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East Oregonian
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BILL: Would ease insurer coverage requirements
Continued from 1A
“Hopefully everything
we’re doing now helps
another member get to ‘yes,’”
Cornyn said. “There’s really
no other reason to tweak this
thing.”
In the face of unanimous
Democratic opposition, the
health care bill will crash
if just three of the 52 GOP
senators oppose it. McCo-
nnell suddenly canceled a
doomed vote last month on
an initial version of the legis-
lation, and at least a dozen
Republicans have said they
oppose the initial package or
distanced themselves from it.
Since his June retreat,
McConnell
has
been
reshaping the measure in
hopes of winning GOP
votes. Even so, no GOP
leaders were yet predicting
passage.
McConnell also said he
will delay the chamber’s
August recess for two
weeks, a rare move he said
would give lawmakers
time to break logjams on
health care, defense and
executive branch nomina-
tions. Growing numbers of
Republicans, chagrined at
Congress’ failure to send
any major bills to President
Donald Trump, had called
on McConnell to make that
move.
The GOP bill would
ease coverage requirements
Obama’s 2010 statute placed
on insurers, like paying for
maternity services; erase
his tax penalties on people
who don’t buy policies and
cut Medicaid. The measure
will also eliminate most
of Obama’s tax increases,
including boosts on insurers,
pharmaceutical
manufac-
turers and medical device
makers.
Obama’s law has added
around 20 million to the
ranks of the country’s people
with health insurance. An
analysis of McConnell’s
initial bill by the nonpar-
tisan Congressional Budget
Office projected it would
increase the number of
people without coverage by
22 million by 2026.
The updated legislation is
also expected to ease some
of its earlier Medicaid cuts,
a move aimed at assuaging
GOP senators from states
that expanded the program
by millions of people under
Obama’s law.
According to Cornyn,
the
refashioned
GOP
measure will probably keep
Obama’s 3.8 percent tax
boost on investment income
for couples earning over
$250,000 annually. It would
also retain a payroll tax
increase of 0.9 percent on
the same earners that helps
finance Medicare.
Together, retaining the
two levies would produce
$231 billion over the next
10 years, according to
Congress’ nonpartisan Joint
Committee on Taxation.
Republicans
generally
oppose tax boosts, and it was
unclear whether preserving
those tax increases would
threaten support by any
conservatives for the health
bill. But Cornyn said some
of the money — perhaps
around $50 billion — would
be used to buttress around
$100 billion already in the
measure for states to help
insurers hold down insurance
costs, and he said the move
might help defend against
Democratic attacks that the
GOP package will help the
rich and hurt the poor.
“We’re trying to take
at least one sharp stick off
the table,” Cornyn said. “I
don’t think it will change the
narrative.”
A study released Tuesday
by two bipartisan groups
estimated that the country’s
poorest families would lose
more than $2,500 in average
annual health care benefits
once the GOP legislation
was fully phased in. Families
making more than $1 million
a year would get tax cuts
averaging about $50,000,
according to the analysis by
the Health Policy Center and
the Tax Policy Center.
Still at issue is a plan by
conservatives led by Sen. Ted
Cruz, R-Texas, to let insurers
sell low-price policies with
bare-bones coverage — if
the company also sells a
policy covering a list of
services like maternity care
that Obama’s law mandates.
FORESTS: Sky lanterns prohibited year-round
Continued from 1A
for fires, and must have an ax,
shovel and fire extinguisher
on hand.
Seasonal campfire restric-
tions also remain in effect on
the Umatilla and Wallowa-
Whitman national forests
through Oct. 31. That means:
• Campfires are allowed
only in pits surrounded by dirt,
rock and commercial rings, in
areas cleared of flammable
material within a 3-foot radius.
• Campers must attend to
fires at all times, and have a
shovel and one gallon of water
in their possession.
• Fires must be dead out
prior to leaving.
ODF has its own set of
restrictions that go into effect
Wednesday on the Northeast
Oregon District. Known as
regulated use closures, the
rules ban all open fires except
in designated state parks,
such as Emigrant Springs,
Ukiah-Dale, Catherine Creek,
Hilgard Junction, Red Bridge,
Wallowa Lake, Minam Lake
and Unity Lake.
Like the Forest Service’s
public use restrictions, regu-
lated use closures also ban
smoking except in vehicles
or cleared areas, and prohibit
non-industrial chainsaw use
between 1-8 p.m. The same
goes for cutting, grinding or
welding metal, and mowing
dried grass with power-driven
equipment.
Other rules during fire
season include:
• Burning debris is prohib-
ited except in burn barrels
with a valid burning permit.
• Exploding targets and
tracer ammunition are not
allowed.
• Sky lanterns are prohib-
ited year-round.
