Ways and Means committee recommends five bills be reported out, including omnibus budget rebalance

The Joint Committee on Ways and Means on March 14, 2025, voted to report several measures out of committee with recommendations that they be passed as amended, including a $2.3 billion package of budget rebalance actions and multiple capital construction and bond-authority adjustments.

The actions matter because the package contains a sweeping budget rebalance (Senate Bill 5,550) that makes multi-hundred-million-dollar changes across state agencies and funds, and several bills that alter capital construction expenditure limits and bond scope for higher education and military projects.

Senate Bill 5,550 was described to the committee as an omnibus budget reconciliation bill that rebalances state agency budgets, makes statewide debt-service adjustments and provides supplemental funding. Committee presentation listed $2.3 billion in rebalance actions, including a $359 million general fund adjustment for the Oregon Health Authority and Department of Human Services, $30.92 million for pay-equity-related personal services costs, and other line-item changes. The committee recommended SB 5,550 be amended by the dash 2 amendment and reported out due pass as amended.

Committee members also recommended reporting out House Bill 5,049 with dash 1 amendment. That bill adjusts allocations from the Administrative Services Economic Development Fund, the Oregon Marijuana Account and the Criminal Fine Account for programs approved in the 2023–25 legislatively approved budget, including an increase of $120,282 to support positions in the Oregon Business Development Department and reductions tied to a March 2025 revenue forecast.

House Bill 50 50 was reported out with a dash 1 amendment to alter previously approved bond authorizations, including increasing Article XI-GS bond authorization authority by $2.5 million for Klamath Community College’s Child Care Resource Learning Center and expanding the Oregon Military Department project scope in Washington County to include land acquisition without changing the project’s total authorized bond amount. House Bill 50 51 was recommended with the dash 2 amendment to adjust six-year capital construction expenditure limitations, including $2.5 million increases for the Oregon Military Department and the Higher Education Coordinating Commission.

Senate Bill 10 — a technical, non-appropriation measure to support the 2023–25 budget — was amended on the floor to add a subsection clarifying that a transfer from the educator advancement fund to the state school fund repays school districts for federal forest fee revenue; the committee replaced the dash 1 amendment with a dash 2 and recommended the bill be reported out due pass as amended.

Votes at a glance - House Bill 5049 (allocations from Economic Development Fund, Oregon Marijuana Account, Criminal Fine Account): recommended amended (dash 1) and reported out due pass as amended; committee recommendation passed (no roll-call recorded in transcript). - House Bill 5050 (bond authorization changes, Article XI-GS adjustments): recommended amended (dash 1) and reported out due pass as amended; committee recommendation passed. - House Bill 5051 (capital construction expenditure limitations): recommended amended (dash 2) and reported out due pass as amended; committee recommendation passed. - Senate Bill 5550 (omnibus budget rebalance, 2023–25): recommended amended (dash 2) and reported out due pass as amended; committee recommendation passed. - Senate Bill 10 (statutory changes supporting the 2023–25 budget): dash 2 amendment adopted to clarify educator advancement fund transfer; recommended amended and reported out due pass as amended.

The committee’s actions were procedural recommendations to move the measures to the next step with specified amendments. The transcript records that each motion to report the bills out as amended was put and that there was no objection; no roll-call vote tallies were recorded in the committee transcript. The recommendations will accompany the bills as they proceed through the legislative process.