Subcommittee advances Oregon DOJ budget with funding for IT, fraud investigators and child advocacy

The Public Safety Subcommittee advanced the Legislative Fiscal Office recommendation on House Bill 5014, the Oregon Department of Justice budget, on June 3, sending the measure to the Ways and Means full committee with a due‑pass recommendation.

The LFO told the committee the department's recommended total‑funds budget is $966,835,947, including $198,065,487 general fund and funding for 1,604 positions (1,588.84 FTE). LFO staff described an overall 8.5% increase in total funds over current service level and said the request contains multiple division‑level packages across the agency.

Committee members said the changes matter because they shift resources into information technology and internal legal capacity while responding to new workloads such as Medicaid fraud and returning county child‑support operations.

The LFO presentation outlined several packages driving the change. Package 103 is a $2.3 million agency‑level investment LFO described as “keeping up with inflation for existing IT contracts and improving agency IT security” and the…