C. Oregon lawmakers reflect on legislative session

Oregon’s short legislative session ended Saturday, one week earlier than expected. Before going into this session, Central Oregon’s lawmakers were worried about the big agenda presented by Democrats.

While some major bills were passed, one that included $39 million in bonds for OSU-Cascades’ expansion, some big-ticket items have already been put on the schedule for next year.

That includes the controversial “cap and trade” bill, or Clean Energy Jobs bill. If passed it would have capped the state’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 and then launched a trading system for emission permits.

For Rep. Mike McLane of Powell Butte, its failure was welcome relief.

“Oregonians east of the mountains would really bear a disproportionate brunt of the cost, and we already have families dealing with affordable housing issues and rising costs,” McLane said. “I’m glad that it’s been put off. We need to have a consensus-based solution on carbon emissions and I think that’s more appropriate for the long session.”

Another bill that failed was a bill that would have made affordable health care a constitutional right in Oregon.

Bend Rep. Knute Buehler, who is leaving his seat to run for governor, said as a whole, he’s unhappy with how the session played out.

“It’s nice to have it over. We did far too little to protect vulnerable foster kids. We did way too much in increasing taxes on small businesses and I’m sad to say we did nothing to deal with the high cost of health care and to deal with bipartisanship,” Buehler said. “So there’s some good in all of that, but I’m overall disappointed with the the legislative session.”

Among bills that passed, Senate Bill 1562 makes strangulation a felony, rather than a misdemeanor. Another bill that passed concerns prescription drug transparency. Once it becomes law, drug makers would be required to release cost information for drugs that cost more than $100 a month or see a 10 percent increase in one year.

Two of the bills that passed were sponsored by Reps. McLane and Gene Whisnant, R-Sunriver, who is retiring from his seat at the end of the year.

One of the bills extends college tuition benefits to National Guard members. Currently, Oregon is the only state that doesn’t offer tuition benefits to members of the state’s National Guard.

The other bill allows men and women to take time off from college for Guard duties — without fear of falling behind or retaking class. McLane said it’s time for Oregon to take these steps.

“We’re facing a difficult time in recruiting for the National Guard. The Army’s National Guard’s numbers had fallen, so it was 50th in the nation, as far as recruiting statistics,” he said. “That just simply was unacceptable, and we needed to give our recruiters new tools for a new generation of men and women who want to serve in the National Guard.”