Oregon Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act

             EIGHTY-THIRD OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
                        2025 Regular Session

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                      INITIATED MEASURE ____

Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:

CONCERNING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF STATE PROGRAMS FOR FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE, PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE, AND EDUCATION MODERNIZATION TO ENSURE THE MATERIAL SECURITY, PHYSIOLOGICAL WELL-BEING, AND DEVELOPMENTAL MATURITY OF ALL OREGON RESIDENTS, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, AMENDING ORS CHAPTERS 327, 336, 340, 409, 414, 561, AND 568, MAKING APPROPRIATIONS, AND PROVIDING EFFECTIVE DATES.

                        A BILL FOR AN ACT

LONG TITLE

AN ACT CONCERNING THE CREATION OF THE OREGON FOOD, RESOURCE, AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, ESTABLISHING THE OREGON FOOD ASSURANCE PROGRAM BY ADDING SECTIONS TO ORS CHAPTER 561 (AGRICULTURE GENERALLY); CREATING THE OREGON ESSENTIAL GOODS PROGRAM BY ADDING SECTIONS TO ORS CHAPTER 285A (ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT); ESTABLISHING THE OREGON PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE FINDINGS BY AMENDING ORS CHAPTER 431 (STATE AND LOCAL ADMINISTRATION OF HEALTH PROGRAMS); ENACTING THE OREGON EDUCATION MODERNIZATION ACT BY AMENDING ORS CHAPTER 327 (STATE FINANCING OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION), ADDING SECTIONS TO ORS CHAPTER 336 (CONDUCT OF SCHOOLS GENERALLY), AND ADDING SECTIONS TO ORS CHAPTER 351 (HIGHER EDUCATION GENERALLY); ESTABLISHING THE OREGON PUBLIC SERVICE AND RESOURCE LIBRARY PROGRAM BY ADDING SECTIONS TO ORS CHAPTER 184 (ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AND TRANSPORTATION); MAKING APPROPRIATIONS; AND PROVIDING FOR EFFECTIVE DATES AND IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULES.

LEGISLATIVE ROUTING NOTE

Oregon invented the modern citizen initiative. In 1902, the Oregon System — spearheaded by William S. U'Ren and the Direct Legislation League — established the initiative and referendum process that every other initiative state subsequently copied. Article IV, Section 1 of the Oregon Constitution reserves to the people the power to propose laws and amendments by initiative petition. Oregon was the first state in the nation to adopt this mechanism of direct democracy.

FILING: An initiated statute is filed with the Oregon Secretary of State pursuant to ORS 250.045. The signature requirement for statewide initiated statutes is six percent (6%) of the total votes cast for the office of Governor at the most recent gubernatorial general election. Based on the November 8, 2022 general election, in which approximately 1,952,886 votes were cast for the office of Governor (Secretary of State, Official Abstract of Votes, 2022 General Election), the current signature requirement for statutory initiatives is approximately 117,173 valid signatures. For initiated constitutional amendments, the threshold is eight percent (8%), or approximately 156,231 signatures.

This proposal is filed as a statutory initiative. Chief petitioners must file a prospective petition with the Secretary of State, whereupon the Attorney General prepares a draft ballot title. The ballot title is reviewed and certified by the Secretary of State. Signature sheets must be filed no later than four months before the general election at which the measure is to be voted upon (ORS 250.052, 250.105).

Oregon imposes no geographic distribution requirement for initiative signatures. There is no single-subject rule for statutory initiatives. The collection window is two years from the date the prospective petition is approved for circulation.

Alternatively, this bill may be introduced through the Oregon Legislative Assembly by any member of the Senate or House of Representatives.

COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT: Upon introduction, this bill would likely be assigned to: - Senate Committee on Natural Resources or House Committee on

    Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources and Water (Division I)

- Senate Committee on Health Care or House Committee on Behavioral

    Health and Health Care (Division II)

- Senate Committee on Education or House Committee on Education

    (Division III)

Because the bill spans multiple committees' jurisdictions, it may be assigned to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means or referred jointly.

FISCAL NOTE: The Legislative Fiscal Office and Legislative Revenue Office prepare fiscal impact statements for all measures with budgetary impact per Oregon Legislative Assembly rules.

FLOOR VOTE: Simple majority in each chamber (16 of 30 Senators; 31 of 60 Representatives). Governor's signature or veto override (two-thirds of each chamber).

SESSION: The 83rd Oregon Legislative Assembly (2025). Oregon's legislative session convenes on the Monday nearest January 13 in odd-numbered years. Regular sessions in odd-numbered years are limited to 160 calendar days; even-year sessions to 35 calendar days.

HISTORY: A version of this proposal was first developed in 2016 through the Sassafras and Maple Research Foundation (SMRF), the first non-partisan political trade school in the United States, registered with the Colorado Department of Higher Education, Division of Private Occupational Schools (DPOS). The original proposal was written for Colorado and sidelined during the 2016-2017 legislative cycle by Democrats. The present version adapts the framework to Oregon, incorporating updated research from the Historical Apoplexy series (Cooper, 2025-2026), a ten-paper academic work providing the evidentiary foundation for this legislation.

OREGON DISTINCTION: Oregon has NO SALES TAX — the only Western state without one. Oregonians have repeatedly rejected sales tax proposals at the ballot box, most recently in 1993. Yet every Oregonian pays a 75.7% private markup on every grocery purchase — a hidden consumption levy collected by corporations, not the state, that exceeds any sales tax ever proposed. Oregon voters believe consumption should not be taxed. This act confronts the markup that functions as a private tax Oregonians never voted for.

LEGISLATIVE DECLARATION

Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:

SECTION 1. Legislative findings and declaration.

    (1) The people of Oregon hereby find, determine, and declare that:

    FINDINGS RELATING TO THE STRUCTURAL IMPERATIVE FOR STATE
    ACTION:

    (a0) Twenty-two federal government shutdowns since 1976,
    including a forty-three-day shutdown in 2025. The House frozen
    at 435 since 1929; 762,000 constituents per representative —
    worst in the OECD. Federal H.R. 1 (2025) shifted SNAP
    administrative costs from fifty percent to seventy-five percent
    state share. The federal machine is structurally overloaded
    (Cooper, Paper VII, 2026). This state has the authority to act
    under its own legislative power rather than await federal
    action that structural overload prevents;

    (a1) DENIAL IS NO LONGER NEUTRAL. Inaction by a legislature
    possessing the authority, capacity, and documented need to act
    constitutes active harm. The burden rests on denial;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO FOOD AND COMMODITY INSECURITY:

    (a) According to the United States Department of Agriculture
    Economic Research Service, 13 percent of Oregon households
    experienced food insecurity in the 2022-2024 period. The Food
    Research and Action Center reports that 771,719 Oregonians received
    SNAP benefits in fiscal year 2024, with total SNAP expenditures
    of approximately $1.60 billion (FRAC, "SNAP State Fact Sheet:
    Oregon," 2025). Oregon Food Bank's network recorded 1.9 million
    visits to food assistance sites in 2024 — a 14 percent increase
    over the prior year. Approximately one in four Oregon children
    and one in eight Oregon adults experience food insecurity;

