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Committee hears HB 4061 on tariff-relief grants for microenterprises and procurement reform
Summary
HB 4061, amended in dash-2, would establish tariff-relief grants (up to $10,000) for Oregon-headquartered microenterprises and direct DAS to develop a procurement reform roadmap; the committee heard sponsor and DAS testimony and closed the public hearing.
The House Committee on Economic Development, Small Business and Trade heard House Bill 4061 on Feb. 9, which would direct Business Oregon and the Department of Administrative Services to update trade strategy work and procurement practices and would create a small tariff-relief grant program for microenterprises.
Sponsor Representative Daniel Winn described the dash-2 amendment: it reallocates prior funding and establishes a $950,000 tariff-relief grant pool administered by Business Oregon, with individual grants capped at $10,000 for businesses headquartered in Oregon that have operated at least two years and have annual sales under $500,000. The grants are intended as reimbursement for tariff-driven cost increases and are explicitly described as adjustment assistance rather than full indemnification.
Catherine Jones, Oregon’s chief procurement officer at DAS, told the committee that DAS is undertaking a procurement transformation, assessing barriers to contracting for small businesses, analyzing e-procurement data needs, and coordinating with other states to modernize IT procurement. She said some statutory analyses requested in earlier drafts are physically impossible under current systems, so the amended bill asks DAS for plans and timelines to produce those analyses.
The committee closed the public hearing on HB 4061 with no immediate vote; the bill will return to committee work sessions or be scheduled for further action.
