With the goal of adjourning sine die by the end of June, the 76th Oregon Legislative Assembly passed the halfway point at the end of April. In an effort to meet deadlines imposed by the rules of the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Capitol has been a hectic place for the past month. With the exception of bills referred to the Joint Ways and Means, Rules, Revenue and Redistricting Committees, legislation must have been scheduled for a work session by the committee in its chamber of origin by April 8. With the same committee exceptions, bills needed to have been reported out of the committee in their chamber of origin by April 21 to remain alive. As a result, the last several weeks saw crush of bills moving through the committee process.

May 14 will mark another milestone when the state economist will offer a revenue forecast that will shape the budget for the 2015-17 biennium. The economist will present the forecast to a joint meeting of the House and Senate revenue committees starting at 8:30 a.m. More information about the hearing is available here: https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2015R1/Committees/SFR/Overview

The University of Oregon, along with Oregon’s other public universities, is asking the Legislature to restore funding to Oregon’s public universities to 2007 levels, $755 million. UO Advocates, a group of UO alumni and supporters, has been engaged in an effort to ask legislators to make this reinvestment.

If you have any other questions about UO’s state agenda, please contact Nate Stice at stice@uoreogn.edu.