    (b) Oregon's agricultural sector generates approximately $6.4
    billion in annual cash receipts from farm marketings (USDA National
    Agricultural Statistics Service, 2024 Oregon Agricultural
    Statistics). Oregon produces 99 percent of the nation's hazelnuts,
    is the leading producer of Christmas trees and grass seed, and
    maintains significant production in berries (blueberries,
    blackberries, cranberries, strawberries), wine grapes (Willamette
    Valley), wheat, potatoes, nursery and greenhouse products, dairy,
    and cattle. Oregon's productive capacity exceeds its population's
    food requirements. Food insecurity in Oregon is a distribution
    problem, not a production problem;

    (c) The United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research
    Service Food Dollar Series establishes that the farm share of the
    United States food dollar is 24.3 cents, with the remaining 75.7
    cents allocated to processing, transportation, wholesale, retail,
    and food service markup. Total United States food-at-home spending
    is approximately $1.09 trillion; production cost is approximately
    $213 to $327 billion. The difference of approximately $496 billion
    represents markup above production cost;

    (d) OREGON HAS NO SALES TAX. Oregon is the only Western state
    that does not levy a general sales tax on consumer goods. Oregon
    voters have repeatedly rejected sales tax proposals at the ballot
    box. Yet every Oregonian pays a 75.7 percent private markup on
    every grocery purchase — a consumption levy collected by
    corporations rather than by the state. This markup exceeds any
    sales tax rate ever proposed in Oregon. Oregon voters who rejected
    a government sales tax are paying a private markup three times
    larger, with none of the proceeds funding public services. The
    people of Oregon did not vote for this markup. The people of
    Oregon have the right to eliminate it;

    (e) The cost to close the food insecurity gap for all 47.9 million
    food-insecure Americans is approximately $32 billion, which
    represents 6.5 percent of the $496 billion markup between
    production cost and retail price (Cooper, "The Mathematics of
    Abundance," 2025);

    (f) The United States military commissary system, established by
    the Military Commissary Act of 1867 and now codified at 10 U.S.C.
    Section 2484, has operated at-cost food distribution continuously
    for one hundred fifty-seven (157) years, delivering savings of 17
    to 25 percent below civilian retail prices within the continental
    United States and up to 64 percent at overseas locations to
    approximately 2.8 million authorized users through 236 stores
    worldwide. This program
    is funded by all federal taxpayers but available only to military
    families and retirees, establishing a proven precedent for
    government-operated at-cost food distribution;

    (g) The geographer Albrecht Penck calculated in 1925 that Earth's
    carrying capacity was eight billion people using 1920s agricultural
    technology. The current world population is approximately eight
    billion. Since agricultural technology has advanced substantially
    beyond 1920s capacity, scarcity of food is not a physical
    constraint but a distribution and policy constraint (Penck, 1925;
    Cohen, "How Many People Can the Earth Support?," 1995);

    (h) The United States has approximately 293,000 manufacturing
    facilities. Studies indicate that 10,000 to 15,000 facilities
    would suffice for universal material abundance, representing 19.5
    to 29.3 times overcapacity, with United States manufacturing
    currently operating at approximately 77 percent capacity
    utilization — 23 percent idle due to demand constraints, not supply
    limitations (Federal Reserve; Cooper, "The Mathematics of
    Abundance," 2025);

    (i) In 2024 alone, 7,325 retail grocery store locations closed
    in the United States (Cooper, "Stolen Futures," 2025), with 45
    retail bankruptcies in 2024 representing an 80 percent increase
    over 2023, while 54 million Americans live in food deserts and
    15,000 additional store closures are projected for 2025. The
    commercial retail grocery model is collapsing as a distribution
    system. Rural Oregon — east of the Cascades, the southern coast,
    and the timber communities of Klamath Falls, Roseburg, Coos Bay,
    and Grants Pass — is a food desert;

    (j) The economist John Kenneth Galbraith described in "The
    Affluent Society" (1958) the condition of "private opulence and
    public squalor" — the coexistence of enormous private productive
    capacity with inadequate public provision of basic needs. In
    Oregon, this condition is visible on Interstate 5: Portland's
    world-famous food culture — farm-to-table restaurants, food carts,
    craft food economy, Willamette Valley pinot noir — coexists with
    food deserts in Klamath Falls, closed timber mills in Roseburg,
    and methamphetamine crises in Grants Pass. The same state, the
    same governor, the same laws — different centuries;

    (k) The economist Thorstein Veblen documented in "The Engineers
    and the Price System" (1921) the deliberate restriction of
    production capacity by business interests to maintain prices above
    production cost, a practice he termed the "conscious withdrawal
    of efficiency." Oregon's timber industry ran Veblen's analysis
    in real time: federal logging restrictions did not stop demand for
    timber — they redirected supply to imports while Oregon mill
    workers lost everything. Productive capacity was politically idled
    while the workers absorbed all the cost. What the spotted owl
    debate framed as environment versus jobs was, in Veblen's
    analysis, the sabotage of productive capacity with the human cost
    externalized to rural communities;

    (l) The designer and systems theorist Jacque Fresco proposed in
    "Designing the Future" (2007) a resource library model with three
    distribution tiers: constant-need goods (food — if you do not
    request approximately 100 pounds per month, someone checks on
    you), semi-permanent goods (clothing — limited request frequency),
    and permanent goods (housing, vehicle — one per household
    allocation). Currency survives for luxury and custom goods. This
    model addresses Oregon's homelessness crisis directly: the
    durables tier provides permanent housing allocation, not temporary
    shelter;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO HISTORICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PRECEDENT:

    (l1) Augustus ran the annona civica for 200,000 Romans — grain
    as infrastructure, same category as roads. Suetonius records him
    ordering a knight stabbed at a public assembly for taking notes.
    Even he fed his city. The annona ran over 400 years. Nerva added
    child nutrition on bronze at Veleia (CIL XI 1147) that you can
    still visit. At Mabu Co in Tibet, sedentary abundance was
    achieved 4,400 years ago at 14,587 feet with fishing hooks
    (Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2024). The Azolla Event proved one
    fern species could edit Earth's atmosphere over 800,000 years
    (Brinkhuis et al., Nature 441, 2006). The commissary has run
    157 years. The annona ran 400. Biology works across geologic
    time. Oregon's Willamette Valley is one of the most productive
    agricultural regions in the world. The food exists;

    (l2) Division I does not nationalize Oregon agriculture.
    Willamette Valley farms stay private. Tillamook dairy stays
    private. Fishing fleets stay private. The state purchases at
    production cost plus five percent surcharge — the same model
    the commissary has used since 1867 without acquiring a single
    farm. Currency survives for everything above the base list.
    The bill is a floor;

    (l3) The retail collapse and autonomous freight are already
    eliminating distribution jobs. Aurora runs driverless freight
    between Dallas and Houston today. Over 15,000 store closures
    projected for 2025. Fred Meyer closures already hit rural
    Oregon. The bill does not cause this. The bill catches displaced
    workers: Division I feeds them, Division II covers their health,
    Division III provides a pipeline. The commissary has truckers.
    At-cost removes the markup, not the labor;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND HIERARCHY:

