“Transportation, transportation and transportation.” – Rep. Rob Nosse, D-SE Portland, in regard to the overall funding priority for 2025
Overview
- The 83rd legislative assembly will start Tuesday, Jan. 21 and the constitutional date of adjournment is June 29. The optimistic date is June 18.
- The top leadership priority is funding the transportation package, which has a price tag of $5.3 billion. This is where the democratic supermajority will come into play.
- Democrats have a supermajority in both chambers: 36-24 in the House and 18-12 in the Senate. If they are unified, they have the votes to pass bills that raise revenues. However, Ds fall short of a quorum and walkouts are a possibility if Republicans are willing to risk their seats in the next election cycle.
- What’s in the bank? There’s $37.8 billion but it’s expected to be a scarce budget environment in order to pay for core services, the transportation package, funding for affordable housing, beds for addictions and mental health and other items.
Legislative Days (Organizational Days) Jan. 13
Oregon’s 90 legislators will convene at the State Capitol to set the stage for the 160-day legislative session, which starts Jan. 21. Trainings will follow Jan. 14-16. And yes, construction is still ongoing until 2026. Expect a chorus of jackhammers and drills during testimony and speeches.
The universe of bills will be large. Over a thousand bills will be released on Jan. 13 from the House and several hundred from the Senate. A bill tracker will be available for my clients by Jan. 20 to give you an idea of what to expect. Rep. Rob Nosse, the chair of the House Behavioral Health and Health Care Committee, reports his committees will have at least 100 of them. Jan. 17 is the last day for legislators to submit LC draft requests.
Session at a Glance
The Clock: It’s a long session and that normally means time for complex bills and issues to have hearings and debates. However, up to 3,000 bills will be introduced and workloads are intense. Policy bills will be analyzed and negotiated and bills with price tags will be sent to Ways and Means. Bills must be voted out of the policy committee before April 9. The process repeats in the second chamber with a deadline of May 23. The deadlines don’t apply to House Rules, Senate Rules, House Revenue, Senate Finance and Revenue and Joint Committees, including Ways and Means.
Big Picture Priority Issues: Transportation, housing and education are top tier leadership priorities. For healthcare, the top funding priorities are CCO 3.0, hospital discharges challenges (emergency department boarding), behavioral health investments and renewing the hospital provider tax, which is leveraged to obtain federal match dollars to pay for the Oregon Health Plan.
Key Health Bills: In addition to the issues listed above, expect hearings on the Corporation Practice of Medicine and protecting physician independence, bills to address violence against hospital healthcare workers, EMS modernization, ending the sale of flavored tobacco, civil commitment, scope of practice, prior authorization, Medicaid reimbursement, insurance coverage for diagnostic cervical cancer exams, Strengthening School Nursing Act and many others. There also will be several bills to legislate the practice of medicine.
The Revenue Forecast
State revenue is rising but so are costs to operate core services.
What’s in the bank: The December revenue forecast projects the 2023-25 General Fund ending balance to be $2.79 billion, with revenues increasing by $945 million since the September forecast. In the 2025-27 biennium, General Fund available resources are forecast to increase by $2.27 billion, and revenues increasing by $1.3 billion from the September forecast. This results in a total of $37.8 billion projected available resources. Yet, ask any legislator and “2025 will be a scarce budget environment.”
Why? The tally includes: record fire damage during the wildfire season, funding for affordable housing units, an increase in school funding, beds for addictions and mental health, and other items. The biggest price tag is for transportation. There’s a $2.6 billion shortfall for paying for the 2017 Transportation package of $5.3 billion and there’s $1.7 billion in an annual shortfall needed for operations and maintenance.
Key Health Care Players
- Rep. Rob Nosse chairs the House Behavioral Health and Healthcare Committee.
- Sen. Deb Patterson, D-Salem, chairs the Senate Healthcare Committee.
- Sen. Lisa Reynolds, D-Portland, chairs the newly created Early Childhood and Behavioral Health Committee. She is the only physician in the Legislature.
Other health care bills such as civil commitment, workplace violence prevention and medical malpractice bills may start in the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend, chairs the House Judiciary Committee.
- Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Take Action! A list of committee assignments is below but first, find your legislator and see if they are members of any of these key committees.
Committee Assignments
Early Childhood and Behavioral Health
Sen. Lisa Reynolds, Chair
Sen. Dick Anderson, Vice Chair
Sen. Chris Gorsek
Sen. Diane Linthicum
Sen. Deb Patterson
Health Care
Sen. Deb Patterson, Chair
Sen. Cedric Hayden, Vice Chair
Sen. Lisa Reynolds
Sen. Diane Linthicum
Sen. Wlnsvey Campos
House Behavioral Health and Healthcare Committee
Rep. Rob Nosse, Chai
Rep. Travis Nelson, Vice Chair
Rep. Cyrus Javadi, Vice Chair
Rep. Shannon Isadore
Rep. Emily McIntire
Rep. Lesly Muñoz
Rep. Ed Diehl
Rep. Hai Pham
Rep. Darin Harbick
House Judiciary Committee
Rep. Jason Kropf, Chai
Willy Chotzen, Vice Chair
Kim Wallan, Vice Chair
Kevin Mannix
Rick Lewis
Farrah Chaichi
Tom Andersen
Thuy Tran
Senate Judiciary Committee
Sen. Floyd Prozanski, Chair
Sen. Kim Thatcher, Vice Chair
Sen. Anthony Broadman
Sen. Mike McLane
Sen. James Manning Jr
Sen. Fred Girod
Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin
Leadership
Senate President: Sen. Rob Wagner
Senate Majority Leader: Sen. Kayse Jama
Senate Minority Leader: Sen. Daniel Bonham
House Speaker: Rep. Julie Fahey
House Majority Leader: Rep. Ben Bowman
House Minority Leader: Rep. Christine Drazen
Ways and Means (These legislators control the state budget!)
Ways and Means Co-Chair: Sen. Kate Leiber
Ways and Means Co-Chair: Sen. Tawna Sanchez
Want to know more?
Introduction to the Oregon Legislature
Contact: KatyKing01@gmail.com