You can view OSA’s report from the end of the 2019 long legislative session here.

You can view OSA’s end of session report for the 2020 short session here.

The Oregon Student Association had a successful short session passing 10 of 12 priority issues.

PASSED

Senate Bill 1563 – Tuition Equity 3.0

Removes requirement that students who are not citizens or lawful permanent residents apply for official federal identification document to be eligible for exemption from paying nonresident tuition at public universities.

Senate Bill 1557 – Military Student Support Reform

Requires community colleges, public universities and Oregon Health and Science University to provide certain rights to students ordered to federal or state active duty for 30 or fewer consecutive days.

House Bill 4141 – Student Voice and Transparency Act

Requires each public university to establish advisory body to advise university president on recommendations to governing board regarding resident tuition and mandatory enrollment fees.

Senate Bill 1528 – HECC Tax Credit Auction

Creates tax credit for contributions to Opportunity Grant Fund.

House Bill 4043 – Community College Financial Aid Advising

Requires community colleges to jointly conduct study to determine best methods for helping community college students learn about and apply for benefits.

House Bill 4150 – K12 Sexual Harassment Reform

Requires specified information to be shared with student, staff member or certain person following conclusion of investigation related to sexual harassment.

House Bill 4053 – K12 Accelerated Credit Transfer

Requires Chief Education Office to prepare annual report on accelerated college credit programs.

Senate Bill 5702 – Capital Investments

Increases amounts authorized for issuance of revenue bonds for biennium.

House Bill 4155 – Net Neutrality

Prohibits public bodies from contracting with broadband Internet access service providers that engage in certain network management activities based on paid prioritization, content blocking or other discrimination.

House Bill 4028 – Student Parent Childcare Tax Credit

Limits expenses for which dependent care income tax credit may be claimed to combination of earned income taxable by Oregon and imputed income, using lesser amount attributable to either spouse on joint return.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

$32M Community College Funding

Obtaining $32 million for community colleges to mitigate tuition increases and expand advising services.

This was one of the hardest tasks on our agenda. Although the Oregon Community College Association was taking lead on this funding request, our organization played a huge role on moving this issue forward. The coalition requested a meeting on the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education for Tuesday, February 27^th. Nearly all members of the subcommittee were on board, including the co-chairs, and we were able to get the House Higher Education leaders to sign a letter of support. However, when requesting funds without a bill aligned, the subcommittee must get the approval of all four co-chairs (subcommittee and full committee).

This made the task difficult for us to advance. We were able to secure 3 out of 4 co-chairs. President Courtney was the missing link. A day before our planned meeting, we were informed that the President decided to not have the meeting on the 27^th. This essentially eliminated the possibility of a funding ask. Legislators in support suggested using whatever political capital they had left to get a smaller amount, but the coalition decided to save that political capital for the long session and make Community College Funding the primary goal for higher education funding allocation.

Paid Postage

Permits county, city or district to choose to permit electors to return ballot by business reply mail, with county, city or district paying cost for ballot return.

The bill was ineffective after the Sine Die. We expect this bill to be a big push during the long session.

This is a sad day for Oregon, especially the many undocumented students OSA works for. Today, the Trump administration announced the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program. The DACA program has served as a critical lifeline for nearly 11,000 immigrants in the state of Oregon.

Thousands of young people in Oregon came out of the shadows and accepted the government’s offer in good faith and worked hard to build their lives here. Today, the government went back on their word, and threatened the lives and futures of 11,000 Oregon Dreamers.

The fate of 800,000 DACA recipients nationwide, who call this country their home, depend on the decisions of Congress. You have an opportunity to reach out to congressional representatives, such as Representative Greg Walden who holds a leadership position in the House of Representatives, and encourage them to fight for undocumented Oregonians.

This is a heartbreaking day for the immigrant community. We encourage students who are impacted to practice self care and reach out to mental health resources on their campus. The Oregon Student Association will continue to organize and fight for undocumented Oregonians.

Introduction

On 7/7/17 the Oregon Legislature passed resolutions to Sine Die, otherwise known as adjourn session. This report is a snapshot of the student victories and missed opportunities.

Students were at the center of Oregon politics and were represented at the capitol every day. We have over 150 students at our lobby days, over 130 in person student testimonies, over 150 written student testimonies and over 350 calls to legislative offices. The power of this advocacy has helped us to advance our agenda as an association. Here are some of the results of student advocacy:

Priority Policy Issues

SB 762 – Survivor Amnesty PASSED

Summary: Exempts sexual assault victims and persons assisting sexual assault victims from arrest or prosecution for offense related to purchase or possession of alcoholic beverage by person under 21 years of age if evidence of offense was obtained because of contact with law enforcement agency or emergency medical services to report assault or obtain assistance.

SB 231- Mental Health & Neurodivergancy Research PASSED

Summary: Establishes Task Force on Student Mental Health Support.

HB 2845 – Ethnic Studies Standards PASSED

Summary: Directs Department of Education to convene advisory group to develop statewide ethnic studies standards for adoption into existing statewide social studies standards for public kindergarten through grade 12.

HB 2864 – Cultural Competency PASSED

Summary: Requires each community college and public university to establish process for recommending, and providing oversight for implementation of, cultural competency standards for institution and institution’s employees.

