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Senate passes bill to remove cap and reallocate leftover funds for children's advocacy centers
Summary
House Bill 31195A removes a $300,000 cap on eligibility for supplemental 2024 funding to children's advocacy centers and gives the Oregon Department of Justice three extra months to allocate leftover funds so eligible centers can receive additional disbursements.
The Senate approved House Bill 31195A to ensure leftover 2024 funds for children's advocacy centers (CACs) are allocated rather than left unused.
Sponsor Senator Patterson explained that the 2024 appropriation created two pots of funding: a distribution among all CACs and a second pot with eligibility criteria that required centers to apply for accreditation by June 2025. Some centers were unable to meet the accreditation requirement—accreditation can be expensive and sometimes depends on factors outside a center's control—leaving roughly $125,000 at risk of remaining unspent.
"To ensure that all funds are spent down, House Bill 31 95 A ... simply removes the $300,000 cap that Senate Bill 1579 put in place," Patterson said on the floor, and the bill gives the Oregon Department of Justice an extra three months to allocate the leftover funding to another CAC that fulfills accreditation criteria. Patterson stressed that the bill "does not contain new funding" but reallocates previously authorized dollars so no money remains unspent.
The bill passed the Senate by roll call; the clerk declared that House Bill 31 95 A "having received a constitutional majority is declared passed." Patterson noted Liberty House in Salem achieved accreditation and benefited, but some CACs faced accreditation barriers.
The change is administrative and intended to ensure that the 2024 appropriation is fully distributed to eligible children's advocacy centers across the state.
