The Oregon\nLegislature convened on February 3 for a 35-day short legislative session. This\nOSU Government Relations update aims to provide a mid-session review of Oregon\nState University\u2019s legislative priorities for 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Tensions in Salem are high, and the controversial Cap &\nTrade bill (SB 1530) is right in the center of it all. On Tuesday, the House\nRepublicans refused to attend an evening floor session, stating they needed to\nslow the process down to give more time to read and understand the policies\nbeing pushed to floor votes. While they were back to work on Wednesday morning,\nthe Senate Republicans consistently share that if Cap & Trade is moved to\nthe Senate floor for a vote, they will walk again. The bill has been scheduled\nfor a work session on Monday, Feb. 24. This has created a tumultuous and\nuncertain political environment for many of OSU\u2019s legislative priorities in the\nshort session, even though they are unrelated to SB 1530.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Capital Construction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n OSU\u2019s efforts around capital construction are aimed at funding\nfor three capital projects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n OSU is providing $68 million in matching funds for the\n$75.9 million in state bonding capacity that it is seeking \u2013 nearly\ndoubling the state\u2019s investments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Negotiations around capital construction bonding for buildings\non university campuses are currently on-going. The Capital Construction\nsubcommittee of the Joint Committee on Ways & Means received a presentation<\/a> from HECC Director Ben Cannon last Friday, who implored the\ncommittee to fund university capital projects. The written testimony for the\nhearing included submissions from the Beaver\nCaucus<\/a>, the Associated\nStudents of Cascades Campus<\/a> and the Oregon\nStudent Association<\/a> in support of OSU\nprojects. Continued advocacy efforts around these three capital projects are\nvery important going into the end of the legislative session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Wednesday Feb. 19, both OSU\nCascades students and Now 4 OSU Cascades were in Salem advocating for the\nStudent Success Center<\/a>. Efforts like these and Beaver\nCaucus\u2019s advocacy elevate OSU\u2019s capital funding requests. We have been getting\ngood feedback about the presence of OSU\u2019s advocacy efforts in Salem this\nsession. Thank you to those that have engaged with the legislature in support\nof OSU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Policy Bills<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n OSU has also been pursuing a handful on policy bills during the\n2020 legislative session. Here is a brief update on a few of them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n HB\n4055<\/a> – HECC to study and develop\nrecommendations on how community colleges and public universities can best\ncombat food and housing insecurity among their students. <\/em>A coalition\nof stakeholders<\/a> presented at the public hearing\nin the House Education Committee. This bill has been referred to the Joint\nCommittee on Ways & Means and is awaiting action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HB 4051<\/a> \u2013 Establishes a hemp commission.<\/em> This bill passed the House and is scheduled to have a vote on the Senate floor next Monday, Feb. 24. College of Agricultural Sciences faculty, Jeff Steiner, joined hemp farmers in support of the creation of a commission to assist this growing agriculture sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n HB\n4072<\/a> \u2013 Updates Oregon State Plan on\nhemp to meet federal compliance. <\/em>This bill was passed through the House\nAgriculture and Land Use committee and is now scheduled for a hearing in the\nJoint Committee on Ways & Means subcommittee on Natural Resources for\nMonday, Feb. 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SB\n1501<\/a> \u2013 Allows collegiate athletes to earn\ncompensation for their name, image and likeness.<\/em> The bill passed the Senate Floor this week and is now headed to the\nHouse for consideration. OSU gymnast and Chair of the PAC-12 Student\nAthlete Leadership Team, Halli Briscoe, joined the UO Athletic Director in\nsharing both student and universities perspectives on this high-profile issue.\nAmendments are agreed upon, and OSU is neutral. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SB\n1554<\/a> \u2013 Appropriates funding for several ocean programs including ocean\nacidification and hypoxia.<\/em> Faculty from the Marine Studies Institute and\nthe Sea Grant shared with the Senate Environment & Natural Resources\nCommittee some of the work they are doing in these areas. This bill has been referred to the Joint Committee on\nWays & Means and is awaiting action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HB\n4057<\/a> \u2013 Prohibits gambling on college\nsports to protect student athletes.<\/em> The base bill passed out of the House\nBusiness and Labor Committee and had a public hearing in the House Revenue\ncommittee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other activities of note<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n University Day at the Capitol was held on Thursday, Feb. 13,\nwith over 150 students, staff, and alumni from all over the state supporting\nshared public university priorities. This included legislation on student food\nand housing insecurity, underrepresented students, student transfer and capital\nconstruction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On Tuesday, Feb. 18 Senator Arnie Roblan invited President Ed\nRay to be his guest on the Senate floor. Besides kind remarks by Senator\nRoblan, Senators Courtney, Hansell and Gelser all extended courtesies to\nPresident Ray and commented on his contributions to OSU and Oregon. You can\nwatch the floor session here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Oregon Legislature convened on February 3 for a 35-day short legislative session. This OSU Government Relations update aims to provide a mid-session review of Oregon State University\u2019s legislative priorities for 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8748,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8748"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}