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Legislative Summary If Only We Had A Crystal Ball By OCA’s Political Advocate Rocky Dallum
March 2020
The 2020 Legislative Session went mostly as people expected – with nobody really sure how it might end. As of the publication deadline of the Oregon Cattleman Magazine, we were still unclear whether Democrats would force a vote on one of the controversial cap and trade bills, and if that might trigger a walk-out by Republicans in the Senate and/or House. Without that crystal ball, it is difficult to summarize the session, but by the time this hits your mailbox, we will all know how it ended. Regardless of the outcome of session and cap and trade, we can say with certainty, it was a busy session for OCA on the policy front and in seeking funding for our budget priorities. Throughout the session, Republicans in both the House and Senate used all the tools available to slow the process to both stall a vote on cap and trade and the difficult decision to deny quorum. On the House side, Republican Leader Christine Drazan (R-Oregon City) and her colleagues refused to grant rule suspension, requiring bills to be read in full before votes, significantly slowing the process and creating leverage and confusion. Representative Shelly Boshart Davis (R-Albany) secured a legal opinion from the legislative lawyers indicating that the cap and trade legislation may be a tax, requiring a super-majority vote and eliminating the use of the emergency clause. On the Senate side, the memory of 2019 was fresh for all Senators, and Senate Republicans used that
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leverage to slow not just cap and trade, but to reinforce the need for Senate Democrats to collaborate with their Republican colleagues on a variety of issues. Sen. Baertschiger (R-Grants Pass) maintained an open-door to OCA in the Capitol and worked on the rancher’s behalf on a number of issues critical to our members and the ag industry. Both the Senate and House Republicans carried consistent messages about the dangers of doing too much, too fast in the February session; stressing the difficulty in analyzing complex legislation in short time periods and the inability to give the public adequate time to attend hearings and let their voices be heard. On the policy front, OCA scrambled to stay engaged on a variety of issues in the first two weeks of session, particularly water. Several bills introduced were aimed to continue to address Oregon’s water needs. OCA Water Committee Chair Sarah Liljefelt crafted expert comments on several bills and came to Salem to testify for our industry. Having our own advocates, particularly Rep. Werner Reschke (R-Klamath Falls) and Rep. Mark Owens (R-Burns), on the evenly split House Water Committee allowed us to stop bills on reporting of water usage (HB 4069) and hampering users’ due process rights in protesting automatic stay orders from OWRD (HB 4086). While we were successful in the short term, OCA has committed to continue to work on these issues to protect our members’ but
Rocky and other natural resource partners testifying on water issues in Salem. www.orcattle.com | Oregon Cattleman