Oregon State Legislature

From Ballotpedia

The Oregon Legislative Assembly is the state legislature for the state of Oregon. The Legislative Assembly is a bicameral consisting of an upper and lower house. There are no term limits for either house in the Legislative Assembly.

The legislature is a citizens' assembly (meaning that most legislators have other jobs.)

Meetings

The assembly's regular sessions occur in odd-numbered years, beginning on the second Monday in January. (Oregon is one of only 6 states that do not hold annual sessions.) The Oregon Constitution does not limit the length of regular sessions; the first 35 regular sessions (i.e. until 1929) lasted 50 days or less. Since 1949 no session has been shorter than 100 days. The longest session was the 72nd regular session, at 227 days, ending August 27, 2003. Most recent sessions have ended in June or July.

The governor can call the assembly into special sessions "in the event of an emergency." In 1982 a special session lasted 37 days, and the governor called the assembly into special session five times in 2002, for a total of 52 days. The 2006 special session was the shortest in Oregon's history: five pieces of legislation were passed in only six hours. The legislative body may also call itself into special session "in the event of an emergency," although it has never done so.

When the legislature is not in session, legislators serve on interim committees and task forces that study issues likely to be faced during the next regular session.

Senate

The Oregon State Senate is the upper house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 30 members of the State Senate, representing 30 districts across the state, each with a population of 114,000. Each Senate district is composed of exactly two House districts: Senate District 1 contains House Districts 1 and 2, SD 2 contains HD 3 and HD 4, and so on.

Oregon State Senators serve four year terms without term limits. In 2002, the Oregon Supreme Court struck down the decade-old law, Oregon Ballot Measure 3 (1992), that had restricted State Senators to two terms (eight years) on procedural grounds.

Like certain other upper houses of state and territorial legislatures and the federal U.S. Senate, the State Senate can confirm or reject gubernatorial appointments to state departments, commissions, boards, and other state governmental agencies.

Oregon, along with Arizona, Maine, and Wyoming, is one of the four U.S. states to have abolished the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, a position which for most upper houses of state legislatures and indeed for the U.S. Congress (with the Vice President) is the head of the legislative body. Instead, a separate position of Senate President is in place, removed from the Oregonian executive branch.

Current Make-up

The latest elections for the Oregon State Senate occurred on November 7, 2006. 15 of the Senate's 30 seats were open for election. The Democratic Party retained their majority, with no loss or gain of seats for any party. Shortly after the 2006 election, Senator Ben Westlund, whose seat was not up for election in 2006, announced his party change from Independent to the Democratic Party. His switch resulted in the current make-up of 18 Democrats, 11 Republicans and 1 Independent.

House of Representatives

The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of 57,000

In the 2006 elections, Democrats took control of the House for the first time since 1990. The Democratic majority for the 74th legislative session is by the slimmest of margins: 31-29.

References

• Wikipedia: Oregon Legislature

External links

• Official website — Note: At the website the body is referred to as the "Oregon State Legislature", however it is constitutionally named the "Legislative Assembly."
• Legislative Assembly home page from the Oregon Blue Book website

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