2023 Oregon Legislative Session
The 2023 Oregon Legislative Session is underway. This full session will span no more than 160 days, and will see the creation of many new laws and legislative actions, as well as a state budget for the 2023-2025 biennium. With so much on the to-do list, it comes as no surprise that hearings are scheduled and new committee agendas are being published by the minute. To get in the swing of things, we’ll walk through some basics of legislative session, and how it all connects to Brokerages and Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD) services.
End of 2021 Legislative Session Recap Pt 1: Budget
The 2021 full Legislative session came to an end right on schedule this past weekend, after a session full of twists, turns, and historic investments in the intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) system. As you may recall, this legislative session was the first in Oregon’s history to be conducted remotely, with no public access to the Capitol Building in Salem. Our experience as advocates was certainly different than in typical sessions.
2021 Legislative Session Halfway Point: Advocacy Tools to Raise Your Voice
Here at the mid-point of the 2021 Oregon Legislative Session, we take the chance to reflect on this unusual year of virtual hearings and Zoom meetings, and the progress we have made thus far. Many of the nearly 2,500 bills introduced this session have died, meaning that they will not move forward this session to become law. The work of creating and approving the state budget for the next two years, a major item on the session to-do list, is moving into high gear. There is still a lot of advocacy left to do to share your perspective and priorities with legislators as they make decisions about how to spend money over the coming biennium. Let's talk about what is left to do, and how you can make an impact.
2019 Legislative Session Ends
The 2019 Oregon Legislative formally adjourned yesterday, in what is called Sine Die. As many have probably followed in the news, the Republican Senators who walked out of session for several days in June returned to work this weekend. Though the environment was rife with unresolved conflict, both chambers put their heads down and passed the agency budget bills and a select few others.
2019 Legislative Session Budget Outlook
Every two years, Oregon’s legislature passes a state budget to cover costs for the coming biennium. The legislative session is five months long, but budgetary decisions are some of the most complex and difficult that the legislature must make, and they generally don’t get settled until the tail end of session. The 2019 session is no different; budget decisions, including those for human services, are currently being weighed and deliberated.
Senate Bill 274 Opens Brokerage Services to People 14 and Up
With the end set for June 20, the 2019 Oregon Legislative Session is in its final month. Oregon Support Services Association has been actively engaged in advocacy since the session’s January 22 start. Legislators come to public service with a variety of backgrounds and interests, and the Brokerage association works hard to enrich their understanding of services for people with developmental disabilities.
Co-Chairs Release a Targeted Reduction List--What's On It?
Oregon’s economy is healthy and growing, but so are its costs. In fact, the costs of current services and budgeted obligations have outpaced the amount of money coming into the state to pay for them. Our legislative leaders have been warning us for months now that, without new sources of revenue, there will be cuts. Now, for the first time, we are getting a clearer picture of what those cuts might look like, as the Joint Ways and Means Committee Co-Chairs, Senator Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin) and Representative Nancy Nathanson (D-Eugene) have released their 2017-19 Target Reduction Lists.
The State Budget Process: This Year's Recommendations From the Governor
You may have seen headlines this month about the release of Governor Brown’s Recommended State Budget. As discussed in yesterday’s post, the Oregon state budget takes several months and three major steps from start to finish. We begin with data, reports, and recommendations from each governmental agency as to how services are currently operating, and what it would take to continue them (ARB). Next, the Governor synthesizes the disparate agency requests into a single budget, recommending it to the legislature, and to all Oregonians (GRB). The state legislature then takes those critical components, pairs them with months of gathered input and information from constituents, and creates a final legislative budget for approval (LAB). Once the Legislatively Approved Budget is formally adopted, the process is complete. Oregon creates a budget every two years.