Friends and neighbors,

It has been a few weeks since I was able to put one of these together, but the goal is to have a short one go out at the end of every week the rest of session. I recently hired my new District Chief of Staff (Nikolas Ruiz Anderson), and he has offered to use his bilingual skills to start providing constituent support and services in Spanish as well! This is a very exciting opportunity for our District. While I have always valued the rich tapestry of our districts demographics, I have not felt comfortable offering assistance and services knowing full well I would not be able to provide a good experience. With Nik on board, I am hoping to be able to be a bridge between our Hispanic/Latino(a) community and their government. If you know of anyone who might benefit from these services, or who is just looking to get plugged in more have them email me and sign up for the Spanish version of this newsletter.

As we continue to move deeper into this legislative session, it is imperative that you keep reaching out to my office and sharing your thoughts. We might not be able to get back to everyone right away, but we do make note of your concerns. I want to make sure that we come out of this session having achieved the best solution possible for all of Oregon. That means we have to make changes to Ballot Measure 110, we have to increase housing in this state, and we have to make sure that we protect the budget so that we can continue to save for when this economy inevitably turns. The Speaker and I have been working towards what we hope will be an amicable end to this session, but the devil will always be in the details when it comes to legislation. I do believe there is a path forward that provides results for our state, not just more empty promises.

We want to try something new in the office. If you think there is anything that should be highlighted in our newsletter (fun celebrations, good works in the community, topics of concern) email us! My office will vet it and look to incorporate it on our next one. I wish you a wonderful week, and as always pray for all your public officials who go to work trying to make our communities better every single day.

Sincerely,

Representative Jeff Helfrich

What's Happening in Salem

The short session moves at a very fast pace. If you are wanting to follow along and have never used the Oregon Legislative Information Services (OLIS) website please follow this link for a quick overview. You can also call my office and someone will try and walk you through it as soon as they get a chance. OLIS is they tool we use throughout the building to follow bills, committees, and testimony! You can watch things live, or go back at your own convenience to watch previous hearings and floor sessions.

We saw our first deadline pass this last Monday (2/12/2024). Bills in most policy committees had to either have been worked or been scheduled for a work session by 11:59pm on that day to continue in the process. I say most because there are a few that are exempt from those requirements. Both Senate and House Rules and Revenue, as well as all Joint Committees can continue to work on their bills without adhering to the deadline schedule. This means that if a bill you are following is in one of those committees, it still has a chance this session. However, if the measure you are tracking is in any other policy committee and was not scheduled for a work session by the deadline, at this point the likelihood of it moving forward is very slim.

You will remember this guide that our Legislative Policy and Research Office put together a few weeks back. You can see that the next deadline is today, 2/19/2024! The First Chamber Work Session Deadline means that a measure in a policy committee has to be voted on by 11:59pm today. If they fail to do so, that bill is also dead.

A way that we can try and get a bill passed should they fail to meet the deadlines is by a process called a bill pull. Via this process, the body can vote to have a bill brought straight to the floor without a committee vote, and then vote yes or no on it then. It requires a simple majority vote to bring it to the chamber. This week we tried to pull a number of educations reforms to the floor, but they failed to get the required 31 votes to be considered. The measures were:

• HB 4095: re-establishes basic proficiency standards for reading, writing, and math as conditions for a student to receive a high school diploma or a modified diploma.

• HB 4161: effectively removes the cap on students who can enroll in a virtual charter school without their resident school district’s approval. Current law caps the percentage of students from a school district who can attended virtual charter schools that are not sponsored by their school district. 

• HJR 203: proposes an amendment to the Oregon Constitution to establish the fundamental right of parents to direct the education, upbringing, and care of their children.

It is my belief that these measures would have greatly improved our educational outcomes in this state. You can read more about our bill pull in the this press release.

I get to take a lot of meetings during session (especially during a short session), and get to hear from many people across the state. As we get deeper into the session with my new role, my availability for these meetings will decrease so I wanted to highlight a few!

Legislative Language Access Resources

Our Legislative Policy and Research Office is at it again! They shared with us that they have been working diligently to make sure there is sufficient language access during out committee process. To that end, you can see the full email below:

"In preparation for the 2024 legislative session, I am pleased to share some important updates from your Language Access Team.

Support for deaf and hard of hearing Oregonians:

• American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters will be available for all committee hearings, some providing services remotely and some in-person.
• We now offer the option to request a Microsoft Teams link for an enhanced view of the committee hearing. This request may be made by contacting the team.
• For meetings held in Hearing Rooms A-F, participants can listen to the audio in the room in real time (and increase the volume) by downloading the Listen EVERYWHERE app on their personal device or check out a device from Visitor Services to hear the audio.
• Listen EVERYWHERE app:
• For Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.listentech.ListenEverywhere&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1
• For iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/listen-everywhere/id1391914337

Support for spoken language needs:

• Spanish language interpretation will be available for some committee hearings, and upon request for testimony, meetings with legislators, and other needs. Requests may be made by contacting the team. For committee hearings with Spanish interpretation, participants in the Capitol building can listen in real time to the Spanish audio via the Listen EVERYWHERE app or can listen from anywhere to the recorded audio posted on OLIS after the meeting.
• Legislative offices may request telephonic interpretation for meetings with constituents and written translation (English to another language, another language to English) by contacting the team.
• Summaries of Legislation from the 2023 legislative session are available in Spanish on the Legislative Policy and Research Office website: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/lpro/Pages/summary-of-legislation.aspx

Contact the Language Access Team:

• By email: languageaccess@oregonlegislature.gov
• By phone: 503-986-1538"

We are so thankful that these services can be offered to Oregonians, and that more people can enjoy and partake in their legislative process!

Tax Season Resources from the DOR

I hope you have enjoyed this read, and as always my office welcomes your feedback, questions, and comments on anything you see here or in the district. You can sign up for the large print version of this newsletter here, or the Spanish version here. Please send me a note at Rep.JeffHelfrich@oregonlegislature.gov or call 503-986-1452.