Oregon legislative leaders focused largely on logistical issues in a press briefing on Friday, but said their general priorities for the 2021 session are pandemic and wildfire recovery and racial equity.
Legislature opens 2021 session with a heavy infusion of reality
Ritual and rhetoric are subdued; members of color reach historic high in Oregon.
The new Oregon Legislature was light on the usual ritual and rhetoric during its opening day on Monday, Jan. 11 though they were present but heavy on the realities that have reshaped state politics during the past year.
All 60 representatives and 17 new senators took their oaths from Chief Justice Martha Walters. But unlike typical opening days which have been compared to the first day of school staff, families and friends were largely absent from the Capitol in Salem because of social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oregon lawmakers OK millions for pandemic, wildfire costs
Emergency Board meets for record 13th time before 2021 session starts Monday.
Oregon lawmakers have approved millions in state and federal funds to pay some of the mounting expenses of the coronavirus pandemic and the Labor Day wildfires.
The Legislative Emergency Board acted during a four-hour meeting Friday, Jan. 8, its record 13th since the end of the 2020 session and its last before the 2021 session gets under way on Monday, Jan. 11.
The 20-member board decides budget matters between sessions.
Leaders planned the meeting after the Legislature drew $800 million from the state s projected ending balance during a special session Dec. 21. Unspent money reverts to the full Legislature.
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Oregon State Police declared on unlawful assembly at the State Capitol Monday as a group of far-right protesters led by Patriot Prayer attempted to gain access on Dec. 21, 2020.
Sources say Rep. Mike Nearman, R-Independence, was shown on video surveillance footage exiting the Capitol on Dec. 21. Demonstrators gained access directly afterward, setting up a showdown.
Authorities are investigating whether demonstrators who gained access to the Oregon State Capitol last month were allowed in purposefully by a Republican state lawmaker.
Sources with knowledge of the matter say surveillance footage from the morning shows state Rep. Mike Nearman, R-Independence, exiting the Capitol on the north side of the building, near where demonstrators were gathering to protest restrictions to stem the spread of COVID-19. Shortly afterward, some demonstrators gained access to a vestibule within the building, setting off a standoff with state troopers and Salem police that resulted in two arrests
In the season of peace, in the city of peace, last week the Oregon State Capitol was awash in both amity and animosity.
The local tourism agency, Travel Salem, promotes the region as âThe most Oregon part of Oregon.â That held true during the one-day special legislative session on Dec. 21. The dysfunction and violence that have bedeviled Portland for months, gaining national notoriety and splitting the state, moved south to Salem, where most of Oregonâs 90 legislators had gathered to approve coronavirus and wildfire relief legislation.
There is irony that Salem, our state capital and where I live, is named for peace. Maybe it is a sign of the times that the city Peace Plaza, which connects city hall with the city library, is closed because the library is being renovated.