SALEM — Bill Hansell is “cautiously optimistic” about new Senate leadership as Oregon’s 82nd Legislative Assembly is set to get underway this week.

State senators on Monday, Jan. 9, selected a new president: Rob Wagner, a Democrat from Lake Oswego. He replaces now-retired Sen. Peter Courtney, who left office in 2022 after 38 years, making him the longest-serving legislator in Oregon history.

“(Wagner) said, when you’re a caucus chair, you by nature have a certain priority and a certain focus, but you need to make that focus more middle of the road, if you will, more bipartisan, more for everybody because you’re the president of the whole Senate, not just one party of the Senate,” Hansell said. “So I saw that as a positive statement, a positive sign that he wants to work across the aisle.”

Hansell said the two met for several hours recently and Wagner took the initiative to reach out to Republicans.

“Proof is in the pudding, but I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll be able to get some bipartisan stuff done,” Hansell said. “Things that maybe aren’t so good for our part of the state, we might be able to either moderate them or they don’t move forward. So we’ll see.”

Hansell’s district, Senate District 29, grew as of Jan. 1 with redistricting. The district now includes Wallowa, Union, Umatilla, Morrow, Gilliam, Wasco — except The Dalles — Wheeler and Sherman counties, plus northern Jefferson County. Hansell said the residents within his district expect him to support certain things.

“Whether it’s timber or cattle or crops or irrigated agriculture, fisheries, they’re just a wide range of natural resource things,” he said. “So generally speaking, if something is viewed as detrimental to the ag community, I’ll be opposed to it.… And the reverse is true.”

He said he has 31 bills the legislative council has returned with another five or 10 still under review. Three of those deal with the estate tax.

“One of them is to repeal it altogether like a lot of states have already done,” he said. “The other one is to modify it, and the third one is to just bring it up to code or whatever they call it, the same as the federal inheritance tax.”

Hansell said he divides his work into the “two Ps” of projects and policy. When it comes to capital construction projects, he said he is going to be working on child care and early childhood development. He said he met with a group from the city of Umatilla last week about a clinic and noted that Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande is looking to expand. He also said Ukiah is in the process of reestablishing its historic rodeo and could use some help reconstructing facilities.

Hansell also said he was pleased with his committee assignments. For the 11th consecutive year he is on Ways and Means, the state’s budget committee. He also is on two Ways and Means subcommittees — transportation and economic development and capital construction.

Hansell also is on Senate committees on rules, semiconductors and labor and business.

Levy bills have key state support

Rep. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, said she anticipates a good session and expressed positivity about Dan Rayfield, Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, calling the Democrat “a reasonable person.”

She added Rayfield put her on the committees she requested — agriculture, land use, natural resources and water; climate, energy and environment; and semiconductors. Also, she continues her work on the House Revenue and Tax Expenditure Committee.

Going forward, wolf-related issues and mental health are among her top interests. Levy said she would talk more about legislation once it becomes more public in committees.

“I can tell you that we have worked hard in my district with (the) Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and with the Oregon Department of Agriculture to come up with the wording for all of my bills,” she said. “They are both behind them and have been very helpful in helping me craft all my wolf legislation bills.”

With the swearing in of new lawmakers, she is one of two Levys in the House. The other is newly elected Rep. Emerson Levy, a progressive Democrat whose district in northern Deschutes County includes parts of Bend and Redmond.

Levy represents House District 58, which encompasses all of Union and Wallowa counties and a portion of Umatilla County.

Sticking it out

One of Levy’s concerns for the upcoming session, she said, is Measure 113, the law Oregonians passed in November that bans state senators and representatives from reelection if they have 10 or more unexcused absences from floor sessions during a legislative session. Levy called it a “big problem,” as a walkout is “a great tool for bringing very onerous legislation to a grinding halt.”

She added that Democrats will want the ability to walk out when they are in the minority.

Hansell said he sees Measure 113 as a way for the majority party to try to solidify its power. Walkouts, he said, are a tool that have been part of parliamentary procedure as long as there has been parliamentary procedure.

“There’s a reason you have a quorum, there’s a reason why, on rare occasions you deny quorum,” he said. “And it just so happens that one party was in charge of it when the other party denied quorum.”

The majority does not like denying a quorum, and the majority wants to keep it in the toolbox.

“So I don’t think it’s going to affect anything very much,” Hansell said. “We didn’t use it all that much.”

Voters in every county except Sherman and Lake counties passed the measure, according to Oregon’s official election results.

Lawmakers get to put that to the test starting Jan. 17 when committees begin meeting.

“That’s really the first day,” Hansell said.