I'm back home from a full day at the state Capitol.  We are three legislative days away from a big deadline.  Any bill that has not moved out of its original committee by the close of business on Tuesday is dead.  This deadline sets up a last minute scramble for folks to keep their bill breathing.  A bill can die for many reasons.  It may never have had a hearing or been heard and left its committee unmoved.  It may need amendments that cannot be agreed upon or cannot be produced by Legislative Council on time or in technical shape.  It may lack a Fiscal Impact Statement from the Legislative Fiscal Office because of time restraints or a the bill may just have a crippling cost (in this session, virtually any cost is crippling).

I arrived at 8:00 am in Hearing Room B for a Work Session on the ominously-named Senate Bill 911.  The committee chair promptly banged her gavel and said that SB 911 would not be heard because it lacked a fiscal impact statement.  I was then told that House Bill 2353, scheduled for a hearing that day at 1:00 pm, would not be heard because the amendments had just arrived and they also did not have a "fiscal."

These bills concern standards for secure residential homes serving mental health clients and the reporting of people who have been committed to a psychiatric hospital to the FBI in order to prevent them from having guns.

At noon, I made a half-hour report on pending legislation at the Mental Health Caucus, a bi-weekly meeting of legislators, lobbyists, advocates and bureaucrats convened by state Representative Ron Maurer.  Afterward, I worked with some lobbyists on a bill affecting the procedural rights of families in special education hearings and discussed ideas on how to improve the state hospital and to get kids in community mental health facilities the education services they need.

Then, some great news.  Senate Bill 731 passed out of its committee in its eighth amended form.  This bill will save people who receive public benefits from having those benefits garnished from their bank accounts.  Now, even though these funds are protected by law, banks have to turn them over to collectors and the person has to go to court to get them back.  This is money that people rely upon for subsistence.  Many are not able or brave enough to go to court to assert their rights.  Kudos to Sybil Hebb from the Oregon Law Center for great work!  (I helped a little.)

And so, amid all the frenzy and talking and mulling, something good was accomplished!  On to tomorrow.....