Minnis the Menace

Karen Minnis is at it again. For the second week in a row, she has given the Republican caucus a paid 3-day vacation rather than work on any of the 80+ bills sent to her by the Oregon Senate.

She lied to the press when she said that she was calling 3-day rolling recesses because members don't have enough to do. There are 14 bills with strong bi-partisan support to vote on, and a total of more than 80 bills in all that deserve consideration and debate.

She is calling these recesses because she doesn't want members of her house caucus to interact with any of their colleagues -- Democrat or Republican -- in either the house and Senate. Grinding the people's business to a halt is not the right way to enforce party discipline. And I do not believe the voters who sent the Republican caucus to Salem sent them there with the expectation that they would be Karen Minnis' yes-men.

There are 14 bills with strong bipartisan support that are not wedge issues that deserve an up or down vote in the House. These are some of the most important bills that need to be addressed:

• Senate bill 545, which would restrict lenders to 15 percent of the loan value as interest on a two-week loan, which is still the equivalent of 391 percent interest when figured on an annual basis. Some lenders currently charge as much as 600 percent in annual interest.
• senate bill 408, which requires investor-owned utilities to actually pay the taxes they charge consumers instead of keeping the money after reducing their tax liability with credits and loopholes. This should be voted on without noxious provisions intended to shield utilities from collecting fees for taxes that they are not, in fact, paying under the guise of fixing the problem.
• Senate bill 289, which passed unanimously in the Senate, and will increase funding for WIC/Farmers’ Market Coupons and expanded the program to include roadside stands.
• Senate Bill 1, which requires insurance companies to cover mental health problems in the same way they cover other medical conditions.
• Senate Bill 329, which will expand the state’s drug purchasing pool to allow private businesses and low-income individuals to opt in, thereby enabling them to save money on prescription drugs.
• Senate Bill 467, which passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support on a vote of 25-3. This bill, which will cost $150,000 per year if enacted, will help provide summer food services for children in low income families. Oregon currently leads the nation in hunger with 123,000 children, 17 percent of all Oregon kids, living in poverty.

Conservative estimates place the cost of these recesses at $100,000 apiece. It's time to tell Minnis to give these bills an up-or-down vote in the House, complete budget negotiations and finish the people's business.