SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon lawmakers are set to convene Monday for the start of a short legislative session that is expected to be dominated by homelessness, a housing shortage and plans to overhaul the state’s pioneering drug decriminalization law as overdose deaths surge.
Lawmakers will have just 35 days to pass bills. For now, legislative leaders have indicated that bipartisan lines of communication are open as they overcome any partisan tensions still lingering from last year’s Republican walkout over measures related to abortion, transgender care and gun rights, which ground the Legislature to a halt for a record six weeks and disqualified 10 GOP state senators from reelection.
Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek urged lawmakers to concentrate on the most state’s most pressing issues.
“My number-one focus for the legislative session is to put as much as possible into the effort to improve housing production in the state,” Kotek said. “That is the ultimate solution to our housing and homelessness crisis.”