Relating to emergency volunteers; declaring an emergency.
Summary
House Bill 3307 directs the Oregon Department of Emergency Management (ODEM), in consultation with the OregonServes Commission, to create and administer a grant program to support and expand community volunteer programs tied to emergency management. The bill is aimed at organizations that recruit, train, manage, or deploy volunteers for emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. Grants may also support staffing and operational costs connected to those volunteer programs.
The bill establishes a new Volunteer Capacity Building Fund in the State Treasury, separate from the General Fund, and makes its moneys continuously appropriated to ODEM for grant awards. It also includes separate General Fund appropriations placeholders for ODEM, the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, and the OregonServes Commission to cover program development, outreach, administration, and reporting. The measure declares an emergency, meaning it would take effect immediately upon passage.
Impact
HB 3307 would add a new state grant program and a dedicated fund to Oregon law for emergency volunteer capacity building. It would give ODEM rulemaking and administrative authority over grant eligibility, application procedures, permissible uses of funds, and grant agreements, while requiring consultation with the OregonServes Commission and prioritization of grants that improve statewide emergency preparedness and leverage federal or other nonstate funding. The bill would affect public and private entities involved in emergency volunteer training and deployment, and would create new budgetary obligations through General Fund appropriations.
Sentiment
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the overall sentiment appears supportive and programmatic rather than contentious. The measure is framed as a public safety and emergency preparedness initiative, and the emergency clause suggests an intent to move quickly. No opposition, amendments, or divided votes are shown in the available record.
Contention
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided committee transcripts or voting history. Potential areas of debate, if raised, would likely concern the size and source of the appropriations, the scope of ODEM’s discretion in awarding grants, and whether the program duplicates or overlaps with existing volunteer or emergency management efforts. The bill also leaves funding amounts blank in the introduced version, which may indicate that fiscal details were still unresolved.