Legislation
In this Section
OregonLive has a great website that updates how Rep. Bailey votes on bills as they come up on the floor.
Committee Assignments:
I am proud to announce that I will return as the co-chair for the House Energy Environment and Water Committee as well as the co-chair for the Joint Committee on Tax Credits and will remain the co-vice chair of Revenue, and the co-vice chair of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Natural Resources.
Co-chairing the Joint Committee on Tax Credits will allow me to continue the work I started last session when I helped craft and pass HB 2067, the first ever automatic sunset and review of all tax credits. No longer will corporate tax breaks go unexamined. Instead, policy committees will analyze each credit, and make recommendations on whether they should continue, be modified, or ended. After that, the Joint Committee on Tax Credits will review all the tax credits and consider them together, in coordination with the budget process. HB 2067 was the first step at treating revenue expenditures in the tax code much like we treat budget expenditures. The Joint Committee on Tax Credits is the next step in the process, and I am honored to co-chair it in its inaugural session.
Check out updated committee agendas here
Legislation
Priority legislation for the 2011 Session:
HB 2900: ODOE RestructuringThis bill will transform the current Oregon Dept. of Energy (ODOE) to improve outcomes, reduce costs, and provide a test case for other agency improvements. ODOE’s business-oriented incentives will be moved to Business Oregon (BizO). The regulatory and energy efficiency/renewable energy investment programs will be moved to the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to coordinate with utility regulation and the Energy Trust of Oregon and Consumer Owned Utilities. Finally, ODOE’s siting functions will be coordinated with the Dept. of Land Development and Conservation and other applicable agencies. With core programs redistributed, the remaining programs and planning will be elevated into a Governor’s Office of Energy. The GEO will be charged with setting the long-term energy strategy for the state and aligning agency resources to execute that strategy. You can read the bill here.
HB 2438: The Healthy Teen Relationship Act
Nationally, 1 in 10 adolescents report being a victim of physical dating abuse. Learning about healthy relationships is a long-term investment that can shape healthy adult relationships and families. Teaching teens about healthy relationships can help to prevent future domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, promote their future career/educational development, and more. This bill is a bipartisan effort to address the issue of teen dating violence, especially in our schools. The bill directs school districts to have a response policy to the issues of dating violence among teens. It also creates a fund, separate from the state’s General Fund, that can accept private moneys to do a longitudinal study on teen violence and the effectiveness of healthy relationship education. You can read the bill here.
HB 2960: High Performance Schools
This bill is the beginning of a series of conversation about how we can leverage energy efficiency investments in schools with further structural upgrades. In order to access the benefits of efficiency, schools often need significant upgrades to aging structures before insulation, efficient windows, and modern heating systems can be installed. HPS is not just about energy efficiency – it is about leveraging the resources that can finance all the needs in school capital facilities, including those things that make a building safer, more comfortable, and a better learning and teaching environment. Read the bill in its current form here.
HB 2275: the Community Engagement Act
We’re working closely with the Oregon Employment Department to find a workable program that encourage those seeking work to expand their networks and opportunities by participating in volunteer activities. Read the bill in its current form here.
Past Key Legislation
My February Member bill was the Oregon Local Jobs Act. Navigating the various national and regional polices regarding procurement preferences proved to be very difficult in so short a session. I am currently co-chairing (along with Senator Joanne Verger) a workgroup to study the viability of implementing regional preference factors in public contracting for employment of workforce and procurement of materials, based on State carbon reduction goals. You can access the bill as it was submitted during the February session here.
Bills from the 2009 Session:
HB 2067 This is the first-ever regular review and sunset of all tax credits in Oregon. Tax credits are expenditures of tax dollars, and every credit should have a review and sunset. HB 2067 accomplishes that. House Bill 2067 does not raise taxes; it allows for an orderly review of certain tax breaks not required under federal law or the Oregon Constitution. Read the bill here.
HB 3418 This bill requires the Department of Human Services to develop payment systems to promote health care delivery through integrated health homes for medical assistance recipients. Read the bill here.
HB 2626 This bill would require the Department of Energy to develop and implement a loan financing program so as to promote household energy efficiency and sustainable technology improvements. The state would not provide financing directly but would work with utilities, energy auditors, and providers of finance to create a system in which residents would pay off energy efficiency loans through monthly payments included in utility bills. Read the bill here.
The Governor signing HB 2626 on July 22, 2009.
HB 3123 This bill directs the DEQ to study the effects of sewage, gray water and hazardous materials discharged from vessels in Oregon's territorial limit. Read the bill here.
Videos
Panel 3: Opportunities in the Emerging Clean Energy Economy from Georgetown Climate Center on Vimeo.
Rep. Bailey talks about the upcoming session on Comcast Newsmakers.
Rep. Bailey joins Rep. Garrard in Klamath Falls to announce Clean Energy Works Oregon debut.
Floor Speeches
Rep. Bailey speaks on the House floor in favor of Senate Bill 1045, the Job Applicant Fairness Act, which bans most employers from using pre-employment credit checks. Pre-employment credit checks unfairly punish people for economic circumstances that are often out of their control.
