suicide. Also included in the bill is an allocation of $250,000 to the Oregon Department of Justice to support the task force and fund outside research on firearm suicide prevention. Findings will be reported back to the Legislature over the next two years.

We were also pleased to see bipartisan support for and passage of HB 4156, which strengthens and modernizes Oregon’s anti-stalking law and includes much-needed provisions for the crimes of cyberstalking and internet harassment.

Although unrelated to the session, two other gun policy issues should be noted. We continue to monitor the legal status of Measure 114, passed by Oregon voters in 2022 with the strong support of the League. The measure mandates a permit to purchase a firearm and places a ban on high-capacity magazines, However, it remains on hold as it makes its way through the appeals court system, and we await an opportunity to join an amicus brief. Also, in November 2023, at the request of LWVUS, we offered comments on a proposed federal rule to broaden the definition of “engaged in the business” as a dealer in firearms to include online sales and gun shows. We recently received thanks from LWVUS along with the news that the U.S. Attorney General signed the final rule on April 10, 2024.

Volunteers Needed 

What is your passion related to Social Policy? You can help. Volunteers are needed. The long legislative session begins in January of 2025. In addition to the topics listed above, we need League members interested in Criminal Justice and in Mental Health. If any area of Social Policy is of interest to you, please contact Jean Pierce, Social Policy Coordinator, at SocialPolicy@lwvor.org. Training will be offered.