Regulated use closures in
the Northeast Oregon District
affect ODF-protected land
primarily in Umatilla, Union,
Baker and Wallowa counties,
as well as small portions of
Morrow, Malheur and Grant
counties.
———
Contact George Plaven at
gplaven@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0825.
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SESSION: Don’t expect any major movement
on the PERS funding problem in off-year
Continued from 1A
of the Real ID requirements.
“This bill is preemptive,”
Hansell said. “A majority of
citizens will have no idea
because they never expe-
rienced the effects of what
would have happened if we
hadn’t passed it.”
While the legislature may
have fixed state IDs and
many other smaller prob-
lems, a pressing statewide
problem they failed to fix
was PERS. Hansell said by
now he has accepted that
there is no perfect “silver
bullet” to reduce the system’s
unfunded liability. He did
like a proposal by the Oregon
Business
Council
that
featured a mix of elements
favored by both ends of the
political spectrum, but it
never got any traction.
“If a business body
could lead the charge, then
it wouldn’t be a Republican
thing and it wouldn’t be a
Democratic thing and we
probably could have come to
the middle on this,” he said.
“It never even got a hearing.”
In answer to a question
about whether it would be
better to tackle PERS in a
special session, where legis-
lators weren’t consumed with
the type of bills that name a
new state bird, Hansell said
circumstances are different
in Salem than they were in
2013 when then-Governor
John Kitzhaber continued
working with legislators
after the session and then
pulled everyone together
to vote on the final solution
during a brief special session
in the fall.
“We would not have had
that without his leadership,”
Hansell said. “For that to
happen, the executive lead-
ership would have to be not
only on board but leading
the charge, and I don’t think
Governor (Kate) Brown is
inclined to do that.”
Rep. Greg Smith, District
57, said he didn’t expect
any major movement on
the PERS problem in the
shorter, off-year session next
February either.
“There are primary
elections a month after the
February session ends,” he
said. “I doubt the political
will is there to tackle it.”
One thing he does hope
the legislature can tackle in
February is finding a “win-
win” on revenue that will
give schools more money
without hurting the average
Oregonian or business. He
said he and Sen. Mark Hass
of Beaverton have committed
to deeply research the state’s
revenue structure and meet
regularly between now and
then to come up with solu-
tions they can present to their
colleagues next year.
Smith said this session
was an intense one of many,
many late nights as he
served on 10 committees
and stepped up to fill some
of the negotiating roles Rep.
Cliff Bentz of Ontario had
filled before having a minor
heart attack in June. Head-
line-grabbing bills about
topics like abortion may have
filled the news, but Smith
said there were many quieter
bills he worked on this
session that were a “heavy
lift” to get passed. One such
bill allowed Umatilla Electric
Cooperative to use low-value
farm land for solar panels,
and another adjusted some
enterprise zone requirements
to allow the Port of Morrow
to continue to use the incen-
tive.
“The Port of Morrow has
reached a size that legislators
are starting to ask themselves
whether they want to keep
giving the area tax incen-
tives,” Smith said.
He said leadership saved
the most contentious bills for
the end of the session, which
is when debates on the House
floor started to get heated.
Representative
Greg
Barreto,
District
58,
described the 2017 legisla-
tive session as long, tiring
and frustrating at times.
In written thoughts shared
with the East Oregonian,
he said that he and Hansell
worked side by side on
a number of bills to help
Oregonians.
The
two
legislators sponsored Senate
Bill 372, which allows the
salvaging of game meat after
an animal has been struck and
killed by a vehicle. That bill
ultimately passed, along with
another the two sponsored
that directs the Oregon Fish
and Wildlife Commission to
establish a pilot program for
controlling urban deer popu-
lations in cities where they
have become a nuisance.
While much of the focus
of post-session analysis has
been on what the legislature
did not accomplish —
particularly PERS reform —
Barreto, true to his conser-
vative identity, also had
something to say about bills
that the legislature should not
have put time into.
Democrats were one
vote shy in each house of
the three-fifths majority
needed to pass revenue
bills, but they were able to
pass policy bills without
a single Republican vote,
including House Bill 3391,
which requires all insurance
providers in Oregon other
than Providence to cover
abortions completely.
“These abortions are
allowed until the child is
born, extended to undocu-
mented people in Oregon
and without a co-pay or
deductible,” Barreto wrote,
calling its passing a “dark
day for Oregon.”
He also mentioned bills
that House Democrats
passed but were unable to
get through the Senate, such
as the law that would have
allowed law enforcement
to remove firearms from
someone if a judge agreed
with a family member’s
claim the person was an
immediate danger to them-
selves or others.
“This is a challenge
of “due process” and our
Second Amendment rights,”
he said, adding it to his list
of “egregious” bills brought
forward during the session.
He said the last four days
of the session were partic-
ularly busy as legislators
debated and voted on more
than 130 bills.
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