By The Oregon Capital Chronicle staff
SALEM — Gov. Tina Kotek said she plans to sign the centerpiece bill that lawmakers passed in response to the state’s soaring drug addiction and fentanyl overdoses.
House Bill 4002, a compromise proposal that won bipartisan support, will recriminalize possession of small amounts of hard drugs, reversing part of Measure 110, which voters approved in 2020. The bill has provisions to offer drug users multiple opportunities to enter treatment after an encounter with a police officer.
“Finally, reforms to Measure 110 will start to take shape, as I intend to sign House Bill 4002 and the related prevention and treatment investments within the next 30 days,” Kotek said in a statement released late Thursday. “As governor, my focus is on implementation.”
She has 30 business days to sign or veto the 115 bills that were passed, and once that happens, the $211 million lawmakers approved can be distributed. It would provide money for outpatient clinics, residential facilities, sobering centers, opioid treatment in jail, public defenders and court diversion programs. They also allocated $18 million for recovery houses.
A new misdemeanor would take effect in September, with up to 180 days in jail if probation is revoked.
Kotek said she’ll closely monitor the rollout, specifically its impact on communities of color.
“House Bill 4002 will require persistent action and commitment from state and local government to uphold the intent that the Legislature put forward: to balance treatment for individuals struggling with addiction and accountability,” Kotek said.
Housing package
Kotek is also expected to sign the legislative housing package, split into Senate Bill 1537, Senate Bill 1530 and House Bill 4134. SB 1537, the only bill she asked lawmakers to introduce on her behalf, would give cities more leeway to bring land for housing into their boundaries and create a $75 million revolving loan fund for middle-income housing. The other two bills include more than $100 million for infrastructure funding necessary to build thousands of new homes in cities across the state.
“Senate Bill 1537 will help stabilize housing costs by increasing housing production through cutting red tape in permitting processes, establishing some of the strongest affordability standards for new construction in the country, and other critical reforms,” Kotek said. “Combined with investments in Senate Bill 1530, I look forward to ensuring that every dollar advances housing production.”
Rep. Julie Fahey, a Eugene Democrat and housing policy wonk who was elected House speaker late Thursday, said lawmakers expect to spend more money on housing in coming years.
“The projections all say we need to build half a million new homes over the next 20 years, and that’s not a problem that’s going to be solved in the next year or two,” Fahey said. “So I expect we’ll need continued investments, continued focus – this session we focused on regulatory barriers, investing in infrastructure, increasing the land supply, and investments as well – and I think those are probably still the same categories that we’ll need.”
House Bill 4024 will cap campaign contributions from all groups, most notably limiting individuals to giving candidates $3,300 per election. It also includes several requirements around disclosing the source of funds, though lawmakers will continue working on changes to the law before new limits would take effect in 2027.
“I applaud all those who came to the table to find compromise and deliver a policy that will strengthen transparency and confidence in Oregon’s elections,” Kotek said. “I want to thank legislative leadership for their commitment and urgency in getting it done this session.”
Other bills
Lawmakers also passed a slew of other bills.
A proposal that would give consumers more options to fix their smartphones, computers and other electronic gear awaits Kotek’s signature. The passage of Senate Bill 1596 marked a major success for Sen. Janeen Sollman, who’s been trying since 2021 to get a “right to repair” bill passed. It would require manufacturers to make any necessary documentation, parts, tools or any device needed to repair electronic equipment available to consumers or repair shops at a “fair cost” and on “reasonable” terms. The bill would take effect Jan. 1 and apply to cell phones made starting in 2021 and other products dating to 2015. The attorney general would be in charge of enforcement starting July 1, 2027, with violators potentially fined $1,000 a day for refusing to comply.
House Bill 4083, also known as the COAL Act, passed. It would direct the Oregon Treasury to “try to ensure” the state’s $94 billion Public Employee Retirement System, or PERS, does not hold stock in companies that derive 20% or more of their revenue from coal production and would limit new investments in such companies.