    (m) Sir Michael Marmot's Whitehall Studies, commencing in 1967
    and continuing to the present with 10,308 subjects, established
    that among British civil servants with universal healthcare, full
    employment, and no absolute poverty, the lowest employment grade
    experienced three times the mortality rate of the highest grade.
    Standard risk factors — smoking, cholesterol, blood pressure —
    explained less than forty percent of the mortality gradient. The
    hierarchy itself, independent of absolute material deprivation,
    produces lethal health outcomes;

    (n) Dr. Robert Sapolsky's thirty-year study of wild baboon
    populations in the Serengeti demonstrated that subordinate social
    position produces chronically elevated cortisol, atherosclerosis,
    immune suppression, and cognitive impairment. When a tuberculosis
    outbreak eliminated the most aggressive males from a troop,
    hierarchy collapsed, and subordinates' cortisol levels normalized,
    demonstrating that the health damage was caused by the hierarchy,
    not by inherent individual biology (Sapolsky, "Why Zebras Don't
    Get Ulcers," 1994; "Behave," 2017);

    (o) Dr. Carol Shively's thirty-year study of female macaques at
    Wake Forest University demonstrated that subordinate social status
    directly causes visceral fat accumulation, atherosclerosis, and
    coronary artery disease, with cingulate cortex serotonin
    identified as the neurological nexus linking depression to
    cardiovascular disease (Shively, 2009; 2014);

    (p) Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in
    Physiology or Medicine, demonstrated that chronic psychological
    stress shortens telomeres — the protective caps on chromosomal
    DNA — accelerating cellular aging. Caregivers of chronically ill
    children had measurably shorter telomeres proportional to years of
    stress. Poverty and subordination age human beings at the
    molecular level (Blackburn & Epel, "The Telomere Effect," 2017);

    (q) These findings collectively establish that poverty and social
    hierarchy are not merely economic conditions but medical conditions
    with documented physiological pathways that produce measurable
    morbidity and mortality. Food and commodity assurance programs
    therefore constitute public health interventions with quantifiable
    healthcare cost reduction potential;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO OREGON'S TIMBER COLLAPSE AND HIERARCHY-MEDIATED
    HEALTH DAMAGE:

    (r) Oregon was the leading lumber-producing state in the United
    States for decades. The timber industry was the economic backbone
    of rural Oregon — Klamath Falls, Roseburg, Coos Bay, Grants Pass,
    and communities throughout the Cascades and southern coast. Federal
    logging restrictions beginning in the 1990s, driven by the spotted
    owl listing under the Endangered Species Act, resulted in
    catastrophic mill closures across rural Oregon. What the auto
    industry collapse was to Michigan and the steel industry collapse
    was to Ohio, the timber collapse was to Oregon;

    (s) The health consequences of Oregon's timber collapse follow
    the identical Marmot/Sapolsky/Blackburn pathway documented in the
    Whitehall Studies: status loss produces chronically elevated
    cortisol, which produces atherosclerosis, immune suppression,
    shortened telomeres, and substance use as a biological coping
    mechanism. Methamphetamine in rural Oregon is the opioid crisis
    with a different molecule — same cause, same biology, same
    Marmot/Sapolsky pathway. The hierarchy killed Oregon's timber
    workers by removing their economic position overnight;

    (t) Oregon has the highest rate of unsheltered homelessness in the
    United States. The 2024 Point-in-Time count recorded approximately
    17,912 people experiencing sheltered or unsheltered homelessness
    statewide, with an estimated 25,758 experiencing doubled-up
    homelessness (Portland State University, Homelessness Research and
    Action Collaborative, 2024). Approximately 60 percent or more of
    Oregon's homeless population is unsheltered. Chronic homelessness
    produces cortisol levels comparable to combat veterans. Blackburn's
    telomere research demonstrates that years of unsheltered living
    ages people at the cellular level by decades. Portland's tent
    cities are the gradient made visible on sidewalks. The resource
    library's durables tier — permanent housing allocation — is not
    abstract in Oregon. It is the answer to the tent cities;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT:

    (u) Neuroscientific research establishes that the human prefrontal
    cortex — responsible for judgment, impulse control, long-term
    planning, and executive function — does not fully mature until
    approximately age twenty-five (25). The current compulsory
    education system in Oregon, which requires attendance only through
    age eighteen (18) under ORS 339.010, terminates structured
    developmental support during seven (7) years of critical
    neurological maturation;

    (v) Erik Erikson's model of psychosocial development (1959)
    identifies eight stages of human development, each requiring the
    resolution of a core developmental crisis. The stages from birth
    through age twenty-five encompass Trust vs. Mistrust (ages 0-1),
    Autonomy vs. Shame (ages 1-3), Initiative vs. Guilt (ages 3-6),
    Industry vs. Inferiority (ages 6-12), Identity vs. Role Confusion
    (ages 12-18), and Intimacy vs. Isolation (ages 18-25). Failure to
    provide structured developmental support through these stages
    results in incomplete psychosocial maturation;

    (w) Lev Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (1934) establishes
    that learning occurs in the gap between what an individual can
    accomplish independently and what the individual can accomplish
    with structured guidance. This theoretical framework requires
    calibrated challenge — neither too easy nor too difficult — as the
    mechanism of cognitive growth, and provides the scientific basis
    for structured learning trials as an assessment methodology;

    (x) Robert Bjork's research on "desirable difficulties" (1994)
    demonstrates that learning conditions that feel harder produce
    superior retention and transfer of knowledge. Struggle is not a
    side effect of learning but its mechanism, establishing the
    scientific basis for structured challenge as a core pedagogical
    method rather than passive attendance;

    (y) Suniya Luthar's research on the culture of affluence (2003,
    National Institutes of Health PMC1950124) demonstrates that
    affluent children exhibit elevated rates of substance abuse,
    anxiety, and depression compared to inner-city peers. The
    mechanism is achievement pressure without genuine challenge,
    isolation from consequence, and absence of meaningful struggle.
    Material abundance without developmental infrastructure produces
    pathology. Education reform is therefore a prerequisite — not a
    supplement — to the food and commodity assurance programs
    established in this act;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO MEASURE 110 AND THE LIMITS OF DECRIMINALIZATION
    WITHOUT DEVELOPMENTAL STRUCTURE:

    (z) In November 2020, Oregon voters passed Measure 110, the Drug
    Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act, which decriminalized
    possession of small amounts of controlled substances and directed
    marijuana tax revenues toward treatment services. By 2024, the
    Oregon Legislative Assembly partially rolled back Measure 110
    through HB 4002, recriminalizing public drug use. The lesson of
    Measure 110 is not that decriminalization fails. The lesson is
    that removing punishment without providing developmental structure
    does not work. Luthar's affluence pathology applies: removing
    constraints (decriminalization) without building the gate
    (education, developmental pipeline, service requirement) produces
    worse outcomes, not better. Division III of this act IS the
    structure that Measure 110 needed and did not have;

    (aa) Arnold van Gennep (1909) and Victor Turner (1969) documented
    that virtually every human society creates structured ordeals for
    adolescents — physical trials, endurance tests, isolation periods,
    community service — as developmental infrastructure. Societies
    that abandoned these structures did not produce freer human
    beings; they produced developmentally incomplete ones;

