Here’s a brief rundown of what’s happening now of importance to business in Oregon’s Legislature:
SB 301 would effectively preclude employers from enforcing zero tolerance drug policies. We are deeply disappointed this bill has been kept alive in Senate Judiciary.
SB 828 / HB 2193 would implement predictive scheduling. We were disappointed to see both the House and the Senate bill kept alive.
HB 3087 – paid family leave – was kept alive.
SB 292 – unlawful employment action for “workplace bullying,” was mysteriously kept alive in Senate Judiciary.
SB 1040 would implement local union security agreements and prevent local right to work measures.
SB 997 was kept alive. The bill would levy fines on all employers with 50 or more employees who do not provide private health insurance for employees.
On the good side, both SB 984 (fixes BOLI’s interpretation on daily/weekly overtime pay) and SB 329 (preempt local employment law mandates) were kept alive.
Energy & Environment:
The key ‘cap and trade’ bills were all kept alive – SB 557 and HB 2135.
SB 1008 – a costly mandate for both on-road and off-road diesel engine retrofits and replacements – was kept alive.
On the good side, ‘Community Right to Know’ (HB 2669) was killed.
Air Quality:
The big bill here – HB 2269 – which would increase Title V and ACDP fees to fund the new DEQ ‘Cleaner Air Oregon’ regulatory scheme was kept alive.
HB 2236 was also kept alive which requires the DEQ to conduct a study and develop recommendations relating to emissions of air contaminants from industrial sources.
SB 197 – a disaster for the dairy industry – was kept alive. It allows for the DEQ to adopt a program for regulating air contaminant emissions from dairy confined animal feeding operations.
Tourism and TRT Funding:
Both HB 2744 and HB 2768 were kept alive in the House Economic Development and Trade Committee. These bills would allow local government much more latitude to spend state TRT money on ‘tourism-related’ projects not related directly to tourism promotion.
Liability:
SB 737, which would eliminate the $500k cap on non-economic damages in civil lawsuits, passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote. It is expected to be the first real showdown of the session in the Senate in which a close vote is expected.
HB 2169 denies attorney fees for prevailing employers in wage disputes.
This legislative update is brought in partnership with the Oregon State Chamber of Commerce