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Proponents urge workforce standards board for home care; providers warn of costs and delegation of authority

Senate Interim Committee · January 13, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Supporters, including SEIU members and direct support professionals, urged the committee to advance LC 38 to address staffing, training and turnover in home and community-based services; provider groups countered that the board could be costly, delegate legislative power and would not itself fund wage increases.

Proponents told the Senate committee that LC 38 would create a workforce standards board to set minimum working standards for home- and community-based services and to recommend funding needed to implement those standards.

"We represent 65,000 public and care workers across Oregon," said Melissa Unger, executive director of SEIU Local 503, in testimony urging the committee to advance the board as a mechanism to stabilize a workforce she said faces poverty wages, burnout and high turnover. Direct support professional Aster Nickerson described unstable schedules, injury on the job and the harm that…

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