    (bb) Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis demonstrated in "Schooling in
    Capitalist America" (1976) that the education system reproduces
    class structure. However, the appropriate diagnostic framework,
    described in the Historical Apoplexy literature as the "targeting
    error" (Cooper, Paper V, 2025), recognizes that teachers are not
    responsible for society-wide stratification. The ocean is
    stratified; the cup is not. Education reform must address the
    structural conditions of the system, not blame individual
    educators;

    (cc) Philip Jackson's "Life in Classrooms" (1968) identified the
    "hidden curriculum" — crowds, evaluation, and power asymmetry —
    as inherent features of institutional education at scale. Ivan
    Illich's "Deschooling Society" (1971) critiqued the institutional
    form of education. E.D. Hirsch's "Cultural Literacy" (1987)
    established that core knowledge must reside in the individual's
    own mind, not merely be accessible through external references,
    as the prerequisite for democratic participation;

    (dd) PIAAC 2023 (OECD, December 2024): 28% of US adults at
    the lowest literacy level (up from 19% in 2017). 34% lowest
    numeracy. 32% lowest problem-solving. Declining in 19 of 26
    OECD countries. Compound-competency: ~1 in 6,700 American
    adults meet a basic standard (2 sports, 2 languages, 12th-grade
    subjects, 2 instruments) the German Gymnasium certifies as
    ordinary;

    ADAM SMITH AND WHOLE-HUMAN EDUCATION. Smith
    wrote in Wealth of Nations Book V Ch I Pt III Art II:

        "The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few
        simple operations... generally becomes as stupid and
        ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to
        become."

    His remedy: compulsory state-funded education. Smith was a
    polymath (Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759, seventeen years
    before Wealth of Nations). To cite Smith for markets while
    opposing what Smith demanded is to invoke an authority one
    has not read;

    (ee) The Vitruvian Quotient framework (Cooper, 2025-2026) models
    human intelligence as eight measurable domains mapped to
    neurological substrates: Knowledge Quotient (KQ, temporal and
    parietal cortices), Reasoning Quotient (RQ, prefrontal and
    parietal cortices), Emotional Quotient (EQ, limbic system and
    amygdala), Language Quotient (LQ, Broca's and Wernicke's areas),
    Creative Quotient (CQ, default mode network), Social Quotient (SQ,
    mirror neuron system and temporoparietal junction), Motor Quotient
    (MQ, motor cortex and cerebellum), and Biological Quotient (BQ,
    autonomic and hormonal regulation). VQ = KQ + RQ + EQ + LQ + CQ +
    SQ + MQ + BQ. A twenty-five-year curriculum calibrated to develop
    all eight quotients to full human maturity, scored without ceiling
    via a compensatory framework where strength in one domain offsets
    deficit in another, provides the scientific foundation for the
    education modernization program established in this act;

    (dd1) The Meyerhoff Scholars Program at UMBC, founded by Freeman
    Hrabowski in 1988, has produced over 1,400 alumni with five times
    the STEM PhD pursuit rate of matched comparisons. Oregon State,
    University of Oregon, and Portland State provide the institutional
    infrastructure Division III builds on. This act scales the
    Meyerhoff mechanism statewide;

    (ff) Oregon's existing higher education infrastructure includes
    the University of Oregon (Eugene), Oregon State University
    (Corvallis, land-grant institution), Portland State University,
    Oregon Health & Science University, and regional universities
    including Western Oregon University, Southern Oregon University,
    and Eastern Oregon University. Oregon's community college system
    comprises seventeen (17) community colleges serving all thirty-six
    (36) counties. Oregon Promise (2015, ORS 348.272) provides
    tuition-free community college for recent high school graduates —
    one of the first such programs in the nation. Oregon already
    committed to the principle that post-secondary education should be
    accessible. The K-20 pipeline extends Oregon Promise through the
    full developmental arc — not just tuition-free, but
    developmentally structured through VQ, with public service unlock;

    (gg) Oregon State University's Extension Service operates in all
    thirty-six Oregon counties, providing the model for how university
    infrastructure serves rural communities. Like Michigan State
    University Extension, OSU Extension is the infrastructure upon
    which the K-20 pipeline builds in rural Oregon;

    FINDINGS RELATING TO TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY:

    (hh) Oregon is home to nine (9) federally recognized tribal
    nations: the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, the Confederated
    Tribes of Grand Ronde, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians,
    the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the
    Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians,
    the Burns Paiute Tribe, the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of
    Indians, the Coquille Indian Tribe, and the Klamath Tribes.
    Oregon's tribal termination era (1950s-1960s) represents one of
    the most devastating chapters in federal Indian policy — multiple
    Oregon tribes, including the Klamath Tribes, the Grand Ronde, and
    the Siletz, were legally terminated (federal recognition stripped,
    lands taken) and fought for decades to achieve restoration of
    federal recognition. The people of Oregon have a particular
    obligation to ensure that state programs honor tribal sovereignty
    and are implemented in genuine partnership with, not imposition
    upon, Oregon's tribal nations;

    (ii) Oregon's biennial budget for 2025-27 is approximately $37.3
    billion General Fund and $1.8 billion Lottery Funds, for a
    combined General Fund and Lottery Fund total of approximately
    $39.1 billion for the biennium — approximately $19.55 billion per
    year (Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office, 2025-27 Budget Highlights).
    Oregon currently spends approximately $1.60 billion annually on
    SNAP benefits distributed through commercial retailers, where 75.7
    cents of every food dollar pays for markup rather than food
    production;

    (2) The people of Oregon further find that the programs established
    in this act — food and commodity assurance, public health
    intervention, and education modernization — are interdependent
    components of a single policy framework. Material abundance
    without developmental infrastructure produces the affluence
    pathology documented by Luthar. Education without material
    security cannot function because students cannot learn while
    food-insecure. And neither program can achieve its purpose without
    addressing the physiological damage that hierarchy and poverty
    inflict on the human body. These three divisions must be enacted
    together, and each is necessary for the others to succeed.

    (3) Oregon gave America the initiative process in 1902. One
    hundred and twenty-four years later, this act asks Oregonians to
    use it for what it was built for.

DIVISION I — OREGON FOOD AND COMMODITY ASSURANCE ACT

SECTION 2. Sections 3 through 12 of this act are added to and made a part of ORS Chapter 561 (Agriculture Generally).

SECTION 3. Short title.

    Sections 3 through 12 of this act shall be known and may be cited
    as the "Oregon Food Assurance Act."

SECTION 4. Definitions.

    As used in sections 3 through 12 of this act, unless the context
    otherwise requires:

    (1) "At-cost pricing" means the price of a food product calculated
    as the sum of the direct production cost paid to the producer or
    supplier plus a facility surcharge not to exceed five percent (5%)
    of the production cost, with no additional profit margin, markup,
    or marketing cost applied.

    (2) "Department" means the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

    (3) "Director" means the Director of the Department of Agriculture.

    (4) "Food assurance center" means a state-operated facility
    established under this section for the purpose of distributing
    food products to Oregon residents at at-cost pricing.

    (5) "Facility surcharge" means a charge not to exceed five percent
    (5%) of the production cost of a food product, applied to cover
    the operational costs of a food assurance center, including but
    not limited to facility maintenance, labor, utilities, and
    transportation.