2009 Floor Speech on HB 2001, the Jobs and Transportation Package:
"Colleagues, I rise today to support HB 2001, and I want to tell you why I support this bill, why it is a balanced and smart investment, and where I think we can, and must, go in the future.
We've learned from over 50 years of experience that in most communities, we can't simply build our way out of our transportation problems. This was the great sea change of the middle 20th century: when a community organizer named Jane Jacobs stood up to Robert Moses, the most powerful man in New York, and stopped the construction of a freeway through the heart of Greenwich Village.
In doing so she rewrote the rules of urban planning and transportation, and revolutionized how we think about public safety, healthy communities, and quality of life.
We've seen what happens when we don't plan well. The housing projects of that era, hemmed in by freeways in Chicago, New York, and L.A., crippled a generation of families with poverty, violence, and decay. The belief that we could engineer a better society through broad boulevards and isolation stunted our growth as a nation and created a debt we are still paying today. Le Corbusier was an architect of bricks and mortar, not of society and community."
We've seen what happens when we don't plan well. The housing projects of that era, hemmed in by freeways in Chicago, New York, and L.A., crippled a generation of families with poverty, violence, and decay.
The belief that we could engineer a better society through broad boulevards and isolation stunted our growth as a nation and created a debt we are still paying today. Le Corbusier was an architect of bricks and mortar, not of society and community.
And as we rediscover the value of connectivity, of choice, of freedom, of the smile from a front porch next to the grocery store or a wave from a balcony above the bakery, the monument to Robert Moses might as well have the inscription of Ozymandias: "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair."
So, Colleagues, let us not look for those projects that are shovel ready, but for those that are shovel worthy. And how might we do that? HB 2001 gives us a roadmap.
We have for the first time a framework that requires the Metro area to plan to meet the most stringent greenhouse gas goals in the nation, and a toe in the door to bring that planning to cities across Oregon.
We have a congestion pricing pilot program that takes a critical step towards correctly pricing travel.
And perhaps most importantly we have a revolutionary least cost planning model that includes in the definition of cost not only the cost of the road but the cost to our health, our environment, and our society, and a model that looks at how we can influence demand for roads, and not just how many we build.
Coupled with the transit bill we just passed, the flexible funds the OTC designated last week for planning and multimodal transportation, and HB 2186, this is fair bill that brings funding for bicycle and pedestrian trails and will help us build a system for everyone, not just cars. It is supported by the city of Portland, Multnomah County, and Metro. It is the right bill for our urban areas.
Efficient use of our public dollars means investments that meet a rigorous benefit-cost analysis, with a broad definition of both benefits and costs. It’s not more roads or fewer roads, it’s roads in the right places for the right reasons.
HB 2001 starts us down the path. But it is not the destination. It can't get us there all the way, because it is constrained by our constitution.
In a world without the Highway Trust Fund, we could raise the money we need, and spend it most efficiently to move people and goods in the way that makes sense for each community. But the trust fund limits us only to roads, and only to a 20th Century paradigm.
We can neither achieve our transportation goals, nor our climate goals, with the Highway Trust Fund constraints. In California 75% of transportation dollars go to MPOs and 23% goes to the state department of transportation, allowing regions to pursue integrated, multimodal transportation planning.
With proper planning and proper pricing of pollution, congestion, and wear and tear, we can have a system that pays for itself, invests wisely, and promotes sustainability. It could be a system that makes the gas tax obsolete. It could be a system that does for efficiency and conservation in the transportation sector what utility planning has done in the energy sector.
This isn't just about jobs now or the environment tomorrow. There is a real benefit in quality of life. It is a second paycheck that we all cash. And in a competitive global economy we have what Omaha or Orlando would kill for: a sense of place that draws, fosters, and nurtures innovation and creativity.
Transportation is not just about planes, trains, and automobiles. It is about people; and how people live.
HB 2001 moves us in the right direction. It may not be everything any of us wants, but it is a good bill. It is another step forward from a state known for stepping out in front of the nation. And it is the first of many steps, colleagues, that I hope will one day result in the transformation of how we fund and plan transportation.
Cement crumbles, and places change. The structures we build with our hands do not last but those that we build with our policies endure. And on this monument we inscribe not what we build, but how we do it. HB 2001 turns the tide, and I hope you will give it your aye vote."
Resources
Check out the current Oregon laws: Oregon Revised Statutes
The Oregon Channel provides unedited television coverage of state government and public affairs. Watch Jules give floor speeches live!
The Oregon State Archives contains legislative committee minutes in addition to historic state documents.
Government
Energy Efficiency Resources
The following is a list of resources for further information on energy conservation, retrofit financing, and implementation models.
The Energy Trust of Oregon is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Oregonians benefit from saving energy and tapping renewable resources.
Clean Energy Works Portland is a pilot program that will help up to 500 qualified Portland homes finance and install energy efficiency upgrades.
ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of promoting economic prosperity, energy security, and environmental protection.
Check out Change to Win's report on job quality in the new green economy.
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