Tell Your Legislators to Advance HB 2008

As the cost of living continues to rise statewide, paychecks are being stretched thinner than ever to pay for housing, childcare, food, utilities, and healthcare costs. Taking on debt to cover essential needs is now common for working families. When debts go unpaid, creditors, debt buyers, and debt collectors can sue and take debt holders to court. In court, these parties are granted access to a powerful set of tools to seize wages, belongings, and bank account balances, leaving families unable to afford necessities. Oregonians need protections to prohibit excessive wage seizures for those with consumer debt in collections. HB 2008 protects consumers' ability to continue to work, maintain their housing, keep food on the table, and fight unfair debt proceedings by making common-sense modernizations to Oregon's consumer protection and debt collection laws.

Tell House Business and Labor Committee members to advance HB 2008 and provide a realistic pathway for Oregon families to recover after an unexpected financial hardship rather than being pushed further into a cycle of debt and poverty.

OR2023HB 2008

Relating to protections from debt collection; prescribing an effective date.

Last Action

In committee upon adjournment.

House • Jun 25, 2023

Latest Version

Introduced

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Your Message to the legislators

Dear (name and title inserted automatically),

I urge your support of House Bill 2008, the Family Financial Protection Act of Oregon. By modernizing and expanding Oregon laws, the Act provides a realistic pathway for families to recover following unexpected financial hardship rather than being pushed further into debt and poverty.

Oregonians are contending with rising inflation and increasing costs of living. These pressures stretch budgets thin and force families to take on debt to cover essentials, including medical care, housing, and food costs. When financial hardship hits, Oregon’s laws are too outdated and flawed to protect people.

HB 2008 will:
- Protect a living wage from wage seizure by raising the minimum protected wage amount to $1,000 per week – just below the earnings threshold of what HUD considers a “low-income” family in Oregon. 
- Protect access to housing by updating the housing exemption from $40,000 to the median home value and by leaving a minimum of $12,000 in bank accounts so that people can continue to pay their rent. This ensures that our debt collection laws do not undermine our efforts to ensure Oregonians are housed. 
- Protect the ability to work by ensuring that a functioning car and work tools are shielded from seizure.
- Fix a loophole that prevents consumers from challenging debt falsely attributed to them or for the wrong amount. 
- Provide consumers with the same window to pursue legal action for an unlawful collection practice as collectors currently have to pursue a debt.

Through common-sense modernizations to Oregon's consumer protection and debt collection laws, HB 2008, The Family Financial Protect Act of Oregon, will provide much-needed safeguards for the economic well-being of Oregonian consumers by protecting their ability to continue working, maintain housing, keep food on the table, and fight unfair debt proceedings.
 
I urge your support of HB 2008. Thank you for your service to Oregon communities.

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