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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1973)
‘Images should speak for themselves’ Wood Sculpture and Geometric Design Photography by Debbie Douglass Scurry time as the Legislature finishes its session: where do bills stand now SALEM (Special) — As talk of ad journment within the next few weeks is increasing, the Legislature is slowly cranking down. Most committees have completed action on most bills. The legislation now sits on the Senate or House clerks’ desks waiting for “the third reading” and the final vote. This is scurry time for the hundreds of special interest and citizen lobbyists working at the Legislature. They have to make sure that their bills are not in the stack which, at the discretion of a com By NAN HENDERSON Of the Emerald mittee chairer, will simply sit in the committee never to be acted upon. They have to make sure that their bills aren’t among the hundreds quietly tabled in late evening meetings. And they have to make sure they convince enough legislators to pass their bills on the House and Senate floors. Student lobbyists, unlike most, have steadily reduced their efforts since they first appeared in the Capitol four months ago, eager to take on every legislator. Their number has also greatly decreased, so that wily two or three of the original 20 or 30 students who came to Salem to lobby are still seen doggedly \ trotting around, urging legislators to lower :• the age of majority or approve student members on the State Board of Higher Education. The others evidently became victims of increasing academic demands, dropping their lobby effort in favor of passing a few finals or finishing some term papers. With adjournment seemingly so near, a surprising amount of legislation is still in the middle of legislative consideration — caught somewhere between the houses or between committees and the floor. Below is a summary of the status of legislation dealing with several issues: STUDENT RIGHTS — A bill (HB 2147) which requires the Governor to appoint two students to the State Board of Higher Education is almost through the Legislature. It is presently between the Senate Education Committee, which approved the measure last Friday, and the Senate floor. HB 2147 is expected to easily pass the Senate and be signed by Gov. Tom McCall. — SB 47, Sen. Lynn Newbry’s (R-Talent) amendment to the 1971 “Newbry amend ment” to statutes regulating expenditures of student incidental fees, has been ap proved by the Senate and is now in the House Education Committee. Student lobbyists repeatedly tried to amend SB 47, which gives the State Board of Higher Education final authority over the allocation of student incidental fees, to give student government the complete control over incidental fee money ex penditures. These attempts, however, failed and it appears that SB 47 will pass the House and be signed by the governor unamended. YOUTH RIGHTS — The House votes today on a bill (HB 3167) which would grant 18-year olds all legal adult rights, except the right to drink, which is set at 19 years. The original bill also lowered the drinking age to 18, but it was amended by members of the Joint Committee on Alcohol and Drugs who were told by student lobbyists that a majority of House members would not approve an 18-year old drinking age. HB 3167 is expected to pass the House and Gov. McCall has said he supports the bill. The remaining question is what will happen to it in the Senate, traditionally the more conservative house of the Legislature. — A bill (HJR 14) which would amend the Oregon constitution, upon voter ap proval, to lower the age qualifications of legislators from 21 years to “age of registered voter in the state” has passed the House and is now in the Senate Rules Committee. That committee voted 4-2 against passage of the bill Wednesday, but student lobbyists are pressing for reconsideration. EQUAL RIGHTS — Within the first month of the session, the Legislature ratified the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Con stitution, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. Ratification by the 38 states necessary for the amendment to become federal law, however, is still uncertain and women’s rights lobbyists have worked this session for the elimination of any presently discriminatory laws in Oregon. — They say their most important bill is HB 2116, which expands existing civil rights laws to prohibit sexual discrimination “in places of public ac commodation’’ or in admission to vocational, professional and trade schools. It also prohibits sex discrimination in “selling, renting or leasing real proper ty.” HB 2116 passed the House and is now in the Senate Consumer Affairs Com mittee. — SB 475, which allows the Oregon Liquor Commission to suspend liquor licenses of any establishment which discriminates on the basis of sex or race, is in the Joint Committee on Alcohol and Drugs which is expected to pass the bill to the Senate floor. — HJR 31, which directs the State