    (6) "Production cost" means the cost of producing a food product
    as determined by the department based on wholesale acquisition
    price from producers, cooperatives, or the most proximate point
    in the supply chain to the point of original production.

    (7) "Resource library" means the distribution system established
    under Division IV of this act in which goods are distributed
    according to need and tiered by permanence.

SECTION 5. Oregon food assurance program — creation — purpose.

    (1) There is hereby created in the Department of Agriculture the
    Oregon food assurance program.

    (2) The purpose of the program is to establish state-operated food
    distribution centers where all Oregon residents may purchase the
    full range of grocery products at at-cost pricing, modeled on the
    United States military commissary system as authorized by 10
    U.S.C. Section 2484 and as operated by the Defense Commissary
    Agency (DeCA) continuously since 1867.

    (3) The no-sales-tax argument: Oregon voters rejected government
    taxation of consumption. But every Oregonian pays a 75.7 percent
    private markup on grocery purchases — a consumption levy collected
    by corporations, not the state. At least a government sales tax
    would fund public services. This markup funds corporate marketing
    budgets. The food assurance program eliminates the markup by
    purchasing directly from Oregon producers and distributing at
    production cost plus a 5 percent facility surcharge.

    (4) The program shall:

        (a) Establish and operate food assurance centers throughout
        the state of Oregon;

        (b) Purchase food products directly from Oregon producers,
        cooperatives, and wholesale suppliers at or near production
        cost;

        (c) Sell food products to Oregon residents at at-cost pricing
        as defined in section 4 of this act;

        (d) Prioritize procurement from Oregon farms and ranches to
        the maximum extent practicable, leveraging Oregon's $6.4
        billion agricultural sector including hazelnuts (99% of U.S.
        production), berries, grass seed, nursery products, wheat,
        potatoes, dairy, and cattle;

        (e) Accept all forms of payment including but not limited to
        cash, electronic benefit transfer (EBT), Supplemental
        Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and Women,
        Infants, and Children (WIC) vouchers;

        (f) Operate without profit motive, with all revenue above
        operational costs reinvested in program expansion.

SECTION 6. Pilot food assurance centers — locations — timeline.

    (1) Within two (2) years of the effective date of this section,
    the department shall establish not fewer than five (5) pilot food
    assurance centers in the following regions:

        (a) Two (2) centers in the Portland metropolitan area
        (Multnomah, Washington, or Clackamas counties);

        (b) One (1) center in the Salem-Keizer metropolitan area
        (Marion County);

        (c) One (1) center in the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan
        area (Lane County);

        (d) One (1) center in a rural timber community in southern
        or eastern Oregon, including but not limited to Klamath
        Falls, Roseburg, Coos Bay, Grants Pass, or Bend.

    (2) Within five (5) years of the effective date of this section,
    the department shall expand the program to not fewer than twenty
    (20) food assurance centers statewide, with at least one center
    in each congressional district and at least five (5) centers
    serving rural communities as defined by the department.

    (3) The department shall prioritize locations with the highest
    rates of food insecurity, the greatest distances to existing
    grocery retail, and the largest populations residing in food
    deserts — with particular attention to Oregon's rural timber
    communities where mill closures have eliminated both employment
    and commercial infrastructure.

    (4) The department shall consult with Oregon's nine federally
    recognized tribal nations regarding the siting and operation of
    food assurance centers on or near tribal lands, and shall enter
    into partnership agreements with any tribe that elects to
    co-operate or independently operate a food assurance center
    serving tribal members and surrounding communities.

SECTION 7. Oregon food assurance fund — creation.

    (1) There is hereby created in the State Treasury the Oregon food
    assurance fund, separate and distinct from the General Fund.

    (2) The fund shall consist of:

        (a) Appropriations made by the Legislative Assembly;

        (b) Revenue from facility surcharges collected pursuant to
        sections 3 through 12 of this act;

        (c) Federal grants and matching funds;

        (d) Gifts, donations, and grants from any source.

    (3) Moneys in the fund are continuously appropriated to the
    department for the purposes of sections 3 through 12 of this act.

SECTION 8. Oregon-first procurement.

    (1) Within three (3) years of the effective date of this section,
    not less than fifty percent (50%) of all food products sold
    through food assurance centers shall be sourced from Oregon
    producers.

    (2) Within five (5) years of the effective date of this section,
    the Oregon-sourced share shall increase to not less than seventy
    percent (70%).

    (3) The department shall establish procurement partnerships with
    Oregon State University Extension Service, local farmers' markets,
    and agricultural cooperatives to facilitate direct procurement
    from Oregon producers.

SECTION 9. Oregon essential goods program — creation.

    (1) There is hereby created in the Oregon Business Development
    Department (ORS Chapter 285A) the Oregon essential goods program.

    (2) The program shall produce and distribute clothing, household
    supplies, hygiene products, tools, educational materials, and
    other essential goods at below-retail pricing through
    manufacturing partnerships and direct procurement.

    (3) Essential goods shall be distributed through food assurance
    centers or dedicated essential goods facilities as determined by
    the Oregon Business Development Department.

    (4) The program shall prioritize Oregon-manufactured goods and
    shall partner with Oregon community colleges and workforce
    training programs to develop manufacturing capacity.

SECTION 10. Tribal food sovereignty provisions.

    (1) Each of Oregon's nine federally recognized tribal nations
    shall be invited to participate in the food assurance program
    as a sovereign partner, not as a subordinate recipient.

    (2) Tribal nations may:

        (a) Co-operate food assurance centers on tribal lands with
        state support and funding;

        (b) Independently operate food assurance centers serving
        tribal members and surrounding communities, with state
        procurement and supply chain access;

        (c) Integrate traditional food systems, including but not
        limited to salmon, roots, berries, and game, into the food
        assurance program;

        (d) Designate tribal representatives to sit on the food
        assurance program advisory board with voting authority.

    (3) No provision of this act shall be construed to diminish,
    abrogate, or supersede the sovereign rights of any federally
    recognized tribal nation in Oregon. Oregon's tribal termination
    history — the legal dissolution and forced restoration of multiple
    Oregon tribes in the 1950s-1960s — requires that this program be
    implemented in genuine partnership with, not imposition upon,
    tribal communities.

SECTION 11. Annual reporting.

    (1) Beginning one (1) year after the first food assurance center
    opens, the department shall submit an annual report to the
    Legislative Assembly containing:

        (a) Total food distributed and number of residents served;

        (b) Average savings compared to retail grocery pricing;

        (c) Oregon-sourced procurement percentage;

        (d) Operational costs and facility surcharge revenue;

        (e) Food insecurity rate changes in communities served;

        (f) Tribal participation and partnership status.

SECTION 12. Sunset and review.

    Sections 3 through 12 of this act are subject to review by the
    Legislative Assembly during the 2033 regular session. This section
    does not repeal sections 3 through 12 of this act.

DIVISION II — OREGON HEALTH EQUITY ACT

SECTION 13. Sections 14 through 20 of this act are added to and made a part of ORS Chapter 431 (State and Local Administration of Health Programs).

SECTION 14. Public health findings — hierarchy as medical condition.

