Committee advances four bills on veterans, emergency preparedness and local public safety funding

The House Committee on Emergency Management, General Government, and Veterans on April 3 adopted amendments and gave due-pass recommendations for four bills, sending them to other committees for further consideration.

House Bill 2050, as amended, would allow certain military retirement pay and pensions to be subtracted from Oregon taxable income for 100% disabled veterans and members of the National Guard and reserve enlisted corps included under the bill’s definition of veteran.

House Bill 2537 would create a Veterans Waiver Program at the Oregon Health Authority to provide health benefits to veterans who currently do not qualify for OHA coverage but whose income is at or below 400% of federal poverty guidelines.

House Bill 3788 directs the Oregon Business Development Department to develop and administer a grant program to hospitals located near tsunami inundation zones to pay for emergency fuel and water storage; a dash-1 amendment narrowed eligible entities to hospitals that lack a two-week supply of fuel or water.

House Bill 3870 appropriates general funds to the Oregon Business Development Department for public safety purposes and was moved to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means by prior reference.

Votes and motions

- HB 2050 (dash-6 amendment adopted): Vice Chair Graber moved to adopt the dash-6 amendment and then moved HB 2050, as amended, to the floor with a due-pass recommendation and prior referral to the House Committee on Revenue. The clerk called the roll; the motion carried and the measure passed out of committee. Recorded members voting aye included Representative Boyce, Representative Scarlato, Representative Watanabe, Vice Chair Graber, Vice Chair Lewis and Chair Tran; Representative Evans was excused.

- HB 2537 (dash-3 amendment adopted): Vice Chair Lewis moved the dash-3 amendment and then moved HB 2537, as amended, to the floor with a due-pass recommendation and referral to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means by prior reference. The motion carried on roll call.

- HB 3788 (dash-1 amendment adopted): Vice Chair Graber moved the dash-1 amendment and then moved HB 3788, as amended, to the floor with a due-pass recommendation and referral to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means by prior reference. The motion carried on roll call.

- HB 3870 (no amendment): Vice Chair Lewis moved HB 3870 to the floor with a due-pass recommendation and referral to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means by prior reference. The motion carried on roll call.

Why it matters

The committee’s referrals send measures that affect veterans’ financial benefits, veteran access to health coverage, hospital emergency readiness in tsunami zones, and state public-safety funding to committees that handle revenue or budgeting. Several sponsors and committee members described modest fiscal impacts and urged further work in the revenue and budget processes.

What’s next

Each bill will be considered in the committee(s) to which it was referred: HB 2050 to the House Committee on Revenue, and HB 2537, HB 3788 and HB 3870 to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means by prior reference. The committee closed the work session on these bills and moved on to public hearings on other measures.

Quotes

"We want to minimize the fiscal, so we're gonna start off with 100% disabled veterans," Vice Chair Graber said while explaining the dash-6 amendment to HB 2050.

"We shouldn't be building critical infrastructure in the tsunami inundation zone," a committee member said in brief debate on HB 3788, while adding support for resilience of existing infrastructure.

Ending

Committee members recorded unanimous or near-unanimous committee votes on these four measures; the bills will next be considered by revenue or budget committees where fiscal details and appropriations will be evaluated further.