Oregon Wild released the following statement today following the passage of HB 4040 through the Oregon State Senate. The bill now heads to Governor Kate Brown.
Today is a troubling day for Oregonians who want fairness, transparency, and accountability from our state government.
HB 4040 has been dishonestly portrayed as “merely a pat on the back” for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s controversial decision to remove gray wolves from Oregon’s endangered species list. In reality, it was designed from the start as an assault on the right of Oregon citizens to challenge their own government when it has violated the law. It comes at a time when numerous state agencies are mired in controversies for ignoring science and laws that protect our environment, public health, and wildlife.
The judicial branch is an essential check on the powers of the executive. It is the method by which citizens can hold their government accountable to its own laws. By blatantly seeking to shield a public agency from judicial review of a major decision, the Legislature has blocked Oregonians from exercising their rights and shielded a government agency from responsibility to obey laws it finds inconvenient. The bill also greatly reduces the expectation that state agencies need to consider independent science in future decisions.
Oregonians are acutely sensitive to concerns about ethical governance, and this bill to shield a government agency from accountability comes at the same time the state is struggling with a number of executive branch scandals and oversights in the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Environmental Quality. It’s troubling that this bill - declaring a state of emergency - passed through the legislature based on behavior even proponents characterized as not being “above board”.
This is not legislation to be taken lightly. It is about more than wolves, wildlife management, or science. It is an attack on the constitutional separation of powers that define our very system of government, the rights of Oregonians to hold their government accountable, and the confidence we place in it. Governor Kate Brown should veto HB 4040.