HB 2355 – End Profiling PASSED

Summary: Directs Oregon Criminal Justice Commission to develop method for recording data concerning officer-initiated pedestrian and traffic stops. Also trains mandates cultural competency trainings of all Oregon law enforcement officers and reduces drug felonies to misdemeanor for the first 2 offenses.

HB 2673 -Gender Documentation PASSED

Summary: Creates alternative process for persons seeking to change name on vital record for purpose of affirming gender identity.

Priority Budget Issues

Missed Budget Opportunities 

HB 2830 – Oregon Education Reinvestment Act FAILED

Summary: Increases corporate activity tax rates. Would secure $250M for higher education budgets.

Other Student Priorities

Click here to read the Mid Session Review!

Click here to read OSA’s media statement on proposed revenue plan.

Priority Issues

Cultural Competency HB 2864

The association has been focusing much of its legislative capacity towards cultural competency in the last couple weeks. We have been working with the Universities and community colleges on agreeing on a cost for the components of the bill and closing out policy negotiations. At this point universities have agreed to to report a minimal fiscal impact for this biennium if change the effective date of the bill to the end of 2019. After we get the amendment back HB 2864 will be scheduled for a work session. We should expect to see it scheduled within the next week.

End Profiling HB 2355

HB 2355 passed out of House Judiciary 8-2-1 with a few amendments. These amendments came forth after the speaker’s office and law enforcement negotiations completed. The coalition accepted these amendments in an effort to keep law enforcement on the table and keep the drug portion intact. At this point we will start to shift our efforts to Ways and Means so that it gets fully funded. The amendments include:

All residue cases are misdemeanors and will not count towards your number of charges to a felony.

3 strikes you’re out- after someone receives 2 drug misdemeanors charges, they will receive a felony charge on their 3rd conviction.

Lowering the amount of time someone can receive jail time for a drug misdemeanor.

Data collection on drug charges in Oregon.

Survivor Amnesty SB 762

We have finalized the amendments for SB 762 and we are looking to have a work session scheduled the second week of April. The amendment expands the protection to bystanders who are calling for medical assistance.

Ethnic Studies HB 2845

HB 2845 is scheduled for a work session April 10th. Since the hearing we have worked with Representative Parrish on an amendment to include someone who is an expert of Middle Eastern or Jewish studies.

Mental Health Taskforce SB 231

SB 231 is scheduled for a hearing and possible work session April 3rd where it is expected to be voted out and sent to Ways and means. There, we will have to opportunity to adjust the bill if necessary to ensure the bill is costing Oregon a substantial amount of money.

Gender and Name Change Documentation HB 2673

Now that HB 2673 is on the Senate side, we are waiting for the Senate to finish considering all of the Senate bills, which they are expected to wrap up by April 18th. After that the Senate will start to hear house bills.We have joined Basic Rights Oregon in efforts to provide organizing capacity to the bill when needed. BRO Lobbyist will be joining us for our O-Board lobby day to go over the bill and messaging.

Other Policy highlights

Stable Homes

Voted out of committee 5-4 on a party line vote with . Scheduled for a floor vote on in the house chamber April 4th.

Veterans Resource centers

Work Session Scheduled April 4th.

Student Fee Autonomy for community colleges

Work Session Scheduled April 6th.

Reproductive Health Equity

Seeking a work session date.

Undocumented survivor Protections

Public Hearing and Work Session scheduled April 4th.

Open Educational Resources

Referred to Ways and Means March 31st

Budget Priorities

Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education

Currently, the Ways and Means subcommittee on education is currently going through an educational series on Higher Education Budgets.They have also scheduled a set of public hearings where they hope to hear from students. The dates are as follows:

April 4th Public Hearing for Financial Aid

April 10th Public Hearing for Community Colleges

April 17th Public Hearing for Universities

Higher Education Coordinating Commission tuition setting meeting

As Universities begin to set their tuition increases, the HECC has planned on hearing all of the universities tuition increases on May 11th. This is an opportunity for students to testify about our budget asks and tuition affordability. Please note that this tuition setting meeting is only for universities that are planning to raise their tuition above 5%.

Higher Education Lobby day

We have been asked by the Higher Education coalition to participate in a lobby day May 16th. This is the same day that the May revenue forecast is being released, so we are hoping to talk to legislators about our budget asks and the need for more revenue.

May 16th Revenue forecast

The May revenue forecast is what the Co Chairs of Ways and Means base the bulk of their budget on. A week or two after the May revenue forecast is released, the Co-Chairs will release their preliminary budget, which will be a key point in time for students to see what dollars may be coming into Higher Education.

Legislator Townhalls

Students have started to attend local townhalls to talk about our Budget asks and the need for more revenue. Students may be asked to attend one in your district in the next couple of months.

Upcoming Key Dates

• April 3rd Public Hearing and Possible work Session for SB 231 (Mental Health Taskforce)
• April 4th Public Hearing for Financial Aid
• April 10th Public Hearing for Community Colleges
• April 10th Work Session for Ethnic Studies
• April 17th Public Hearing for Universities
• May 11th HECC Tuition Setting meeting
• May 16th May Revenue Forecast
• May 16th Higher Education Lobby Day

The HECC is still looking for a student to sit on this committee. Please email  [email protected] if you are interested.