91ÊÓƵ

Members of the Senate Business and Transportation Committee are going to do something today with a bill to change Oregon’s public contracting system.

No. Seriously. They are. No kidding (probably).

They need to do something at their 3 p.m. meeting or Senate Bill 254 will most likely to croak in committee. This is do-or-die week at the capitol.

Next week, all the bills change dance partners. The House bills to go the Senate, and the Senate bills goes to the House. The bills that haven’t been voted on go to the circular file — at least for this session.

Committee members could pull a Charlie-Brown-and-the-football stunt and hold the bill over (for a sixth time) to Thursday at 3 p.m. — their final meeting before the Big Switch. However, Chairman Lee Beyer, D-Eugene, has gone on record as saying he is tired of the delays.

“We need to move the bill next Tuesday,”Beyer said Beyer last week. “We need to get this moving. We’re running out of time.”

The bill tightens the limits on when public agencies can simply hire general contractors without going through a bidding process on public construction projects.

A work group of construction industry representatives and other stakeholders hammered out the particulars of the bill between legislative sessions. It’s been floating around the committee, waiting on amendments and feedback from legislative counsel, since February.

The meeting is in Hearing Room B and can be on the Legislature’s AV system .