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The MitchMessage February 2014 

[Ed. Note: many of these items have either passed or been dropped from the docket by this time, as this short, off-year session ended on Friday, March 7. We’ll publish Mitch’s session roundup in the April issue.]

The session seems to be flying by. Thursday was the last day that most House committees could work on bills beginning in the House. The Senate had the same deadline on bills emanating from the Senate. The only exceptions are the House and Senate Revenue and Rules committees and the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. (Isn’t that an odd name?) The committees will have an extremely tight timeline to work on the bills from the other chamber, but a relatively smaller number of bills will be on the agenda. 

The House Health Care Committee, which I chair, had 15 bills assigned to us and we passed nine of them out of committee. Only four of those went directly to the floor of the House for a vote and to move to the Senate. The rest went to the Rules Committee or to Ways and Means for further action. The bills that went to Ways and Means were those that had fiscal implications and required budget action.

There was an interesting contretemps in my committee on a bill (HB 4154) designed to improve the situation of Cover Oregon as it tries to ensure people are able to get affordable health insurance subsidized under the ACA. My committee is known as one of the most bipartisan committees, as I have a great working relationship with my Republican members and especially with my Republican vice-chair. But what is different this year is that two Republican members of the House are running for statewide office. And Cover Oregon has become a convenient political target in both of their campaigns. I had invited both of them to have a prominent role in the hearing on the bill. 

As the bill was to be considered on the final day to pass it, I learned the minority caucus saw this bill as an opportunity to make political capital. They planned to introduce several amendments to the bill, including one that would eliminate Cover Oregon. And they had already prepared a press release saying that the Republicans had proposed several ways to improve the situation, but the Democrats had blocked them because of partisan politics. They knew their amendments would have to be voted down, because the bill would have been killed for the session if it were changed at that point. I allowed them to introduce seven amendments and they were all voted down. We then passed the bill with each Republican member of the committee voting “yes” on the bill itself because they knew it improved a difficult situation.

There was also some interesting work in the House Committee on Higher Education and Workforce Development on which I serve. The committee dealt with the continuing question of how our public universities should be governed. During the last session we passed SB 270, which provided for, among other things, local governing boards for OSU, PSU, and U of O. But that left the question of how the other four state universities should be governed. The four (Western, Southern, Eastern Oregon Universities and Oregon Tech), now referring to themselves as the TRU (Technical and Regional Universities), proposed that they also be given local governing boards. The committee agreed and passed a bill that would provide local governing boards for the TRU.

The recent revenue forecast (the March forecast) made the job of the Ways and Means Committee considerably easier. The forecast remained on track, with signs of continuing growth. Projected revenue has increased by nearly $15 million since the December forecast. Job growth continues with an increase of more than 4000 jobs created since the December report, with a projection of more than 6000 more jobs to be created in the near-term.

And there was good news for Oregon schools in a separate announcement by the Legislative Fiscal Office, which reported that K-12 schools would receive an additional $98 million for the 2014-2015 school year because of an increase in projected property tax revenue. That is in addition to the historic $1 billion increase in K-12 funding we passed in the 2013 session.

My key personal bill for this session was HB 4014. This bill would allow Schedule II drugs, such as Vicodin, to be prescribed electronically. The bill had bipartisan sponsorship and had no opposition, as it is clear that this approach would eliminate the problem of modifying and forging paper prescriptions. This would bring state law into compliance with Federal law. It passed the House without a negative vote.

Several interesting bills have passed out of the House in what has been a relatively quiet session so far. There are two bills that will stimulate the Lottery Commission to pay more attention to problem gamblers. A very large portion of lottery profits come from the relatively small proportion of gamblers who are addicted to slot machines. These machines are designed specifically to hook gambling-addicted people. I have worked with Rep. Carolyn Tomei (a Democrat) and Rep Bill Kennemer (a Republican) to focus on the issues of gambling-addiction. Until now we have made little progress. But with new leadership at the Lottery Commission we have new hope that the situation can be improved.

There is still time for plenty of fireworks during this session. In my MitchMessage before the session, I mentioned the potential for fiscal problems and the CRC as complex things that could get on the agenda for this short session. With the fiscal situation easing, there remains the CRC heading for a major dust-up. There is a bill moving through the House that would authorize moving the project ahead with Oregon taking the leadership in the project, but utilizing a set of inter-government agreements to bring Washington into a sort of limited partnership in the project. Governor Kitzhaber remains very committed to the project, as does Speaker Kotek; Senate President Courtney not so much. I think it is likely that we will be forced to vote on the project in the House even though its fate is uncertain in the Senate. That is going to be a difficult vote, because there are such strong forces on both sides of the issue. But as they say, “that is why we get paid those big bucks.”

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