The legislative session began on January 12th with Democrats controlling both legislative chambers in near super majorities (60% or more) and a democratic governor. The two chambers introduced nearly 1500 bills the first day and then adjourned until February 2th, when the session began in earnest. The adjournment was preplanned, in that by taking most of January off they were able to continue session until July 11 and not exceed the constitutional limit of 160 days. Session days in June and July are seen as more valuable than days in January, which in the past have been dominated by waiting for bills to be introduced and assigned to committees.

With the new larger majorities, leadership of both chambers outlined a plan to take care of controversial issues they identified as "unfinished business" from the previous session. During the two week break the bills were assigned to committees by the presiding officers so when they started up again things were ready to move. The compressed timeline caught many by surprise as partisan bills started moving out of committees in the first week.

The insurance industry was not left out of "unfinished business" as bills to allow for second lawsuits of insurance companies and bad faith along with uninsured/underinsured motorists made that fateful list. The passage in early March of SB 411, which requires insurers to pay claims up to maximum coverage under policies of uninsured motorist coverage based on insured's total damages for personal injuries, seemed to take pressure off the push for bad faith legislation by the trial attorneys. That along with the strong lobby efforts by IIABO members made it possible to kill the second lawsuit/bad faith bill. I would caution insurance producers to not celebrate too much, as Democrat leadership may have done this intentionally to keep the trial attorneys incentivized to be large donors to their campaigns in the next year.

During February, while legislative leadership was focused on the unfinished business list, you likely recall the small distraction that was also taking place. On Friday, February 13th Governor Kitzhaber, just one month into his unprecedented 4th term, announced his resignation effective the following week. The pressure created by the ethics scandals of both he and his girlfriend became too much to overcome, so on February 18th, Kate Brown became Oregon's Governor.  Governor Brown wasted no time in urging the legislature to proceed with the agenda that had been created under her predecessor, so proceed they did.

Labor issues were next on the agenda, and again IIABO members where in the crosshairs. In addition to the traditional labor issues such as minimum wage increase, paid sick leave, workers compensation and other BOLI related items, the issue of mandatory state run retirement for all workers rose to the top of the list.

A task force from 2013 recommended legislation, which became HB 2960. This bill creates a new appointed board in the State Treasurer's office and charges them to design and implement this new retirement plan. I, along with other business lobbyists, worked until the final vote trying to get safeguards put into the bill which would have protected both employers and the state if this plan is determined to be subject to the federal ERISA rules.   The super majority in both chambers proved too much to overcome and the bill passed without the safeguards that every other state which has passed similar legislation has included.   As this bill was on the public employees' union "unfinished business" list, only 3 Democrats, Senator Betsy Johnson, Representatives Caddy McKeown and Dave Gomberg had the courage to join all the Republicans and vote against the bill.

While the legislature did not pass an increase in the minimum wage or HB 3377, the bill to require 21 days' notice for employee schedule changes, they did pass SB 454, a bill requiring all employers who have more than 10 employees to grant 40 hours of paid sick leave for each employee. The bill allows for employers who currently grant flexible paid time off to be exempted from these new requirements providing certain conditions are met. BOLI is tasked to write rules to clarify some of the ambiguities in the bill, so I would suggest all employers keep a close watch on how these new rules are written.

HB 2237 was a bill to implement the model agreement for transportation network providers and was supported by all insurance companies and the transportation network providers. This bill was good measure to protect Oregon consumers by defining whose insurance had primary coverage depending on whether passengers are in the driver's car or not.   The union representing taxis opposed this bill and introduced HB 2995 as an alternative. Neither bill ended up passing due to the disagreement so Oregon consumers will be somewhat in limbo for insurance coverage while using these modes of transportation.

The next legislative session is only 6 months away. The rules adopted by both chambers allow for each member to introduce 2 bills, each interim committee 3 bills and the executive and judicial branches each 5 bills. The deadline to request a bill is November 24, 2015, so if there is an issue you feel needs to be addressed next year you will need to contact me very soon. These rules don't apply to the presiding officers or budget bills, so assuming all legislators and committees introduce the maximum number of bills there will be at least 265 bills to be dealt with beginning February 1st, 2016. In only 35 days, controversial measures are difficult to pass, so bill sponsors will need to be working on their bills before February if they expect to be successful.

Also remember that the best time to contact legislators is when they are not in session. IIABO members should be meeting with their senators and representatives in the local communities. Get to know them and let the IIABO staff know those with whom you have personal relationships. That information will help us in the future when we need a favor from a key legislator, we will know who to have contact them.

IIABO Final Bill Summary