Sometimes You Don't Need A Bill

Capitol Currents:

Former Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski will be back in Salem tomorrow when a National Guard support facility at the Salem airport is renamed in his honor.  Interestingly, the renaming comes despite the fact that a bill authorizing the name change failed in the legislature last year. Senate Bill 601, sponsored by Senate President Peter Courtney, is pretty straightforward. In fact, the relevant section is literally one sentence long:SECTION 1. The Oregon Military Department shall name the Salem Army NationalGuard Flight Facility the “Governor Ted Kulongoski Army Aviation Training Center.”The bill passed the Senate unanimously, and headed over to the House with more than three months to go before the end of the 2011 session. But it never even got a hearing in the House Veterans Affairs Committee. What happened? According to spokesmen for both Senator Courtney and Governor John Kitzhaber, the bill got caught up in partisan turmoil unrelated to the measure itself. The middle of the 2011 session saw several political skirmishes between co-chairs of various committees, as Democrats and Republicans shared power thanks to the 30-30 split. The bill honoring the former governor was apparently a victim of that bickering.No fear. The Oregon Military Department decided it didn't need the legislature's approval to rename the facility. And so, with the blessing of Senator Courtney and Governor Kitzhaber, the name change was back on track.

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