Legislative Update
By Oregonians for Food and Shelter,
Tensions seem to be rising in the Capitol as two labor bills sparked partisan divides this week in Salem. The Senate advanced SB 916, which would allow striking workers to collect unemployment benefits. This triggered a Republican effort to daylight Democrats ties to Labor Unions, which was called out last weekend by the Oregonian. The House held its first hearing on HB 2548, creating an unelected “agricultural workforce standards board.” This would hold agricultural employers to new standards, different from any other sector, including dictating wages, benefits, and even terminating employees. It would fast track additional labor regulations from state agencies, without legislative approval. Join the conversation here.
OFS continues to work with legislators, committees and our member organizations as we approach next Friday’s first deadline (which requires bills to be scheduled for a possible vote), and the major “First Chamber” deadline April 9th when many bills will officially die.
This week, we tracked HB 3512, an ill-conceived attempt to eliminate PFAS in certain products. However, the bills definitions, enforcement mechanism and timing are impractical and inconsistent with other state and federal laws. We have not seen amendments that would change our opposition to HB 2679, which proposes restrictions on neonicotinoids and could lead to unintended negative outcomes for applicators and the environment. OFS engaged this week in additional conversations regarding a proposal to give DEQ more money to continue to develop a portal to house the state’s water data (HB 3106). While we support the concept of a data portal, OFS and our members and partners oppose having DEQ lead and house this project, due to ongoing concerns around their mismanagement of water data across their programs. Finally, we are engaging the Governor’s team and legislators on a bill introduced late in the session to significantly change groundwater laws and agency authorities in the state (SB 1154). The OFS team and most Capitol insiders are eagerly awaiting the upcoming deadlines for clarity on these and thousands of other proposed bills.
Regulatory Updates
U.s Fish & Wildlife Proposed Listing of Monarch Butterfly
This week, OFS submitted comments on the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Proposed Rule to list the monarch butterfly as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. If listed as a threatened species, an activity that causes injury or mortality of the monarch would be prohibited unless the activity is exempted through a 4(d) exemption in the listing rule. OFS urged FWS to add pesticide use as a 4(d) exemption in the final rule, and detailed regulatory requirements and drift reduction measures that Oregon agriculture and forest industries already take to minimize off-target impacts of pesticide use.
DEQ Nutrient Strategy
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is working to establish a statewide “nutrient reduction strategy” to address nutrient pollution in Oregon’s waterways and groundwater. As part of this work, they have contracted with Oregon’s Kitchen Table to gather input and opinions from the public about whether and how DEQ should be regulating nutrient pollution. The survey will be available through March 31st and we encourage participation from the natural resource industry. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete.
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