Legislative committee work has fallen into an unusual lull while bills struggle through floor votes. But a Friday, May 5, procedural deadline could provide an uptick in policy debates while laying out a map of what to expect in the session’s ending stretch.
Few policy committees will meet Monday or Tuesday because both chambers want to make room for expanded floor sessions. By Friday, policy committees must post work session agendas for any bills that have passed the opposite chamber or they are effectively dead.
During this lull, advocacy has charged forward for Senate Bill 292 B to change the “statement of economic interest” requirements. Under a bill passed in 2022, school board members who were in office after April 15 are required to make an ethics-related filing on their financial interests. The bill, House Bill 4140, added school board members to an existing list of public positions, including school district superintendents and business officials, that must file the annual report.
Many school board members have called the requirement an unwarranted intrusion into their private information. Some school districts, particularly small ones in remote and rural parts of Oregon, have experienced mass school board member resignations. In other districts, members failed to file the paperwork before April 15. They face ethics consequences, including fines up to $5,000.
SB 292 B would address this mandate. The bill has changed since it was introduced, and the current version would exempt school board members in a district with less than 4,000 students from filing a statement of economic interest until 2026. On April 19, the bill passed the Senate unanimously with a vote of 26-0 with four senators excused.
Now the bill sits in the House Rules Committee, awaiting a public hearing and potential vote. Rules committees are not bound by the Legislature’s May 5 deadline, and OSBA continues to advocate for the bill.
Unless the bill passes, school board members who are leaving office this year, even ones who quit shortly after April 15, must still file the statements. The Oregon Government Ethics Commission has said it will not start levying fines until May 6, so there is still time to file. The commission’s website provides materials and training.
SB 292 B includes a provision that would hold harmless any school board member who did not complete the SEI filing requirements by April 15. But the bill still has several hurdles to clear, and school board members should not count on it passing.
– Richard Donovan
Legislative Services specialist
