SALEM- Rep. Matt Wingard, R-Wilsonville, broke ranks with the House GOP’s series of speeches on job and business loss due to the tax measures last month by bringing up a topic that hasn’t taken center stage this session, climate change and the climatgate scandal.

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gelTt5EmQ1g

BY SARAH ROSS

SALEM- An amendment to guarantee health care to all Oregonians narrowly failed in a House floor vote Friday morning.

The amendment proposed by Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, would have put forth a constitutional amendment to be voted on by the Senate and then brought to the ballot for a statewide vote from the citizens. The legislation offered an amendment creating a state obligation ensuring that every legal resident of the state has access to “effective, medically appropriate and affordable health care.”

Thirty legislators, all Democrats, voted in favor of the bill. 28 legislators opposed it, including all Republican representatives and five Democrat representatives. The bill required just 31 votes to pass the House.

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vphObcgNPAk

SALEM- Continuing with the trend of Republican remonstrances on Oregon’s business climate, House Minority Leader, Rep. Bruce Hanna, R-Roseburg, describes a poll about the current mood of entrepreneurs in Oregon and the importance of small businesses to the state’s economy.

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ybnYFjbKGo

SALEM- Rep. Kim Thatcher,R-Keizer, tells stories of businesses leaving the state after the tax increases passed last month continuing the trend of Republican remonstrances on the issue this session.

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6evei2c-nRw

SALEM- Talk of jobs in Oregon continues to dominate speeches on the House floor, as seen in Tuesday’s speeches by Rep. Sal Esquivel (R-Medford), Rep. Bill Garrard (R-Kalamath Falls), and Rep. Jules Bailey (D-Portland).

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfAM7XM0i20

SALEM- House Minority Leader, Rep. Bruce Hanna (R-Roseburg) reported on Thursday that Oregon had the largest number of new jobless claims out of any state in the Union.

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k78TMam1lmk

Update- Bill passed the House Floor on Monday morning and will now move to the Senate.

BY SARAH ROSS

SALEM- The House Committee on Environment and Water approved a bill Thursday which will ban offshore drilling in Oregon for a period of 10 years.

The original bill brought to the committee constituted a lifetime ban on the leasing of land for the purpose of offshore drilling for oil and natural gas. Little opposition for the bill was brought to the committee during the public hearing on Tuesday. Since the petroleum industry is not pursuing a lease on the land, the only real concern for the bill was its permanent status.

An amendment was therefore brought before the committee by its chair, Rep. Ben Cannon, D-Portland, to limit the ban to a 10-year period, at which time the legislature would need to renew it or make it permanent.

“[The amendment] represents a middle course with respects to the sunset. There will be advocates for the ban, including me, who feel putting a 10-year sunset on the bill weakens it,” said Rep. Cannon.

“I’m reluctant to do so but understand that in this short session, under the timeline that we’re under, and in the interest of generating as much support as possible and really moving forward in a bipartisan way, I am urging the committee to adopt the -2 amendments which would sunset the ban in 2020.”

Much opposition to the amendment came from the Democrats on the committee; but with the Chairman’s vote, the amendment passed, changing the legislation from a ban to a 10-year moratorium.

“I am in favor of the ban,” said Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Lane and Linn Counties. “The ban would require an additional step to any other steps that would be taken in order to do oil and gas exploration off the coast, and that would be a visit through the legislature.”

Republicans on the committee, however, saw the ban as being closed to future technologies and national energy crises and were more accepting of the temporary ban.

SALEM- House Majority Leader Rep. Mary Nolan, D-Portland, spoke to the House floor on Wednesday, promoting the achievements in Oregon’s business climate.

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcUcirFWlMg

SALEM- Rep. Michael Schaufler, D-Happy Valley, talks about the need for jobs in Oregon at Wednesday’s House Committee on Business and Labor hearing.

Later that afternoon, Schaufler apologized to the body for making this speech while in committee, calling it out of order.

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCzOHnTd7ok

Update- This six week extension of benefits was passed on the House floor Thursday morning and passed through the Senate on Friday morning.

BY SARAH ROSS

SALEM- The House Committee on Business and Labor approved an extension of unemployment benefits Wednesday, passing the bill along to a later vote on the House floor.

According to the Oregon Employment Department, the extension would cover the 4,000-4,500 people not currently covered by unemployment insurance. It allows for $19,000,000 in added benefits for long-term unemployment and qualifies the state to receive additional federal funding.

Testimony from union representatives of the AFL-CIO and SEIU gave support to the bill, calling it an important step, though perhaps inadequate in getting people back to work. Support also came from the Employment Department and Associated Oregon Industries.

Rep. Michael Schaufler, D-Happy Valley, took a moment to speak during the hearing to address problems with job creation in the state.

“Anybody who says ‘no’ to LNG is saying ‘no’ to family wage jobs and ‘no’ to their children,” said Schaufler. “We’ve been processed to death for eight years in this building and we’re going nowhere but down. And we have no one left to tax.”

Aside from a few technical questions for those who testified, no obvious dissent of the bill was presented during the hearing.