SALEM — With bangs of gavels Tuesday, Jan. 17, at either end of the Capitol, the clock began ticking on the 160-day session of the Oregon Legislature.

Starting just after sunrise and continuing well after sunset, 14 committee meetings on Jan. 17 began churning through nearly 2,000 bills and resolutions introduced in the first two days of the 2023 session.

More bills are flowing through the pipeline. The drop-dead date for lawmakers to introduce legislation is more than a month away – on Feb. 21.

The Oregon Constitution calls for the Legislature to wrap-up the “long session” in no more than 160 days — adjourning by June 25.

But like thousands of Cinderella’s coaches racing against the clock to avoid turning into legislative pumpkins, lawmakers keep a sharp eye on the calendar.

Backers of policy bills will be throwing elbows to get a work session scheduled by the March 17 deadline.

Long odds in a crowded field for some committee:  

The House Behavioral Health and Health Care Committee on Jan. 17 already had 138 bills and resolutions flooding its agenda. The Senate Education Committee topped 117 pieces of legislation. The House Judiciary Committee is at 177 and counting.

Most bills face a “witching hour” deadline on April 4. If they haven’t moved toward action in the original chamber where they were introduced or snuck into the few “safe harbor” committees exempt from the clock (Rules, Revenue, all joint committees), they will be D.O.A. for 2023 on the morning of April 5. From the “IN” basket to the waste basket.

And the culling gets faster and heavier after that. 

The blizzard of bills by the 60 House and 30 Senate members, along with anonymous “committee bills” added to the mix have topics ranging from the death penalty to proclaiming the potato as the official Oregon state vegetable. Look for the onion lobby to fight that last one to the end.

Lawmakers will also amend and approve (translation: rewrite, reject, revise and cobble furiously) a two-year state budget from a proposal Gov. Tina Kotek will submit before Feb. 1.

Bi-partisanship is a goal, but nobody is expecting deep detente without major disagreements, House Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, said at a media briefing Jan. 17.

“We will work to make things better while having challenging conversations to deliver on these and many other issues,” he said.

House Minority Leader Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, appeared at the media event with Rayfield. She said chances to move quickly on housing would require putting aside the bitter partisanship that hobbled relations between Democrats and Republicans in 2022.

“It is no secret that Oregon is at a crossroad,” Breese-Iverson said.

With a state analysis showing a shortfall of more than 500,000 housing units to meet the needs of Oregon residents, both party leaders agree more building is needed as soon as possible.

“We agree with our colleagues across the aisle that we have to expand housing,” she said. Cutting “red tape” and reducing regulations would help the state make up the gap faster.

Listening vs. leading

Breese-Iverson said Republicans hope for a process where “the voice of the minority party is heard, not just pushed aside,” she said.

The November election extended Democrats’ 40-year hold on the governorship with the election of former House Speaker Tina Kotek to succeed outgoing Gov. Kate Brown. Democrats also retained control of both chambers of the Legislature. But the margins dropped below the three-fifths of seats Democrats held the past four years, which allowed them to pass taxes and other financial legislation without any Republican votes.

If Republicans close ranks, they can now force Democrats to negotiate with the GOP on the budget and other issues.

“House Republicans will hold the line on spending and waste,” Breese-Iverson said.

Unlike the House press event, a briefing Jan. 17 in the Senate featured only Democratic leaders and their party’s chairs of key major committees. The centerpiece was the announcement of an “Oregon Works” legislative agenda.

“We have a vision,” said Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber, D-Beaverton. “We all deserve to live in dignity.”

The Democrats said their plan would ensure safe housing, sustainable communities, freedom from racism and discrimination, grant equal access to quality health care, child care and “world class schools,” with an economy that offers secure, good paying jobs. 

“We are going to strive to make these ideals a reality for every person in every corner of our state,” Lieber said. “It’s ambitious, but the moment really demands ambition.”

Lieber said voters chose Democrats to lead the debate on how public money is spent and what policies are supported. 

“We have a mandate to make this state work for you, the people of Oregon,” she said.

Gov. Tina Kotek said during her inauguration on Jan. 9 that housing was squarely atop a long to-do list she is planning to implement.

“I have heard from people loud and clear,” Kotek said. “The status quo is not working. And for many Oregonians, it never worked.”

An avalanche of ideas

With no limit on how many bills individual lawmakers and committees could submit, the legislative docket is overflowing with a staggering number of issues to be addressed. The more than 2,000 bills and resolutions target a staggering encyclopedia of issues with the widest possible spectrum of proposed solutions.

Committees began wading into the debate Jan. 17. Lawmakers heard from Oregon Business on fixes for the economy and from social welfare agencies on the abuses of labor trafficking.

The long-term forecast of a hotter, drier Oregon as a result of global warming was the backdrop of a briefing from state fire marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple for wildfires this summer.

Bills would tackle the competition between states for semiconductor production, expanding eligibility for domestic partnership to partners of any sex, public school enrollment declines, drought, the “child care desert,” universities and community colleges, attacks on democracy and free elections, unsafe drinking water, the future of hydroelectric power, dwindling salmon population, campaign funding limits, staffing shortages in the state’s health care workforce, a lack of money for public defenders, and the debate over tolling options on some Oregon highways.

What goes up will come down

The number of bills will continue to rise until April 4, the first deadline for legislation to move from one chamber to another via a public hearing and committee vote. With exceptions for bills in the Rules, Revenue and all joint committee, any bill that remains in policy panels where it was first assigned is automatically declared dead for the year. A rolling series of deadlines will cull the count further. A fraction of the bills will make it through both chambers and onto the desk of Gov. Kotek, who can sign or veto each idea. 

With the state constitution requiring a balanced budget, the marketplace of ideas eventually collides with the bank funding the marketplace itself.

A rare note of caution among Senate Democrats on Jan. 17 came from Sen. Elizabeth Steiner, D-Portland, co-chair of the budget-writing Joint Committee of Ways & Means. Oregon residents – and their legislative representatives – have operated in an abnormal world during the COVID-19 pandemic that arrived in the state early in 2020.

The three years since have been an economic rollercoaster ranging from forecasts of a cavernous debt changing to a mountain of federal funds. Steiner said the money was primarily meant as a one-time-only buffer to avoid a financial disaster. But in some cases, programs were launched based on federal funds that don’t exist for the long run. 

“The budget is a little uncertain,” Steiner said. “We don’t know what is going to happen to our economy. We just don’t know.”

Oregon maintains large economic buffers in the form of substantial emergency funds and reserves. But some of the day-to-day spending in place since 2020 doesn’t have an ongoing revenue stream to carry on into future state budgets.

“We’re going to have to figure out how to pay for that,” Steiner said.

Waiting on another walkout

Beyond the budget battles, there are key policy differences that could be ignited by pending bills.

Sen. Deb Patterson, D-Salem, won a tight, expensive race against former Rep. Raquel Moore-Green, R-Salem, in which abortion rights were a key issue. As chair of the Senate Health Care Committee, Patterson said Oregon residents needed better access to mental health providers and affordable primary care. On abortion, Patterson said it wasn’t enough to simply offset the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning rights from the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

“We have to not only hold the line, but be proactive in maintaining access,” she said.

Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, said the Legislature owed it to voters to ensure the Measure 114 gun control initiative was implemented. The ballot measure was narrowly approved by voters in November, but has been hung up by judges in rural areas blocking the bill and some sheriffs who vow not to enforce it.

Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, said there are only two issues he believes could lead him to walk-out to deny Democrats a quorum to do any business at all: abortion and guns. 

The legislative docket has 10 bills concerning abortion and 12 on firearms waiting to be considered.