Committee declines to advance LD 1959 after DHHS confirms administrative ruling and litigation resolution

The committee declined to advance LD 1959 on Feb. 19 after the Department of Health and Human Services told lawmakers that the dispute prompting the bill has been resolved.

LD 1959 would have prohibited DHHS from reducing GA maximums for emergency shelter payments and from adopting rules that were more restrictive than statutory GA limits. Committee staff introduced the bill as a response to a dispute between the city of Portland and the department over the allowable reimbursement rate for homeless shelter bed nights.

Ian Yaffe, director of the Office for Family Independence at DHHS, said DHHS found Portland had exceeded the allowed reimbursement rate in September 2024 when the city billed higher nightly costs at its new homeless services center. Portland appealed the department’s notice of violation; the administrative hearing concluded in July 2025 with a finding that Portland had billed correctly. Yaffe also said a subsequent court complaint by Portland challenging Rule 26 was dismissed by agreement earlier in February, and DHHS has continued to reimburse at the higher rate, which Yaffe said is now about $88 per night.

Given those developments, Representative Sam Zager moved "ought not to pass" and the motion carried. The committee recorded that, in light of the administrative ruling and the dismissal of litigation, the original purpose of LD 1959 no longer stood.

Yaffe told the committee that municipalities may, under statute and clarified rule, exceed maximum assistance levels in emergency individual cases and that DHHS had adopted Rule 26 in April 2025 to clarify shelter‑billing maximums. The department said it would continue compliance reviews and is open to reporting progress to the committee as procurement, billing and policy issues evolve.