Oregon's Legislative Session Week 11

Tuesday, April 4 is the next legislative deadline! April 4 is the last day for policy committees to move measures introduced in their chamber (i.e. Senate bills in the Senate, House bills in the House) out of committee. If they do not move by this date, they "die" and cannot be considered again this session. The deadline does not apply to Ways & Means, Revenue, Rules, and other joint committees.

This means many of the bills we are tracking have work sessions scheduled in the days ahead. During the work sessions, the committee members will discuss the intent of the bill and any amendments. Then they will vote to adopt any amendments and ultimately, vote to pass the bill out of committee.  

Policy Bill Updates & Advocacy Opportunities

Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) provide crucial support to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live, work and thrive across our state. Increases in DSP wages are desperately needed to address a significant workforce shortage. Per a recent Oregon Resource Association survey, this shortage caused 85% of providers to no longer accept referrals to serve new people and 86% to reduce capacity or close services, and they anticipate closing additional services. 

As wages continue to rise across the state in other industries, DSP wages are dependent on legislative funding and will stagnate without legislative support. This will make it even more difficult to find and keep these vital workers. 

The Office of Developmental Disabilities Services developed POP 132 to make sure these workers are paid an adequate wage. We are asking Legislators to support this funding and include increases for DSPs in the budget. We must support these workers so they can support people with IDD and their families. Get details here: Updated DSP Wage Info

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As originally introduced, SB 492 would ban the discriminatory health economics score called QALY from being used to decide what OHP will cover on its prioritized list. QALY stands for quality adjusted life years, and it devalues the lives of people with disabilities, chronic diseases, people of color and older people by making their lives worth less than “healthy people”. This bill had a great public hearing on March 27th with no opposition to banning QALY, however at the conclusion of a work session held this afternoon, the Senate Committee on Health Care voted to move the bill forward for referral to another committee with an amendment that would require a study on the impact of the ban, instead of implementing the ban. Please follow this bill and ask the assigned committee members to ban the use of QALY in Oregon at the earliest possible opportunity.

Ways and Means Budget Road Show Town Hall Meetings

The Joint Committee on Ways and Means have announced a series of Town Hall Meetings across the state to hear from Oregonians about the state budget for 2023-25. This is a great opportunity to ask for their support of Developmental Disabilities Services!

What to expect if you go? Be prepared for large crowds so plan to arrive at least two hours, especially if you want to sign up to give testimony in-person. The sign-up sheet for testimony fills up quickly. The committee will not have enough time to hear from everyone but please come prepared with one to two minutes of remarks about the importance of DD Services funding.

Introduce yourself, the city you are from, why DD Services is important to in your life and/or your community and ask that they support DD Services as they make their funding decisions. 

Even if you don’t plan to give testimony, your presence at these events, wearing and/or waving something yellow in support of the DD Community will send the message to legislators that the DD Community is unified in its support of DD programs and services.

Use the links to access the event agendas where you will find links to register to testify:

• Saturday, April 8 (10am-12pm) Portland Community College, PAC Auditorium, Sylvania Campus 12000 SW 49th Avenue
• Friday, April 14 (5-7pm) Newport Performing Arts Center 777 W Olive Street
• Friday, April 21 (5-7pm) Umpqua Community College 1140 Umpqua College Road, Roseburg
• Friday, April 28 (5-7pm Mountain Time Zone) Four Rivers Cultural Center 676 SW 5th Avenue, Ontario, Oregon
• Wednesday, May 3 (5-7pm) Oregon State Capitol, Salem

Establish DSP Wage Standards

Resolve the DSP wage inequities by increasing the standard wage amounts to stabilize this essential workforce and reduce turnover that places people with I/DD at higher risk.

Fully Fund DD Case Management

DD Case Management funding has not kept pace with increased workload and complexity of the work over the past several years. Full funding of the DD Workload Model and periodic administrative reviews are needed to ensure case managers who are a vital lifeline to Oregonians with I/DD are adequately compensated for their work.

Support Regional Family to Family Networks

Regional Family Networks support more than 13,500 families experiencing disability, many who have barriers accessing the formal developmental disability service system. Regional Family Networks work in partnership with thousands of other community-based organizations to reduce inequities for marginalized families.

Support Healthier Oregon

Provides access to DD Services for everyone who meets disability criteria for DD Services and Medicaid regardless of immigration status.

Register at https://creatingops.typeform.com/2023DDadvocacy

BILL TRACKING

For information on bills that we our monitoring, look for our weekly bill tracking report on our website and Facebook where we are also posting Spotlights on bills of interest to the DD Community.

If you are interested in specific bills or legislative topics, this video goes through each step to help you find where bills are in the legislative process and how to sign up for email alerts to get updates directly.

Visit the GO Project's You Tube Channel legislative advocacy videos created by our GO! Advocacy Team.