5 Tips To Navigate The 2021 Legislative Session

 

The 2021 Oregon Legislative Session has officially begun!

With 2,000+ Bills already introduced, you may find yourself wanting to learn more information about bills that are important to you. Please review the following information to help you navigate the OLIS site and connect with legislators to advocate for bills that you support (or push against bills you do not support).

#1: LEARN ABOUT LEGISLATION

See the current bills the Oregon legislature has posted to the OLIS website->>

You can sort by Senate Bills and House Bills and search for keywords from your bills of interest, or just scroll through the list to see what bills are on the docket.

Once you find a bill you are interested in, select that bill and it will take you to a Bill Overview Page where you will see a row of tabs: Overview, Text, Analysis, Amendments, Testimony.

The Overview will give you information like bill sponsors, committees, scheduled meetings and more. It’s important to keep an eye on this tab to learn about upcoming hearings and testimony opportunities.

  • The text will take you to a downloadable .pdf file of the entire bill.
  • The Analysis section is where you can review available fiscal impacts.
  • Any amendments made to the bill text will be updated in the Amendments sections.
  • The Testimony section is where you can read public testimonies and floor letters addressing the bill.

To help slow the spread of COVID-19, the Oregon State Capitol is currently closed to the public. The Oregon Legislature has established a process to accept remote verbal public testimony on bills by virtual meetings during this time, in addition to written public testimony. Written testimony will be accepted through the OLIS website and by mail. You must register in advance to provide verbal testimony during a committee or subcommittee meeting. Registration closes at the start of the meeting.

Instructions for submitting written comments and provide verbal testimony (PDF) -->

 

#2: GET INVOLVED
Submit your testimony! If you’d like to know how to write and submit testimony during the legislative session, read our helpful guide. As always, we are here to help! If you have questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to anyone on our team! See our Contact page to find our email addresses.

Please take a moment to look at Beyond Toxics’ 2021 Legislative Priorities to review our sample talking points.

 

#3: STAY CURRENT
If you’d like to watch a committee meeting but not participate, see this list of scheduled meetings and links to view previous meetings.

 

#4: SPREAD THE WORD
Don’t forget to share relevant information with your contacts who may have expertise in a field being discussed at the legislature. For example, if you are in support of a bill to strengthen pesticide regulations in schools, you may want to share the bill with your local school board or school groundskeepers or friends and family who use school facilities that are treated with pesticides. This is an excellent time to raise awareness in your communities about bills currently being considered at the state legislature.

Back to the 2021 Legislation page->>