Legislature violates notice rules. (Kicker, gun bill early testimony blocked)

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Today, the Oregon 2026 February Special Legislative Session begins, and already they have fully violated public notice rules. On the first day of session, they are scheduling a hearing on a bill to steal part of the people’s Kicker Tax Refund (HB 4125, see more here) and a gun bill (HB 4145, see more here).

Here is the problem:

(1) As of 5am on the day of the hearing, both (Kicker theft, gun law) bills on the official Legislature website DO NOT SHOW ANY PUBLIC HEARING (image below). This means the Legislature is officially telling the public that there is no public hearing, when in fact the hearing is just hours away. This denies the public the advance three-day notice for which to be notified of a bill and participate in person.

(2) Because the official legislative website says there is no hearing, therefore no testimony is allowed on the bills (see image below). This denies the public the full 3-day advanced time to submit online testimony on a bill.

(3) The Official Legislative Website on the day of the hearing, as of 5am, shows that the bills have not been scheduled to be placed in their proper committee. So the Legislature is informing the public that the bill exists in no committee while the chairs of certain committees (House Revenue, House Judiciary) are acting like the bills are in their committees and scheduling hearings when there is no public record of the bills in their committee.

(4) Even people who figured out that the Legislature is providing false information are still blocked from getting people to testify on the bills because the online testimony feature is turned off for the bills. With hours away, we have no idea when the public will be granted permission to speak on the bills.

(5) Neither bill has an official public analysis explanation of what these bills actually do.

(6) This all occurred during the weekend, when citizens are not paying attention, and the Legislature has not been called or not voted into proper order and has not officially begun business.

Ramming bills through a hearing on the first day of session by blocking both public notice, and blocking public online testimony and blocking official public explanation of the bill, is a full violation of public notice rules and transparency.

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