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• Campaign Finance

• General Governance, Privacy, and Consumer Protection

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• Artificial Intelligence

• Rulemaking and Audits

Campaign Finance and Initiatives

By Norman Turrill

We are still waiting for urgently needed technical amendments to HB 4024 (2024) on campaign contribution limits, which are expected to be amended into HB 3392. Since we are nearing the end of the session, we fear that this will not happen or will happen haphazardly. Discussions are happening among Honest Elections, the Attorney General’s staff, the Secretary of State’s staff and the Democratic majority staff. No input has been received from other stakeholders, the business community or unions.

SB 686 A requires online websites, when news stories are copied, to pay digital journalism providers or donate to the Oregon Civic Information Consortium. Senate Rules recommended the bill Do Pass with a partisan 3-2 vote. However, a Minority Report was also filed for the bill, so both reports went to the Senate floor. The Senate then referred the bill back to Senate Rules by a voice vote. That may kill the bill for now, since there is little time left in this session. The League has not taken a position on this bill but is generally sympathetic in support of local journalism.

General Governance, Privacy, and Consumer Protection

By Becky Gladstone 

Bills are progressing more quickly, standing by for late-breaking action at this point. 

HB 3954 tells the Oregon Adjutant General not to allow the Oregon National Guard to be called to active service, except for certain reasons, timelier now with the California National Guard in the news. HB 3954 had a May 5 public hearing, but no subsequent work session. We wrote a commenting letter and sent it to the Governor's staff, the Attorney General, Chair and House Rules Committee members, and bill sponsors, to urge action on this bill, considering amending if it is needed. We compared work done in other states, included in our letter’s end notes, as recommended by House Rules staff. The chief and another bill sponsor have written back, including that the bill’s language was advisedly chosen over Washington state’s “Defend the Guard” bill, HB 1321, signed by Governor Ferguson in April. We are standing by as requested, for updates.

The Impact Project Map is now GLOBAL, showing the impact of “federal changes and their localized effects”. This dynamic map is relevant in Oregon, showing layoffs, program cuts, building closures and “disposals”, “contracts terminated for convenience”, funds frozen or paused under review, etc. The loss of federal support and fear of federal overreach has global stability impacts for Oregon and our trading partners, buying from us and selling to us, and for our family and friends who live around and outside of Oregon. 

Bills We are Watching

• SB 430 Enrolled The Governor has signed this bill for comprehensive business transparency to protect consumers. League testimony in support addressed extensive amendments. This may indeed be one of the top most important bills of the session. 

• HB 3766 Enrolled passed on the Senate floor unanimously. Amended League testimony addressed quantifying defendant age and limiting damages to $10,000, with earlier League testimony in support to allow civil action against an adult who, unbidden, digitally sends intimate images (cyber-flashing) intending to harass, degrade or humiliate. We recommend reading Criminalising Cyberflashing. 

• HB 3569 A is on the Senate floor, would invite a sponsoring legislator, committee chair or designee onto a bill’s Rules Advisory Committee, as a non-voting member. Our testimony opposes for myriad reasons, presented and filed.

• HB 5012, which is Oregon Judicial Department budget bill, had a work session on June 13 and got a Do Pass recommendation in the full Ways and Means. The League was invited again to speak to this. League testimony in support was written and presented. The Ways and Means Committee members expressed a desire to see increased salaries for our judiciary and encouraged the Co-Chairs to consider additional funding in the end-of-session bill.

• SB 224 A in support of privacy for campaign committee staff home addresses, passed a House Rules work session unanimously, then passed the House floor unanimously. League testimony supports.

• SB 1014 to allow political party statement translations in online voters’ pamphlets, passed unanimously from House Rules, and is on the House floor. League testimony in support. 

• SB 1121 B to create a new Class B misdemeanor crime of unlawful private data disclosure, passed the House 54 to 2. It is now in the Senate for consideration of House amendments. League testimony was filed and presented, supporting the bill, including the amendment relating to data broker issues. 

Elections

By Barbara Klein

SB 580 A-Eng.  The bill has passed both chambers. The purpose of the bill is to provide more timely transparency to voters showing declarations or withdrawals of candidates. With concessions for various counties, it requires filing officers in each county and city to make publicly available on their websites certain election documents that are filed with the officers within a specified period, other than for precinct committeepersons. The League submitted testimony on this bill based on the needs of our work producing League Voters’ Guides and Vote411 publications. 

HB 5017 A-Eng. Since passing out of the House and reaching the Senate, on June 12th the bill had its third reading and passed 25-2. It appropriates monies from the General Fund to the State Library for biennial management expenses. The League submitted testimony in February on the bill. Legislative Fiscal Office (LFO) analysis can be viewed here. (The increase in the budget chiefly represents levels of inflation only.) 

