Senate Bill 43, a bill to modify Oregon’s lobbyist registration and reporting requirements, is set for its third reading in the House on July 6.

The bill clarifies certain public officials and persons who provide professional services to entities meeting specified criteria are not exempt from lobbyist registration and reporting requirements. Senate Bill 43 expands current lobbyist exemptions to additionally include elected public officials, certain representatives supervising an entity’s lobbying activities, and individuals who meet with legislative members in a personal capacity.

The measure expands the information a lobbyist must include on a registration statement. The registration must name each political committee the lobbyist advises or controls, each political committee for a candidate or elected official the lobbyist-controlled political committee made political campaign contributions to, and an acknowledgement the lobbyist has read and understands laws and administrative rules governing lobbyists.

Senate Bill 43 requires lobbyist reporting statements to include identification of each topic and each measure lobbied on and will require statements to be filed monthly during the legislative session. The bill also requires the Oregon Government Ethics Commission to conduct random audits of lobbyist reporting statements. The effective date for changes to lobbyist reporting statements is April 1, 2018.

The bill declares an emergency, meaning most provisions will become effective upon passage. Senate Bill 43 was introduced at the request of Gov. Kate Brown and she is expected to sign the legislation if passed by the July 10 constitutional adjournment date.

On May 23, Rep. Mitch Greenlick introduced House Joint Resolution 32, proposing a ballot measure to impose a $500 limit on political contributions from any organization that gets more than half of its funding from public sources.

HJR 32 seeks to limit influence from Medicaid providers that profit from the Oregon Health Plan while making large political contributions to lawmakers.

Under current law, organizations may make unlimited contributions and expenditures to candidates and political committees.

Rep. Knute Buehler is set to introduce two bills to restrict pay-to-play politics.

House Joint Resolution 17 seeks to amend the Oregon Constitution to ban corporations, nonprofits and labor unions from making contributions to candidates or political action committees.

House Bill 2914 would require bidders on state contracts to disclose their five greatest campaign contributions in the state.

If passed, the measures would likely face legal challenges on the basis of free speech restrictions.

On December 7, Portland City Council will consider the proposed Open and Accountable Elections package to create a public campaign finance matching system, increase penalties for willful violations of election laws, and improve contribution reporting requirements.

The ordinance would put the Office of Neighborhood Involvement in charge of enforcement. The proposal originally sought to place the task of enforcement on the Auditor’s Office, which administers elections; however, Auditor Mary Hull Caballero challenged the idea as a violation of the city’s charter.

Campaign finance ballot measure 26-184 passed on November 8 with an 88 percent to 11 percent tally. The measure seeks to limit campaign expenditures and contributions and promote transparency by requiring heightened advertisement funding disclosures.

Measure 26-148 prohibits candidates from receiving more than $500 from any individual or political committee per election cycle and puts an independent expenditure cap at $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for political committees per county candidate race. This ballot measure comes as a response to the recent increase in big money spending in Multnomah County elections.

Oregon is one of only six states in the country with no campaign contribution limits. The measure is set to be implemented by county ordinance no later than September 1, 2017.

The Multnomah County Charter Review Committee voted Wednesday to add a campaign reform ballot measure to the November ballot.

Voters will decide whether the county should amend its charter to limit campaign contributions from individuals to $500 per person per cycle for county races. The measure would also require candidates to disclose their five largest contributors on political advertisements.

The Oregon Government Ethics Commission has asked Gov. Kate Brown to introduce legislation in 2017 to strengthen lobbying registration requirements. The commission wants to crack down on the registration exception that allows persons spending less than 24 hours or $100 on lobbying per quarter to avoid registering as lobbyists.

Brown has until December 9, 2016 to review proposals from state agencies and file bills for the 2017 session.

Today the Portland City Council is scheduled to reconsider adopting new ethics reform measures to broaden the revolving door prohibition to two years and increase the penalties associated with repeated ethics violations.

The proposal would also close a loophole in registration requirements, requiring lobbying entities that spend more than $1,000 a quarter on lobbying activities to register.

The proposed ordinance is a compromise that is less restrictive than a similar ordinance that was introduced in April 2016.

Portland City Council passed an ordinance that will make relationships between city officials and political consultants more transparent. Under the ordinance, a political consultant has to register with the city within 15 days of providing consulting services to a city elected official.

Elected officials will also be required to file quarterly reports identifying any political consultants who provided services to the official.

The new rules go into effect September 1, 2016.

The City Council heard two proposed ethics reforms at yesterday’s council meeting. An ordinance introduced to require political consultants working with Portland politicians to meet certain reporting and registration requirements was passed by the council and will go to a second reading at next week’s meeting following some minor amendments.

The other ordinance introduced to broaden revolving door prohibitions and close a loophole in registration requirements was not viewed as favorably by the council. The council will reconsider this ordinance at the May 11, 2016 council meeting.

Photo of Portland by Eric Baetscher in Wikimedia Commons.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has signed into law a bill requiring lobbyists to file registration statements within three business days of commencing or ceasing representation of a client. The bill also requires each person employing a lobbyist to sign a designation of official authorization to lobby within 10 calendar days after the lobbyist files the registration statement.

The bill has an emergency clause making it effective immediately; however, the bill states it applies to lobbyist registration statements filed on or after January 1, 2017.

The Portland City Council will consider adopting new ethics reform measures to broaden the revolving door prohibition to two years, and increase the penalties associated with repeated ethics violations. The proposal would also close a loophole in registration requirements, requiring lobbying entities that spend more than $1,000 a quarter on lobbying activities to register.

A separate ordinance requiring political consultants working with Portland politicians to meet certain reporting and registration requirements will also be considered.

The new ordinances will be introduced at the council meeting on April 13, 2016.

The City Auditor has announced a comment period for potential changes to the city’s lobbying code. The significant changes include closing a loophole in registration requirements by establishing a $1,000 registration threshold. Other changes include broadening revolving door restrictions and increasing penalties for repeated violations.

The comment period is open from now until March 30, 2016.

The Legislature adjourned sine die on Thursday, March 3, 2016. Before adjourning, lawmakers passed House Bill 4134 to reduce the time frame for lobbyist registration requirements.

Gov. Brown has 30 days to consider the bill, and any other bill not reaching her desk is now dead.