At about 11:20 pm on Monday August 10th, the Second Special Session of 2020 ended. I wanted to give you an update on how I perceived how it went and how I voted on key bills. You can actually look up everything yourself at OLIS (Oregon Legislative Information System).

First of all, I remain committed to a fair and transparent legislative process. That did not happen. Any budget proposals should always be prioritized for economic recovery (especially in light of our situation due to Covid 19) and funding the core functions of our state agencies, while reducing red tape and government waste. None of this happened in this special session. Once again, just as in the first special session, we met without public input or involvement as the Capitol remained closed to Oregonians. This is just absolutely wrong as we in the Legislature have a responsibility to be responsive, transparent and accessible to the people of Oregon.

Bills were posted to OLIS late Sunday, which didn’t give the public enough time to know what was actually happening at the Capitol on Monday and they were completely cut out of the process. In fact, the Speaker of the House, early on in the joint committee, stated that “no public testimony would be allowed” and proceeded to only allow a very small handful of “invited testimony” to speak while encouraging the public to “email their testimony” to the legislative staff. Of course it was not read into the record, so how effective is that?

As for budget bills, I advocated for preserving funding for vital natural resources, public safety and educational programs like FFA. The budget is the people’s money and they deserve to know that their tax dollars are being used efficiently and effectively. Instead, we made cuts to essential services and programs like: veteran’s affairs, mental health care and other vital services.

Here were the main bills of attention:

HB 4301 - The “police reform” bill.

I voted “Yes” because the bill basically put into state law, what is already law…(I know that sounds silly…). The US Supreme Court case law standards have been in practice for over 30 years but now it’s “really law!”

HB 4302 - DOGAMI Fee bill

I voted “No” because this was a “fee bill” and we do not need to raise fees. The department claimed they would have to cut 2 of their 11 staff. I countered with “move the office from Portland where everything is more expensive, to somewhere less expensive”.

HB 4303 - Education Stability Fund Transfer bill

I voted “No” because I don’t believe this is necessary. It transfers $400 million for our “savings” to the State School Fund. Now that the school funds have been dispersed, every district in Oregon has made their budget adjustments accordingly and this savings account needs to be reserved for an even greater emergency (like maybe even by next year).

HCR 221 - Capitol Workplace Harassment Rule Revision

I voted “No” in solidarity with my colleague from the other side of the aisle, Rep. Jeff Barker, who made a strong argument that this rule could be “weaponized” depending on which party is in charge. There is NO due process with this rule.

SB 1701 - Wage Threshold for UI Filing

I voted “Yes” on this bill as there are still thousands of Oregonians who haven’t received their unemployment checks yet and this will help others who are working reduced hours to receive a greater UI benefit.

SB 1702 - Prioritizes Educator UI Claims

This was quite fun as the bill died in committee thanks to a bipartisan vote of legislators. In fact, later in the day, the Governor sent out a press release incorrectly blaming “Senate Republicans” when it was a Senate Democrat that killed the bill. One of OPB’s reporters tweeted this below:


SB 1703 - Department of Revenue Sharing of Information

I voted “No” because I felt this was a “slippery slope” allowing one department to share YOUR personal information with another department and that there was no sunset (end) to this.

SB 5721 - Bonding Bill

I voted “No” because these bonds were based on politics not on merit and do not take into consideration how much some communities (like Keizer, St. Paul and Newberg) would benefit from capital projects and that those projects are not equitably distributed across the state.

SB 5723 - Omnibus Budget Bill

I voted “No” because most importantly to me, it made a $4.6 million cut to the Farm to School program that I and Rep. Brian Clem worked so hard to create. The budget cuts also included mental health care, $170 million from health care, and $2.1 million from Veteran’s services.

In summary, nothing much changed. There is a “threat” of a Third Special Session later in September. As always, I will keep you up to date as I learn more.


--State Representative Bill Post

Post Date: 2020-08-11 19:53:50

Last Update: 2020-08-11 20:20:25