The article has been updated with additional reporting and a correction.
A group of providers is asking Senate President Rob Wagner and House Speaker Julie Fahey to let lawmakers vote on a divisive bill that aims to change how kids in the foster system receive care, but Wagner says it will needs more tweaking.
That bill is just one of several major pieces of behavioral health legislation with uncertain outcomes, even as lawmakers race to shut down the 2025 session amid a swirl of rumors and speculation on what will live and die.
Opponents of House Bill 3835, including the Legislature's human services chairs, are concerned that House Bill 3835 would allow vulnerable youth to be sent out of state to be placed in residential facilities with substandard care — places where abuses occurred in the past.
But others — including chairs of both behavioral health committees in the Legislature, advocates and care providers affiliated with the state advisory committee that hatched the bill — signed a letter Thursday urging Wagner and Fahey to push it out of a committee that’s already approved it so lawmakers can vote on it for themselves.
“I really care about this bill,” Sen. Lisa Reynolds told The Lund Report. “I'm worried about the state of our — we call them the child caring agencies, these therapeutic facilities really high behavioral-and-emotional-needs youth ... the overall decline in those beds is hurting all Oregon youth.”
While critics say the bill would open the door to abuse or poor care conditions, supporters say kids in Oregon are dying because they can’t get needed care here — for instance people needing specialized care unavailable in Oregon or kids fleeing human traffickers who, stuck in a local setting, are exposed to potential kidnapping, further abuse or even death. Reynolds said those assertions are being made by reputable people — in fact there’s been testimony to that effect from people involved. The status quo is “really bad for kids. We have the worst mental health system, [in terms of] options for kids in the country, like we're 49th or 50th. S doing more of the same seems inappropriate.”
A spokesperson for Disability Rights Oregon, however, issued a prepared statement on behalf of CEO Jake Cornett saying that the bill endangers children and should die. "If it were me, I sure wouldn’t want to vote for a bill that has so many unresolved problems,” he said. “We sure do appreciate those legislators willing to stand up to the Department of Human Services over this bill.”
Connor Radnovich, Wagner's communications director, told The Lund Report lawmakers will work on revising it for the next sesion. “There were lingering questions about the impact of House Bill 3835 that legislators did not have sufficient time to resolve this session,” he wrote in an email. “The Legislature is committed to keeping Oregon's kids safe and healthy and will work on this important topic during the interim.”
Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, the human services chair, said she's hopeful the opposing sides can achieve compromise by the next legislative session, saying both sides are trying to help kids. “The plan is to get to work immediately,” she told The Lund Report.
While lawmakers must finish by June 29, at times they’ve been known to shut down early. Last year, they went home nearly a week early even as significant bills with both significant support and opposition were pending. Legislative leaders at times prefer to end the session on a high note with less controversy, some legislative observers say.
A spokesperson for Wagner said they couldn’t immediately respond about the status of the foster care bill and whether it would go to the House and Senate floor. A spokesperson for Fahey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Major behavioral health bill moving
Another bill, HB 2005, is a latebreaking behavioral health “omnibus” bill, referring to when several different measures are packaged together. On an individual basis, all three were controversial, and the draft of the new bill combining them was introduced less than two hours before a public hearing.
HB 2005 combines a bill opposed by public safety officials and local government to set discharge deadlines for patients at the state hospital with two others. Additionally, ome language is lifted from bill to limit local government’s ability to block residential treatment homes that died at the end of session last year.
Another section would rewrite the state’s civil commitment laws in manner that has major backing from public safety officials, Gov. Tina Kotek, mental health advocates and hospitals. But it faces fervent opposition from groups such as Disability Rights Oregon, which has been arguing for less use of psychiatric facilities to confine civilly committed people who are not facing criminal charges.
Shortly before noon today the bill was scheduled for a committee vote on Friday, June 20 — a move that typically means leadership is confident it will pass.
Disability Rights Oregon has come out against the omnibus bill — and so has a group it often finds itself disagreeing with, the Oregon District Attorneys Association, both agreeing that it is rushed.
“It focuses too much on court procedures and not enough on building the robust system Oregonians need,” said Cornett in a prepared statement sent by email.
But Chris Bouneff of the Oregon chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness said the bill is a needed step to help patients get needed care. While some parts of the bill may need minor tweaks in the next session, the civil commitment language is “well vetted,” he said.
Correction: An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the committee vote on HB 3835. The Lund Report regrets the error.
