The
MitchMessage
April 1, 2007
My next two Town Hall meetings (with Senator Brad
Avakian) will take place on
April
10, 7pm at St. Vincent Medical Center, Souther Auditorium (East
Wing) and
April 19, 7pm at Friendly House, 1737 NW 26th
(between Savier and Thurman).
Things got a bit
unruly in the Oregon House these past two weeks. But we
managed to pass some major (and a lot of minor) legislation.
It really has begun to look as if the session will end near July 1
and that is putting a great deal of pressure on the process and on
the members. The period began with a spirited debate on HJM 9,
a non-binding resolution urging the President to begin withdrawing
US forces from Iraq as soon as possible, but not later than
December, 2007. As you can imagine, the debate became very
heated. A key debater, speaking in favor of the resolution,
was Rep. Brian Boquist, a Republican who has served several tours of
duty in Iraq.
I found myself
joining the debate. I try hard to limit the number of floor
speeches I give. During my first session I noticed some
members feel the need to comment on everything. And when they
get up to speak, the members turn off. Consequently, I
restrict my floor speeches to measures where I believe I have
something unique to say. Rep. Gene Whisnant, also a Republican
veteran military officer, attacked the resolution by reading off the
names of the Oregonians who had died in Iraq. I then decided I
needed to speak in favor of the resolution as a matter of
conscience. After a long debate, the resolution passed –
largely, but not entirely, along party lines.
Good manners broke
down later in the week when we prepared to debate SB 400, a bill
that would allow public safety officers (police officers and
firefighters particularly) to discuss safety issues as a part of
their collective bargaining. This bill has been a major
objective of all the public safety unions for several years and
hasn’t even been debated under Republican leadership. About
400 firefighters bused in to watch the debate. Because it is a
senate bill it was scheduled at the very end of the agenda, but
common practice under these circumstances is to request consent to
move the item up in the agenda. The Republican leadership
refused to grant their consent. We worked through lunch to get
through the agenda so we could debate SB 400 while the firefighters
were still in the gallery. They sat through four hours of
debate on other bills before watching the bill go down to
defeat. (It was eventually sent back to committee and a
version will emerge that will pass.)
We had a similar
dust-up this week over HB 2372A, a bill that requires employers to
provide unpaid rest periods to employees to express breast milk if
it does not cause undue hardship to business operations. This
is a bill that seems completely reasonable, but the Association of
Oregon Industries has fought it forever. Consequently we never
debated it before. Similar to the SB 400 debate many advocates
for nursing mothers came to the Capitol to watch the debate.
And similar to the earlier situation, the Republican leadership
refused to allow a suspension of the rules to move the bill up the
agenda. The bill was debated well after lunch, with the pro
side of the debate led by a Republican woman, Rep. Vicki
Berger. HB 2372A passed easily, but long after most of the
advocates had left because of other commitments.
One of the
interesting things about this session is that bills are being
allowed to come to the floor without a clear-cut determination that
they have the votes necessary to pass. SB 400 was one
example of that. In another debate last week a bill to require
helmets while driving an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) came to the floor
and after a spirited debate was soundly defeated. There seems
to be a willingness to actually listen to the debate and decide how
to vote. I think this is a very good sign.
It is very
different serving in the majority, than serving in the
minority. Being in the majority clearly entails more work and
much more responsibility. But it is also much more
rewarding. When I was in the minority I had the time to focus
on my own legislative agenda. Now two things are
different. My vote on the floor counts in a different
way. And being a committee chair brings a whole different
level of activity. Everybody needs to talk to me about any
number of different bills. And there is less time to meet with
lobbyists and other interested parties. My typical day
includes floor session from 10:45 to about 12:30, followed by a
caucus meeting until at least 1pm. On most days I have an
education sub-committee or full committee meeting from 1:00 to 3:pm
and on all days I have a health care sub-committee or full committee
meeting that runs from 3:00 to 5:00. On two days a week I have
a health reform committee meeting that lasts from 5:00 to 6:30.