    (1) The Oregon Health Authority hereby finds and declares that:

        (a) Food insecurity, poverty, and social hierarchy are medical
        conditions with documented physiological pathways, supported
        by the Whitehall Studies (Marmot: lowest-grade civil servants
        had 3x mortality of top grade, 10,308 subjects, 1967-present),
        primate research (Sapolsky: subordination produces chronic
        elevated cortisol and immune suppression, 30-year Serengeti
        study; Shively: subordinate status causes coronary artery
        disease through cingulate cortex serotonin pathway, 30-year
        Wake Forest study), and Nobel Prize-winning telomere research
        (Blackburn: chronic stress shortens telomeres, aging DNA at
        the molecular level, 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or
        Medicine);

        (b) The food and commodity assurance programs established in
        Division I of this act are public health interventions with
        quantifiable healthcare cost reduction potential;

        (c) Oregon's timber community collapse follows the identical
        Marmot/Sapolsky/Blackburn pathway: status loss (mill closures)
        produces chronically elevated cortisol, which produces
        atherosclerosis, immune suppression, shortened telomeres, and
        substance use as a biological coping mechanism.
        Methamphetamine in rural Oregon timber towns is the biological
        equivalent of opioids in Ohio steel towns and Michigan auto
        towns — different molecule, identical hierarchy-mediated
        physiological pathway;

        (d) Oregon's unsheltered homelessness crisis — the highest
        unsheltered rate in the nation — represents the extreme
        endpoint of the Marmot gradient. Chronic homelessness produces
        cortisol levels comparable to combat veterans. The resource
        library's durables tier (permanent housing allocation)
        constitutes a medical intervention, not merely a housing
        intervention.

SECTION 15. Oregon Health Plan integration.

    (1) The Oregon Health Authority shall integrate the findings of
    section 14 of this act into the Oregon Health Plan (OHP)
    prioritized list of health services. The recognition that
    hierarchy-mediated stress is a medical condition with documented
    physiological pathways builds on Oregon's own precedent: the
    Oregon Health Plan, established in 1994, was among the first in
    the nation to systematically prioritize health interventions by
    evidence-based cost-effectiveness. Division II extends that
    evidence-based tradition.

    (2) The Oregon Health Authority shall designate food insecurity
    screening as a required component of primary care assessments
    for all OHP enrollees.

SECTION 16. Baseline health assessment.

    (1) Within two (2) years of the effective date of this section,
    the Oregon Health Authority shall conduct a baseline healthcare
    cost assessment measuring:

        (a) Emergency room utilization rates in communities served by
        food assurance centers versus comparable communities without
        food assurance centers;

        (b) Rates of diet-related chronic disease (type 2 diabetes,
        hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity) in program
        communities;

        (c) Mental health and substance use metrics, with specific
        attention to rural timber communities and unsheltered homeless
        populations;

        (d) Cortisol and stress biomarkers in a sample population, to
        directly measure the physiological impact of reduced food and
        housing insecurity;

        (e) Telomere length in a longitudinal sample, to measure the
        cellular-level impact of reduced hierarchy-mediated stress.

SECTION 17. Annual health reporting.

    (1) Beginning one (1) year after the baseline assessment, the
    Oregon Health Authority shall submit annual reports to the
    Legislative Assembly on healthcare cost reductions attributable to
    the food assurance and education modernization programs.

SECTION 18. Timber community health initiative.

    (1) The Oregon Health Authority shall establish a timber community
    health initiative specifically targeting communities where mill
    closures have produced concentrated hierarchy-mediated health
    damage.

    (2) The initiative shall:

        (a) Deploy mobile health clinics to food assurance center
        locations in rural timber communities;

        (b) Provide substance use treatment integrated with food
        assurance, recognizing that methamphetamine and opioid use in
        timber communities is a biological response to status loss,
        not a moral failure;

        (c) Coordinate with Division III education programs to provide
        workforce retraining and developmental support for displaced
        timber workers and their families.

SECTION 19. Homelessness health intervention.

    (1) The Oregon Health Authority shall designate food assurance
    centers in Portland, Eugene, and Salem as homelessness health
    intervention sites, providing:

        (a) Immediate food access at at-cost pricing for all persons
        regardless of housing status;

        (b) Health screenings, including cortisol assessment and
        telomere measurement where practicable;

        (c) Pathway coordination to the resource library's durables
        tier (permanent housing allocation) upon establishment of
        that program under Division IV of this act.

SECTION 20. Tribal health partnership.

    (1) The Oregon Health Authority shall enter into partnership
    agreements with Oregon's nine federally recognized tribal nations
    to ensure that Division II health interventions respect tribal
    sovereignty, incorporate traditional health practices, and are
    delivered in coordination with tribal health programs.

DIVISION III — OREGON EDUCATION MODERNIZATION ACT

This division is the largest division of this act. Without education reform, the abundance provided by Divisions I and II produces the affluence pathology documented by Luthar (2003): substance abuse, anxiety, and depression arising from material comfort without developmental challenge. Measure 110 already demonstrated this in Oregon: removing constraints (decriminalization) without building the gate (developmental structure) produced worse outcomes, not better. Division III IS the gate.

SECTION 21. Sections 22 through 38 of this act are added to and made a part of ORS Chapters 327, 336, and 351.

SECTION 22. The K-20 education pipeline — creation — purpose.

    (1) There is hereby created the Oregon K-20 Education Pipeline,
    a continuous educational pathway from kindergarten through
    approximately age twenty-five, integrating the K-12 system,
    Oregon's seventeen (17) community colleges, and all public
    universities into a single developmental framework.

    (2) The K-20 designation refers to approximately twenty grade
    levels of structured education. The typical completion age is
    approximately twenty-five (25). High and low performer variation
    is acknowledged — this is not a rigid age cutoff. K-20 counts
    grades, not ages. K-25 would imply a twenty-fifth grade, which
    is nonsensical.

    (3) This pipeline extends the principle established by Oregon
    Promise (ORS 348.272) — that post-secondary education should be
    accessible to all Oregonians — through the full developmental arc
    as established by neuroscience (prefrontal cortex maturation at
    age 25), developmental psychology (Erikson's psychosocial stages),
    and the Vitruvian Quotient framework (Cooper, 2025-2026).

SECTION 23. Extension of compulsory education.

    (1) ORS 339.010 is amended to extend the compulsory school
    attendance age from eighteen (18) to twenty-five (25).

    (2) For purposes of this section, "compulsory school attendance"
    for persons aged eighteen (18) through twenty-five (25) means
    enrollment in any of the following:

        (a) An Oregon community college;

        (b) An Oregon public university;

        (c) An approved vocational training program;

        (d) An approved apprenticeship program;

        (e) A combined work-study program approved by the Department
        of Education;

        (f) Military service in any branch of the United States Armed
        Forces.

    (3) The compulsory attendance requirement for persons aged
    eighteen (18) through twenty-five (25) shall be phased in
    beginning with students entering ninth grade in the 2029-30
    school year, with the first full cohort completing the pipeline
    in the 2036-37 academic year.

SECTION 24. Automatic postsecondary admission.