Personnel Division to review all job classifications to eliminate any discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex or national origin, passed the House, was referred to the Senate Com mittee on Consumer Affairs and then rc referred to the Joint Ways and Means (Jommittee which has been directed to ifeview the bill for budgetary impact. | — SB 555, which grants the Bureau of Labor $50,000 to implement an affirmative action program for women and minorities, passed the Senate, was approved by the Joint Ways and Means Committee and is now in the House Labor Committee. — SB 148, which makes a “customer” of prostitution as guilty of violating the law as a prostitute, has passed both houses and was recently signed by Governor McCall. ABORTION — Oregon has had no abortion law since the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that laws prohibiting abortions in the first three months of pregnancy are unconstitutional. At this point, it appears the Legislature may not pass an abortion law this session, though several bills have been introduced which would establish abortion regulations within the Supreme Court ruling. Most of these bills'require a husband to grant consent to his wife before she can have an abortion, and women’s rights lobbyists say they would rather have no law than a “consent law.” The lobbyists are attempting to secure enough votes in the Senate Judiciary Committee to pass SB 898 which would require that a licensed physician perform any abortion and that abortions be per formed within the first 180 days of pregnancy unless a continued pregnancy would endanger “the life or health of a pregnant woman or if there is substantial risk that the child would be born with serious physical or mental defect.” Lobbyist Gretchen Kafoury reported during a Thursday interview that it ap pears the committee will not approve SB 696 without adding “consent sections. ” She said doctors are urging that some law be passed “for protection” but repeated, “the women’s movement would rather have no law than a consent law.” GAY PERSONS’RIGHTS HB 2930, which would prohibit discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of “sexual orientation,” was sent back to the House State and Federal Affairs Committee Tuesday by a 32-28 vote. The committee was asked to amend the bill to prohibit discrimination only in housing, but lobbyists for the measure report they are trying to secure the three additional votes necessary to pass the original bill on the house floor. TENANTS’RIGHTS — The Senate passed a bill which overhauls present landlord-tenant laws granting tenants several rights they do not now have. SB 159, which requires land lords to maintain “habitable” rental units, provide basic services such as heat and water, and return cleaning deposits or an accounting of the money, is now being considered by the House Local Govern ment and Urban Affairs Committee. The committee is expected to pass the bill with few amendments and the bill is expected to slide through the House and be signed by Gov. McCall. — SB 159 also prohibits retaliatory eviction (evicting a tenant for joining in tenants unions or otherwise exercising legal rights), the landlord’s lien (locking a tenant out and confiscating his or her property for nonpayment of rent) and permits a tenant to use a breech of con tract as a defense in non-payment of rent in court cases. PRESS RIGHTS — The first major accomplishment of the 1973 legislature was passage of a reporter’s shield law, which prohibits a court from requiring a news person to divulge his or her sources of information. — SB 15, which requires all governing groups of public bodies (boards, councils, commissions, etc.) to hold public meetings except in a few specified circumstances, has also passed the legislature and is now law. ENVIRONMENT — Passage of SB 100, which creates a new department of government to establish land-use planning goals and guidelines and directs cities and counties to establish land-use plans and zoning to enact those plans, is considered the greatest environmental achievement of the 1973 Legislature. — Bills to repeal the “bottle bill” (requiring deposits on beverage con tainers) and the “bicycle bill” (ap propriating one percent of state highway funds for bicycle paths) passed by the 1971 Legislature have been tabled this session. It has also been recently announced that the state will purchase Cape Kiwanda — a long-time goal of environmentalists. MASS TRANSIT — A bill (HJR 14) which would amend the Oregon Constitution, upon voter Ap proval, to allow state highway funds to be used for mass transit passed the House and is now in the Senate Rules Committee. UNDECLARED WARS — HB 2606, which would prohibit Oregon servicemen from being forced to fight in Congressionally undeclared wars, passed the House several weeks ago and is now in the Senate State and Federal Affairs Committee. It appears that the bill may be “buried” in that committee since no hearing on the bill has been held or scheduled. ’•X •I'lv’.vX'IW