The session ended with an allocation of $30 million for summer programs with the passage of House Bill 4082. That marks a significant increase from the previous year, when the Legislature allocated no additional money, but far less than the $150 million the Legislature approved in each of the two years immediately following pandemic school closures.
Lawmakers also approved House Bill 4149, which seeks to rein in prescription drug costs for pharmacies and patients by regulating pharmacy benefit managers. Pharmacy benefit managers are a middleman in the pharmaceutical industry and have the ability to set different reimbursement rates, often hurting small independent pharmacies in rural areas. The bill would require pharmacy benefit managers to be licensed by the state.
Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1553, which makes drug use on public transit buses a misdemeanor crime of interfering with public transportation. The measure passed after transit companies told lawmakers they are concerned about the safety and health of staff and passengers amid a surge in public drug use.
The misdemeanor would be punishable by up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $6,250, or both. Defendants also would be eligible for treatment programs.
Despite Republican opposition, Democratic lawmakers pushed through Senate Bill 1503 on firearm fatalities. The proposal would create a task force made up of lawmakers, various experts and officials from around the state to study ways to reduce deaths from firearms, especially suicides.The group is mandated to send reports to the Legislature’s health care committees this September and next.
Lawmakers passed House Bill 4045, which would lower the retirement age for firefighters and police officers with five years on the job from 60 years to 55. The bill would reclassify district attorneys, forensic scientists and evidence technicians as police and increase retirement benefits for employees involved with patients at the Oregon State Hospital or 911 operators. Most of the provisions would take effect Jan 1.
Lawmakers, once again, considered expanding the allowed acreage for farmers in the Willamette Valley to grow canola, a profitable crop that seed growers use as a rotation plant. But opponents say expanding canola could harm the genetic purity of other plants in the same Brassica family through cross pollination. With House Bill 4059, lawmakers retained the status quo of 500 acres.
And finally, Senate Bill 1576, which would expand the definition of recreation under the state’s “recreational immunity” law to include walking, running and bicycling, would protect local governments from lawsuits. It passed along partisan lines.
Dozens fail to pass
Like any session, many bills died and some fairly early. Others were sidelined at the last minute, like a bill on book bans and another on private equity in health care.
One bill that didn’t make it was Senate Bill 1583, sponsored by Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Portland. It would have barred school districts from banning books simply because authors or characters are immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ+, disabled or from other protected classes. It passed the Senate along partisan lines but ended up stalled in the Rules Committee after Republicans indicated on Wednesday they’d file a minority report, a move that gave them power to delay the bill for another day.
The 115 bills that died included:
- House Bill 4130 would have prevented private equity from controlling Oregon medical practices by limiting their investment to 49%.
- Senate Bill 1521 would have required that agencies supervising foster kids when they are in temporary lodging be licensed.
- House Bill 4088 would have made it a felony to knowingly and intentionally attack a hospital worker and create a pot of money to help hospitals adopt prevention measures.
- House Bill 4087 would have required the state to contract with child-caring agencies to provide residential services and other care to foster kids to keep them out of temporary lodging.
- House Bill 4088 would have made it a felony to knowingly and intentionally attack a hospital worker, created a pot of money to help hospitals adopt prevention measures and required hospital signage about the law.
- Senate Bill 1521, which faced opposition from the Department of Human Services, would have closed a loophole in state law and required providers supervising foster children in hotel rooms or short-term rentals to follow the same rules as other care providers.
- Three bills to fill funding gaps for wildfire prevention and protection failed. House Bill 4075 was a referral for a ballot measure to Oregon voters to raise property taxes to pay for wildfire programs; Senate Bill 1593 would have asked Oregonians to vote to reinstate a severance tax on the value of industrial timber harvests for the first time in 30 years; and House Bill 4133 would have raised an existing tax on the volume of logs companies harvest while reducing timber and ranch landowner fees for wildfire protection.
- Senate Bill 1548 would have switched Oregon from daylight saving time to standard time – if Washington and California did so first.
- House Bill 4070 would have provided nearly $18 million for health centers in public schools so children could receive more mental health and addiction services. The money also would have helped more schools open up new clinics.