In addition, I
need to meet daily with my committee administrator and frequently
with my two vice-chairs Rep. Richardson (Rep.) and Rep. Kotek
(Dem.). And I meet daily with my legislative aide (Tom Powers)
who monitors my legislative agenda. I have also been
testifying about three times a week in hearings on the bills of
which I’m the sponsor. That leaves Harriet frantically filling
up every other 15-minute slot on my calendar with someone from the
long line of people in my outer office looking to urgently meet with
me because they have a bill coming up in my committee. Then
Harriet also is certain to pop in after 15 minutes to remind me that
my next appointment is waiting and I’m already 20 minutes behind
because I talk too much.
Being a committee
chair has brought me much closer to how the legislative process
works. It turns out that the committee chair has nearly
absolute power to decide which bills are heard in committee and
which bills are moved along in the process. (I try to hear
most of the bills assigned to my committee.) The committee
chair also has the power to create a working group to improve a bill
to the point that it achieves consensus, which is usually the
objective. An interesting example of the process was in the
flow of HB 2213 through the House of Representatives. This
bill was suggested by the Department of Consumer and Business
Services. DCBS is the agency that regulates health
insurance. The bill requires insurers to provide a reasonable
estimate to their enrollees of the cost of procedures and services
for which enrollees will be responsible. The bill was
supported by consumer advocates and fit into the Democratic Caucus
Roadmap agenda promising more transparency in the health care
field.
But the
insurance industry said the bill, as written, would be impossible to
implement. I asked Rep. Ben Cannon, the vice-chair of the
Health Care Access sub-committee to lead a work group to produce a
version of the bill to which all parties could agree. I also
asked Rep. Dennis Richardson, the Republican vice-chair of the
sub-committee, to join the group. I asked a small number of
representatives of insurance companies, DCBS, and the consumer
advocacy movement to form the work group. The committee
administrator volunteered to staff the group. And I gave them
three weeks to come in with a perfected bill. Under Rep.
Cannon’s leadership they did their job ahead of schedule, bringing
back a bill that all parties supported. It wasn’t a perfect
bill in the eyes of any of the parties, but they all agreed it made
an important beginning and was achievable. The bill passed
easily out of the sub-committee, the full committee and passed the
House of Representatives without a single no vote. It’s now on
to the Senate, where the process will begin anew.
If the Senate
passes the bill without change it would be on to the Governor’s desk
for his signature. If the Senate amends the bill it will be up
to me to decide whether to recommend the House concur with the
Senate amendments. If the House agrees to concur, the
concurrence vote moves the bill to the Governor’s desk. If the
House refuses to concur a conference committee will be named to try
to reach agreement on one version of the bill. If they reach
agreement it might be on the House version, on the Senate version,
or on some new version created by the conference committee.
Then both the House and the Senate need to approve the conference
committee report before it goes to the Governor.
Not all bills work
out so easily. We received a bill in committee that I
sponsored with Rep. Carolyn Tomei to require hospitals to report on
hospital-acquired infections (HB 2524). The hospitals objected
to the original form, but agreed to work on an amendment. Tom
Powers worked with them and with the state agency with the
responsibility to report on the data provided by the
hospitals. After a couple of weeks they produced an amendment
that all could agree upon that would really begin the process in a
great way. But when we heard the bill in committee and
accepted the new amendment, the agency reported there would be a
$300,000 fiscal statement, signifying it would cost $300,000 per
biennium to do the reporting more than was in the Governor’s
budget. If that turns out to be true we can’t send the bill
directly to the House floor for a vote, but need to refer it to the
Ways and Means Committee to look for the money in an already
over-committed budget. It’s not too likely to escape from Ways
and Means unless we can get some substantial power to push for it.
I continue to hear
from my constituents and on most days that is very welcome, even
when I get 50 of the same messages triggered by one organization or
another. I did receive many messages urging a yes vote on HJM
9. I’m also getting a great deal of anti-fluoridation e-mail,
but most of it is not from constituents. And the mail is
beginning to arrive on the anti-discrimination measures. Keep
in touch.
Mitch
P.S. Remember to visit my legislative webpage, www.leg.state.or.us/greenlick, to get more information
about the upcoming town hall meetings or to read past MitchMessages.