Oregon House Bill HB3285

Oregon 2025 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/21/25
• Refer: 1/24/25

Caption

Relating to long-term recovery groups; declaring an emergency.

Summary

House Bill 3285 directs the Oregon Department of Emergency Management (ODEM) to identify existing long-term recovery groups in Oregon and provide grants to support them. The bill defines a long-term recovery group as a local cooperative organization made up of nonprofit, governmental, business, and faith-based representatives that helps communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies. These groups may coordinate public and private disaster support, serve as local recovery organizations, assess post-disaster needs, facilitate communication with vulnerable populations, manage disaster casework, and provide emergency-related services. The bill creates a Long-Term Recovery Group Fund in the State Treasury and appropriates $36 million from the General Fund for the 2025-27 biennium: $18 million for staffing and operations and $18 million for disaster case management services. The fund is continuously appropriated to ODEM, which may issue grants when a locality has experienced or is about to experience an emergency and the recovery group requests support for staffing, incorporation, or other organizational needs. ODEM must also adopt rules to administer the program. The bill takes effect immediately upon passage because it declares an emergency.

Impact

HB3285 would add a new state grant program and funding stream for local disaster recovery organizations, expanding ODEM’s responsibilities beyond general emergency management into direct support for long-term recovery groups. It would not amend existing statutes so much as create a new statutory framework and dedicated fund for emergency recovery assistance. The primary affected parties would be local recovery groups, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, local governments, and communities facing disasters, especially those needing case management and coordination support.

Sentiment

Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the apparent sentiment is supportive and urgency-driven. The bill is framed as an emergency measure intended to strengthen disaster preparedness and recovery capacity, suggesting a policy goal that is likely to attract broad interest from emergency management and community support advocates. No opposing viewpoints are documented in the available record.

Contention

No specific points of contention are shown in the provided committee or vote history, so there is no recorded disagreement to attribute to particular legislators or stakeholder groups. Potential areas of debate, based on the bill’s structure, could include the size of the appropriation, whether state funds should be directed to nongovernmental recovery groups, how ODEM will determine eligible uses of grant money, and whether the program should prioritize staffing, incorporation, or case management over other recovery needs. However, these concerns are not reflected in the supplied discussion materials.