    (1) Upon completing secondary education, every Oregon resident
    is entitled to continue in the K-20 pipeline at a public
    institution of higher education through a placement process
    administered by the Higher Education Coordinating Commission
    (HECC, ORS 350.075), replacing the competitive application model
    for pipeline enrollment.

    (2) Placement shall be based on demonstrated competency, vocational
    interest (Holland's RIASEC model), and developmental readiness,
    not on socioeconomic status, standardized test scores, or legacy
    admissions.

SECTION 25. Fully funded in-state tuition.

    (1) Oregon Promise (ORS 348.272) is hereby expanded from
    community-college-only coverage to full coverage of in-state
    tuition and mandatory fees at all public institutions of higher
    education for Oregon residents enrolled in the K-20 pipeline.

    (2) This includes but is not limited to tuition at the University
    of Oregon, Oregon State University, Portland State University,
    Western Oregon University, Southern Oregon University, Eastern
    Oregon University, Oregon Institute of Technology, and all
    seventeen (17) community colleges.

    (3) A needs-based living stipend is established for students
    below 200% of the federal poverty level.

    (4) Full tuition funding shall be phased in over three fiscal
    years beginning with the 2029-31 biennium.

SECTION 26. VQ-aligned curriculum.

    (1) The Vitruvian Quotient framework (Cooper, 2025-2026) is
    adopted as the developmental assessment model for the K-20
    pipeline. VQ models human intelligence as eight measurable
    domains:

        (a) Knowledge Quotient (KQ) — temporal and parietal cortices;
        (b) Reasoning Quotient (RQ) — prefrontal and parietal cortices;
        (c) Emotional Quotient (EQ) — limbic system and amygdala;
        (d) Language Quotient (LQ) — Broca's and Wernicke's areas;
        (e) Creative Quotient (CQ) — default mode network;
        (f) Social Quotient (SQ) — mirror neuron system and TPJ;
        (g) Motor Quotient (MQ) — motor cortex and cerebellum;
        (h) Biological Quotient (BQ) — autonomic and hormonal
            regulation.

    (2) VQ = KQ + RQ + EQ + LQ + CQ + SQ + MQ + BQ. The curriculum
    maps these eight quotients to Erikson's psychosocial stages across
    five developmental stages:

    STAGE ONE: FOUNDATION (Ages 0-6) — Trust, Autonomy, Initiative

        Focus: BQ (biological self-regulation), EQ (emotional
        awareness), SQ (social bonding). Piaget's sensorimotor and
        preoperational stages. Hidden curriculum (Jackson, 1968) —
        sharing, waiting, conflict resolution — delivered as genuine
        developmental goods, not as class reproduction (Cooper,
        Paper V, 2025). Mothering at scale.

    STAGE TWO: KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION (Ages 6-12) — Industry vs.
    Inferiority

        Focus: KQ (knowledge base building), LQ (literacy and
        language mastery), MQ (physical development and motor skills).
        Hirsch's cultural literacy (1987): core knowledge must be in
        the student's own head — the Analogue Knowledge Base. Bloom's
        taxonomy honored in sequence: knowledge, comprehension,
        application before analysis and synthesis.

    STAGE THREE: IDENTITY FORMATION (Ages 12-18) — Identity vs.
    Role Confusion

        Focus: RQ (critical reasoning and logic), CQ (creative
        expression and divergent thinking), EQ (emotional regulation
        under pressure). Holland's RIASEC vocational assessment
        introduced. Structured learning trials begin (Vygotsky's ZPD
        and Bjork's desirable difficulties). Van Gennep/Turner rites
        of passage — structured ordeals as developmental
        infrastructure, not punishment.

    STAGE FOUR: INTEGRATION AND MASTERY (Ages 18-24) — Intimacy vs.
    Isolation

        Focus: All eight quotients developed simultaneously.
        University-level specialization combined with cross-domain
        competency requirements. Intellectual lineage requirement:
        every student must trace the chain of discovery in their
        field, engage with primary sources, and demonstrate the
        shared knowledge base necessary for democratic participation
        (Hirsch). This prevents Historical Apoplexy — the loss of
        civilizational memory (Cooper, Paper I, 2025). VQ contextual
        modifiers (XQ) adjust for environment. Trustworthiness (TQ)
        emerges as cross-quotient interdependency of EQ+SQ+RQ.

    STAGE FIVE: LEADERSHIP AND TRANSITION (Age 25) — Citizen readiness

        Capstone: Public service preparation. Prefrontal cortex
        maturation complete. Transition from structured education to
        the public service requirement (Division IV). Assessment
        through comprehensive VQ evaluation demonstrating competency
        across all eight quotients.

SECTION 27. Structured learning trials.

    (1) Structured learning trials replace passive attendance as the
    primary measure of educational progress in the K-20 pipeline.

    (2) Trials are grounded in:

        (a) Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development — calibrated
        challenge, neither too easy nor too difficult;

        (b) Bjork's desirable difficulties — struggle as the
        mechanism of learning, not a side effect;

        (c) Van Gennep/Turner rites of passage — structured ordeal
        as developmental infrastructure (separation, liminality,
        incorporation).

    (3) Trials increase in difficulty through the pipeline and are
    scored using a compensatory framework where strength in one
    quotient offsets deficit in another.

    (4) No student shall be failed or held back solely on the basis
    of a single quotient deficit. The compensatory framework ensures
    that a student with exceptional KQ and RQ who struggles in MQ
    is not penalized as if all domains carry equal weight for that
    student's developmental path.

SECTION 28. Intellectual lineage requirement.

    (1) Every graduating student in the K-20 pipeline must
    demonstrate knowledge of the intellectual lineage — the chain of
    discovery — in their field of study.

    (2) This requirement ensures that students engage with primary
    sources, understand who came before them, and can trace how their
    field arrived at its current state. This prevents Historical
    Apoplexy — the stroke-like loss of civilizational memory that
    severs each generation from the achievements and insights of its
    predecessors (Cooper, Paper I, 2025).

    (3) The Analogue Knowledge Base: students must carry core
    knowledge in their own minds, not merely know how to search for
    it. Hirsch's cultural literacy (1987) as prerequisite for
    democratic participation. You cannot vote intelligently on what
    you do not understand.

SECTION 29. Targeting error protection.

    (1) Teachers and individual educators shall not be held
    individually accountable for student outcomes attributable to
    structural conditions outside the educator's control, including
    but not limited to poverty, food insecurity, housing instability,
    parental incarceration, and environmental stress.

    (2) This section codifies the corrected Bowles and Gintis
    framework (Cooper, Paper V, 2025): the ocean is stratified; the
    cup is not. The gradient runs through everything. Education is
    one expression of that stratification, not its origin. Teachers
    did not build the gradient. They work inside it. Most of them
    are fighting it with the only tools they have.

SECTION 30. OSU Extension and land-grant integration.

    (1) The K-20 pipeline shall leverage Oregon State University's
    Extension Service network in all thirty-six (36) Oregon counties
    to deliver pipeline programming to rural communities.

    (2) OSU Extension offices shall serve as satellite enrollment and
    advising centers for the K-20 pipeline, ensuring that Oregonians
    in remote and rural areas have the same access to structured
    developmental education as residents of Portland, Salem, and
    Eugene.

