Legislative Update — March 21

Prospects for the 2024 “short session” of the Oregon Legislative Assembly were not auspicious. By law, the session is limited to 35 days. Just before the session opened, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that 10 members of the House of Representatives could not stand for reelection at the end of their term because they had unexcused absences which barred them under Measure 113. And critical policy issues, like the impact of Measure 110 and the fentanyl crisis seemed to defy easy solution.

Yet “sometimes the issues are so big, that you don’t have the ability to step away,” said Kevin Campbell, from the Victory Group, a lobbying organization. Preston Mann, of Oregon Business industries, agreed. Both lobbyists discussed the major aspects of the session at the Springfield City Club March 21 program. They said that the fact that ballot initiatives were moving ahead and likely to qualify for the 2024 ballot on addiction issues and campaign finance reform left the legislature with no choice but to deal with the topics of face almost certain passage of initiatives each of which would probably require significant legislative action to make their impact workable. Mr. Campbell spoke in detail about the three bills that the Legislature passed to address issues surrounding Measure 110 – House Bill 4002, which provided the policy framework; SB 1553, which addressed use of controlled substances on public transit; and HB 5204, which appropriated $211 million to invest in services.

House Bill 4002 drew the most public interest. The most controversial feature of the bill is that it recriminalizes possession and use of controlled substances. In doing this the bill creates a new unclassified misdemeanor, outside of the tiered hierarchy of misdemeanors and felonies in Oregon criminal law. As Mr. Campbell described it, this crime would make the potential of treatment for substance abuse an offering in every case. Law enforcement, he said, does not believe that incarceration is not effective as a treatment for those whose only offense is use of drugs. During the question-and-answer period, Mr. Campbell was asked why he said the vast majority of Oregonians were in support of recriminalization, yet the testimony at legislative hearings on HB4002 was almost universally opposed. He responded by suggesting that some organizations specialize in soliciting testimony for a particular position, regardless of what polling suggests. The bill also creates what are called deflection programs which permit an officer to refer a suspect for treatment before booking. Mr. Campbell said 23 of Oregon’s 36 counties have agreed to participate in these programs. He did not say how treatment referral would be handled in the countries that did not agree to participate in the deflection programs. The bill also dealt with a recent court decision which made it difficult to prosecute distributors of drugs in the absence of a direct connection to a user and created enhanced penalties for dealing drugs near schools and treatment centers. A separate bill, Senate Bill 1553 specially created criminal penalties for use of controlled substances on public transit facilities.

Mr. Mann pointed to another significant action by the Legislature – the adoption of campaign finance reform which created some limits on political contributions. This, he said, was an issue where there were at least three initiative proposals that were being prepared for submission to the 2024 general election. His assessment was that the legislators concluded that some or all those initiatives might pass and that the result would be a confusion of new laws that the legislature would have to try and fix during the 2025 session. This, he said, motivated members to work for a bi-partisan solution which would provide some reform and hopefully eliminate the risk of the various initiatives all being enacted.

Mr. Mann was clear that he did not support the approach of limiting campaign contributions, saying that it had the result of limiting candidates ability to get out their message while doing nothing about the influence of so-called “dark money” which could be spent without the support, and sometimes even the knowledge, of candidates. He said that the effect of the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, which made spending for support of political issues to influence an election a First Amendment issue, meant that limits on candidates’ support would mean candidates would no longer be in charge of their own message. The reforms enacted largely mirror federal contribution limits.

A novel feature of the new reforms is the ability to create “small donor committees” which are groups of humans (individuals not corporations) that can make slightly larger contributions to a candidate based on the number of people that participate in the committee. He added that the legislation addressed the “dark money” issue in part by requiring transparency and the public listing of donor’s names by super PACS. When asked about concerns that have been raised about subjecting donors who are identified to threats and harassment. He said the bill provided a process for shielding donors names when there is a real threat to them if identified.

Mr. Mann pointed out that the new limits do not go into effect until 2027, allowing the legislature to take a another look at the process, and consider potential refinements and improvements during the 2025 session.

2024. Mann also discussed three measures that the legislature has referred to the voters for consideration in 2024. Thes include, he said, a process for impeaching state officials, creation of a public service compensation commission, which will look at the salaries of elected officials and possibly recommend changes, and consideration of a proposal to create a system of ranked choice voting for statewide races. He said he expected the legislature had not considered creating such a system for legislative races since it is very rare to have more than two candidates for a legislative race. He said each of the legislative referrals had been approved in the 2023 session for inclusion on this year’s ballot.

To view the entire program on You Tube click here” Legislative Update.