SALEM, Ore. — Oregon lawmakers discussed unemployment benefits and police reform bills Monday as they returned to the Capitol for a special session that was largely supposed to be focused on the state’s $1 billion budget hole.
Sunday night, less than 24 hours before the second special session of 2020 was set to convene, lawmakers were still discussing what policies they would address. In the days leading up to the session legislators have been split whether the session should be solely dedicated to rebalancing the state budget thrown out of whack because of the COVID-19 pandemic or if bills altering policy, such as those addressing police reform.
Lawmakers were hopeful the session would be completed in a day, but by 3:30 p.m. they were behind schedule and the goal of a one-day session seemed further out of reach.
“(Lawmakers in the Capitol) are grumpy and they’re getting grumpier,” Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said during a joint committee work session. “We told them at three o’clock we were going to start rocking and rolling, we were going get out of here. I don’t see how we’re gonna do that now.”
In an effort to place bills on the Oregon Legislature floor Monday evening, Courtney urged lawmakers in the joint committee to only ask pressing questions.
“Either let’s get (the lawmakers) home or let’s vote on bills,” Courtney said.
The House and Senate were set to reconvene after 5 p.m.
In addition to expediting the process, House Speaker Tina Kotek announced the Legislature would not take public testimony on bills during the special session, however the public can submit written testimony and there has been public comment on most of the bills during other committee meetings.
Some lawmakers complained about this, saying the public needed to be part of the conversation.
The Legislature has been tasked with filling a $1.2 billion budget hole, leading lawmakers have proposed cuts totaling $387 million across state agencies and utilizing $400 million in emergency funds from the Education Stability Fund.
The total adopted state budget for the 2019-21 biennium is nearly $86 billion, about a 10 percent increase from the 2017-19 legislatively approved budget.
The largest proposed cuts came from within the Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority. This included proposing that two prison — Shutter Creek Correctional Institution in North Bend and Warner Creek Correctional Facility in Lakeview — close over the next two bienniums.
While some lawmakers predict the session could be completed within a day or two, that time frame could be lengthened based on discussion about bills that alter policy, such as ones surrounding police reform following more than two months of sometimes violent protests in Portland after George Floyd’s killing.
Lawmakers split off into joint committees Monday morning — one tackled bills that include that police “may not use force that impedes normal breathing or circulation of blood of another person by applying pressure on throat or neck except in specified circumstances,” strengthening a bill that had passed during the previous session.
The ban would include corrections officers and states that chokeholds would only be allowed in situations where “physical force is justified” in self-defense or defense of a third party.
House Bill 4301 passed out of committee with a bipartisan 5-1 vote.
The second committee spent a large portion of the afternoon discussing proposals surrounding the state’s unemployment benefits process.
One of the bills would increase the amount of money that Oregon workers can make as they continue to get weekly unemployment
In the days leading up to the session, Courtney expressed that he wanted lawmakers to spend as little time as possible in the Capitol due to coronavirus concerns.
