PORTLAND, Oregon — The amended bill that would have kept Oregon on permanent standard time, if Washington and California adopted to do the same, will not move forward in this session.
On Monday, the Oregon Senate narrowly approved Senate Bill 1548 on a 16-14 vote. It was expected to go to the House next for consideration. However, Oregon House Speaker Dan Rayfield's office confirmed to KGW on Tuesday that the bill is effectively dead, saying there wasn't enough time left in the session to consider the bill.
"We received the bill later than we would usually take on Senate policy bills since it got referred back to committee before making it over here," a spokesperson for Rayfield's office said. "Given the shortened timeline and the queue of critical bills we’re still working through, we aren’t able to give enough time to considering the merits of the bill in the time we have left this session."
The session this year runs through March 10, only 35 days. That's compared to last year's 160-day session, which was interrupted by a six-week Republican walkout.
Senate Bill 1548 would have done away with daylight saving time and put Oregon permanently on standard time. It included a "trigger" that tied the change to neighboring states California and Washington. Both states would have needed to pass similar bills by March 2034 in order for Oregon to eliminate daylight saving time. Otherwise, the Oregon bill would sunset and be automatically repealed.
The bill's history during this session has been complicated. A previous version of the bill that did not include the trigger was voted down last month, but was revived after some last-minute maneuvering.
On Feb. 19, the bill passed out of a Senate committee and hit the Senate floor for a vote, where it was initially deadlocked at 15-15. One of the bill's sponsors, Sen. Kim Thatcher, changed her vote to oppose it — a move that brought SB 1548 up for reconsideration due to legislative rules. The Senate then voted to allow that reconsideration before the amended version of the bill advanced out of a legislative committee on a 4-1 vote on Feb. 27.
Despite going on to pass the Senate, the decision from Speaker Rayfield to not take the bill up for a vote on the House floor this week means that there is no path forward for SB 1548 this year.