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SHRMA
...Salem Human Resources Management Association

Legislative Affairs

For more information regarding legislation please contact our Legislative Affairs Directer, David Briggs at dbriggs@sglaw.com

Health Care

Agencies Seek Comments on Proposed Mental Health Parity Rule
Back in February, three federal agencies issued an interim final rule and sought comments on the implementation of the 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Public Law 110-343).  The interim rule outlines “parity” in aggregate lifetime and annual dollar limits, and incorporates new parity standards for health plans.  [ More ]

Health Care Reform Implementation Begins  
As HR professionals nationwide analyze the scope and breadth of the recently-enacted health care reform law, the focus now turns to how the new law is to be implemented.  [ More ]

Workplace Flexibility

SHRM Joins Discussion on Workplace Flexibility 
On May 13, Mike Aitken, SHRM’s Director of Government Affairs, joined other work-life policy experts to discuss “What’s Next?” for workplace flexibility public policy.  [ More ]

Age Discrimination

Congress Considers Legislation to Rebut the Supreme Court Ruling in Gross  
To Last week, the House Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee and the full Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee each held hearings to examine the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act (POWADA), H.R. 3721/S. 1756).  [ More ] 

Credit Checks

House Examines Use of Credit Information in Employment   
The House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit held a hearing on the “Use of Credit Information Beyond Lending: Issues and Reform Proposals” on Wednesday, May 12.  [ More ]

2010 Annual Meeting Update

Military Is Special Focus at SHRM Annual Conference 
SHRM has added a special event to kick-off this year’s Annual Conference in San Diego.  A pre-conference program titled, Military Veterans: Transitioning Skills to the New Economy, will be held at the San Diego Convention Center on June 26 - 27, prior to the start of the 2010 conference.   [ More ]

SHRM Exposure Among Policy-Makers and Opinion Leaders

SHRM Hosts Forum on the State of the Workforce  
By On May 12, SHRM was the exclusive sponsor of an event with the CQ-Roll Call Group titled “The State of the Workforce in the New Economy.”  SHRM’s president and CEO Lon O’Neil opened and closed the program, which was the first of a number of policy discussions planned for 2010.  [ More ]

SHRM Congressional Connection Poll 
Next week, SHRM begins its sponsorship of the first-ever SHRM Congressional Connection Poll.  The poll, which will examine the degree to which Americans feel connected to specific public policy issues, is being conducted by The National Journal, a widely-read weekly magazine popular with Members of Congress and their staffs, government officials, lobbyists, association and think tank leaders, and journalists.  [ More ]

News

April Legislative Report

As you can see, the list of bills has gotten even longer.  We have probably seen the last of the new bills, and now we will watch which bills make it out of committee and continue moving forward.

Here is a link to a cartoon posted on the Oregon Legislature website that shows how a bill progresses through the legislature. Most of the bills listed on this report have not made it past the first row of the cartoon. See  http://www.leg.state.or.us/faq/lawprocs.pdf.

For opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), there was some good news recently as Republican Senator Arlen Specter, who had previously supported EFCA, indicated that he would vote against it.  This will make it more difficult for supporters of EFCA to bring the bill to a vote.  That being said, an article in today’s edition of Politico, a newspaper circulated widely on Capitol Hill, shows that the debate is far from over.  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/20857.html  

To weigh in on EFCA, be sure to visit the HR Voice page on SHRM’s website.  You can find it at: www.shrm.org  (Advocacy / Get Involved Tabs)

Randy Sutton, J.D.
Oregon State Council Legislative Affairs Director

Oregon Legislation

During the Oregon legislative session, our Chapter publishes monthly updates, which identify bills pending before the Oregon Legislature that may impact Oregon employers. You can also learn about pending and enacted Oregon legislation on the Oregon State Legislature home page. The page includes links to the Oregon Revised Statutes. Another very helpful first step is to review How An Idea Becomes Law.

Make a Difference – SHRM HRVoice

SHRM’s HRVoice program is a great way to help change the face of employment law, both statewide and nationally. We all complain about employment laws we don’t like.  We all wish that the law would change in desired ways. As the HR Voice page will tell you, you don’t need to be a political expert. HR Voice is for political novices and seasoned professionals alike and is nonpartisan. So stop grumbling . . .  and do something about it.   

Once you have entered your membership number and accessed the HRVoice web page, you can learn about important legislation now at issue, obtain the names of your legislators, and access ready-to-send form letters voicing your support or opposition.  If the members of our chapter and other chapters around the state get together on an issue, we can make a huge difference in Oregon’s employment laws. With over 160,000 members, our membership in SHRM can help make great strides on the national level.  Let’s all work together to prevent undesirable laws, and promote new legislation that will improve our ability to manage the workforce of our employers.

SHRM Legislative Information on the Web

SHRM offers some great resources for chapter members who want to learn about current human resources legislation. The links below will access a large volume of valuable and up-to-date information.  Because most of this information is available only to SHRM members, you will need to have your membership number handy when you access many of these sites:

  • Federal Affairs. This page includes links to a large variety of information about developments in federal legislation.  These topics include the list of legislative resources, hot links and topics, fact sheets and policy and position statements.
  • State-by-State Legislative Information. This page describes some of the pending legislation in Oregon and other states.
  • Washington, DC & State Insider. This is SHRM's monthly update of legislative developments on a national and state level.