HB 3908 relates to party membership and registration requirements. It was filed by the House Rules Committee at the request of the Independent Party of Oregon (IPO). The bill increases the percentage of state voters from 5 to 10 percent required for a party to be a major political party. There was strong opposition to this bill, primarily by Republican members. On June 10th a motion was made to substitute a Minority Report Recommendation. In brief, the minority report would have allowed only candidates of major parties to cross nominate other major party candidates. Under the minority recommendation, minor party candidates could only be cross-nominated by other minor parties; minor parties could not cross-nominate a major party candidate. On the House floor, the motion to substitute the minority report failed 22 to 35. The main bill then passed the House 31 to 26. In the Senate the bill was referred to Senate Rules. On June 16th and 17th, a public hearing and subsequent work session are scheduled. Staff reports have been posted (6/12) and show no fiscal impact. The Oregon Working Families Party, Pacific Green Party and Oregon Progressive Party have all given their support to this effort led by the Oregon Independent Party. The LWVOR did not address this bill. 

Artificial Intelligence

By Lindsey Washburn

HB 3936 A Enrolled  prohibits any hardware, software or service that uses artificial intelligence from being installed or downloaded onto or used or accessed by state information technology assets if the artificial intelligence is developed or owned by a “covered vendor”. Passed the Senate 27-0. 

HB 3592 A establishes the Oregon Commission on Artificial Intelligence to serve as a central resource to monitor the use of artificial intelligence technologies and systems in this state and report on long-term policy implications. A 6/11work session in House Information Management and Technology amended the bill and then referred it to Ways and Means without recommendation.

HB 2299 Enrolled modifies the crime of unlawful dissemination of an intimate image to include the disclosure of digitally created, manipulated or altered images. Will go into effect as law on January 1, 2026. Chapter 116 (2025 Laws)

Rulemaking and Audits

By Peggy Lynch

HB 3569 , a bill that would require a Chief Sponsor (legislator) of a bill to be a part of a rules advisory committee (RAC) for legislation they had a hand in passing, passed the House. The League provided testimony with our concerns and opposition to the bill.  The bill passed Senate Rules on June 5 and now goes to the Senate floor for a vote.  The League continues to have discussions with Legislative Leadership and the Governor’s office on these RACs bills, explaining our concerns. 

We have provided testimony in opposition to HB 2692, a bill that would create complicated and burdensome processes for agencies to implement legislation with their rulemaking procedures.  The League joined others in sharing concerns about this bill to members of House Rules.  It was pulled from the scheduled work session on May 28th. 

The League continues to follow the bills listed on the March 17 agenda of the Senate Committee On Rules since some of the bills relate to the process of rulemaking (SB 437, SB 1006, SB 370, SB 483)  and SB 411, SB 895 also in Senate Rules. 

HB 2454 passed House Rules with the -1 amendment and was sent to Ways and Means. The bill creates a new Audits Officer (with possible additional staff).  The Jt. Audits Committee would hire the Officer.  From Leader Bowman’s office: “HB 2454 changes the statutory authority related to audits and audit reviews from the Legislative Fiscal Office to the Legislative Audit Officer (LAO) and authorizes the LAO to hire necessary staff to carry out assigned functions. The LAO and his/her staff will be housed under the new Legislative Performance Oversight and Government Accountability Office. The bill does substitute LFO for the LAO on a number of responsibilities.  LFO will continue fiscal analyses and other duties, while audits and oversight will be housed under the LAO.”

We are concerned with HB 3382, since the requirements of the Secretary of State to gather ALL the state agencies’ rulemaking, including all materials would be overwhelming. Individual state agencies provide that information on their rulemaking websites.  A work session was held May 28 where the -2 amendment was adopted to delay the web work and the bill sent to Ways and Means. 

Separately, the League was invited to a conversation among state agency rules staff on addressing concerns of the Governor and in an attempt to standardize the process statewide.  The Governor has provided Rulemaking Guidance to state agencies:

This document includes questions received from agencies since the Governor’s letter. This document includes additional resources for agencies including direction to post updates to the Transparency site, a website template that agencies can use (if they choose) to develop their pages, and links to other comprehensive agency rule making sites to review.   There is a broader discussion to increase transparency and consistency in the state agencies’ rulemaking process. A second meeting related to the state agency rules process is set for June with an invitation to the League to continue to participate.

Interested in reading additional reports?  Please see our Climate Emergency, Revenue, Natural Resources, and Social Policy report sections.