    (3) OSU's land-grant mission — bringing university knowledge to
    every Oregon county — is the model for how the K-20 pipeline
    operates statewide. The pipeline does not require new
    infrastructure in rural Oregon. It builds on infrastructure that
    has existed since Oregon State's founding as a land-grant
    institution in 1868.

SECTION 31. Community college integration.

    (1) Oregon's seventeen (17) community colleges are incorporated
    as the primary post-secondary entry point for the K-20 pipeline.

    (2) Existing Oregon Promise funding (ORS 348.272) is expanded
    to cover the full pipeline enrollment period, not just the first
    two years of community college.

    (3) Community colleges shall offer VQ-aligned developmental
    assessment and structured learning trials as described in
    sections 26 and 27 of this act.

SECTION 32. Tribal education partnership.

    (1) Oregon's nine federally recognized tribal nations shall be
    invited to participate in the K-20 pipeline as sovereign
    educational partners.

    (2) Tribal nations may:

        (a) Integrate tribal language, history, and cultural
        education into the K-20 curriculum for tribal students;

        (b) Establish tribally-operated K-20 pipeline programs
        recognized by the state;

        (c) Designate tribal education representatives to sit on
        the K-20 pipeline advisory board with voting authority.

    (3) Oregon's tribal termination history requires that education
    programs affecting tribal communities be designed WITH tribal
    leadership, not FOR tribal communities by external authorities.

DIVISION IV — OREGON PUBLIC SERVICE AND RESOURCE LIBRARY

SECTION 33. Sections 34 through 38 of this act are added to and made a part of ORS Chapter 184 (Administrative Services and Transportation).

SECTION 34. Public service requirement — creation.

    (1) Upon completion of the K-20 education pipeline, Oregon
    citizens shall complete two (2) to four (4) years of approved
    public service, typically completed post-age-twenty-five adjunct
    with Oregon state university programs.

    (2) Approved service categories include:

        (a) State or local government service;
        (b) Emergency services (fire, medical, disaster response);
        (c) Military service in any branch of the United States
            Armed Forces;
        (d) Public education service;
        (e) Agricultural or manufacturing service;
        (f) Environmental conservation and restoration service;
        (g) Tribal government or tribal community service;
        (h) Community volunteer corps.

    (3) Military, Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and VISTA service shall
    be credited year-for-year. High and low performers may vary from
    the typical age-25 start point.

SECTION 35. Resource library — creation — tiers.

    (1) There is hereby created the Oregon Resource Library, a
    distribution system for goods tiered by permanence:

        (a) Constant-need goods (food, consumables): Available to all
        Oregon residents through at-cost food assurance centers.
        Under the Fresco model (2007), if a resident does not request
        approximately 100 pounds of food per month, someone checks on
        them — the system monitors for need, not for fraud;

        (b) Semi-permanent goods (clothing, household supplies):
        Available through the essential goods program and resource
        library. Limited request frequency to prevent hoarding —
        you cannot request 100 t-shirts per month;

        (c) Permanent goods (appliances, one home, one vehicle):
        Available to qualifying individuals upon completion of both
        the K-20 pipeline and the public service requirement. One
        home per household. One vehicle per household. This tier
        directly addresses Oregon's homelessness crisis: the
        durables tier provides permanent housing allocation, not
        temporary shelter;

        (d) Currency tier (luxury, custom, specialty goods): Currency
        survives for goods not covered by the resource library. The
        market economy is not eliminated; a floor of material
        security is established below which no qualifying citizen
        falls.

SECTION 36. The unlock mechanism.

    (1) Full resource library access is granted upon completion of
    BOTH:

        (a) The K-20 education pipeline (approximately 20 grades,
        through approximately age 25); AND

        (b) The post-pipeline public service requirement (2-4 years
        adjunct with state university).

    (2) The typical age of full resource library access is
    approximately 27-29, depending on public service duration and
    individual developmental pathway.

    (3) The resource library does not eliminate the market economy.
    It provides a floor. No qualifying citizen falls below it. The
    gate — education and service — is what prevents Luthar's
    affluence pathology. You earn access through developmental
    maturity and public contribution, not through inheritance or
    circumstance.

SECTION 37. Tribal resource library provisions.

    (1) Oregon's nine federally recognized tribal nations may
    independently operate resource library systems within their
    sovereign territories, with state support and supply chain
    integration.

    (2) Tribal resource library programs may incorporate traditional
    resource distribution practices, including but not limited to
    potlatch and mutual aid systems historically practiced by
    Oregon's tribal nations.

SECTION 38. Administration.

    (1) The Oregon Department of Administrative Services shall
    administer the public service program and resource library.

    (2) The department shall establish rules for:

        (a) Public service approval and crediting;
        (b) Resource library enrollment and access;
        (c) Permanent goods allocation procedures;
        (d) Annual reporting to the Legislative Assembly.

DIVISION V — GENERAL PROVISIONS

SECTION 39. Appropriation.

    (1) There is hereby appropriated from the General Fund to the
    following state agencies for the 2027-29 biennium:

        Department of Agriculture (food assurance):       $100,000,000
        Oregon Business Development Department
            (essential goods):                             $40,000,000
        Oregon Health Authority (health assessment):       $10,000,000
        Department of Education (K-20 pipeline):          $250,000,000
        Dept. of Administrative Services
            (public service/resource library):              $30,000,000
        TOTAL:                                            $430,000,000

    (2) This biennial total of $430,000,000 represents approximately
    1.15 percent of Oregon's $37.3 billion General Fund for the
    2025-27 biennium.

    (3) Context: Oregon currently spends approximately $1.60 billion
    annually ($3.20 billion biennially) on SNAP benefits distributed
    through commercial retailers. At-cost pricing delivers
    approximately four times the food value per benefit dollar. The
    food assurance program is designed to achieve self-sufficiency
    within seven years through volume surcharges.

    THE FEDERAL SNAP COST-SHIFT. Federal H.R. 1 (2025) increased
    the state share of SNAP administrative costs from fifty percent
    to seventy-five percent, effective October 1, 2026. This state
    currently routes SNAP benefits through commercial retailers
    where 75.7 cents of every food dollar pays for markup rather
    than food. At at-cost routing through Division I, approximately
    95 cents of every dollar reaches the recipient as food
    (production cost plus five percent surcharge) — a 3.9-fold
    increase in delivered food value per SNAP dollar that
    independently offsets the federal cost-shift.

    DIVISION I FOOD PROGRAM TARGET. The at-cost food assurance
    program established in Division I, serving Oregon's population
    of approximately 4.21 million residents (Census Bureau, 2026
    estimate), requires approximately $2.56 billion per year at
    production cost ($609 per person per year for a full baseline of
    37 staple food items at 30 percent of cheapest retail price per
    USDA Food Dollar Series methodology). Against Oregon's biennial
    GF+lottery budget of approximately $39.3 billion (~$19.7 billion
    annual, Governor's FY2025-27 proposal), this represents
    approximately 13 percent of annual spending. Verified April 18,
    2026 via SearXNG.

    THE FISCAL LOCK. The argument that Oregon "cannot afford"
    this Act is refuted by the state's existing expenditure on the
    less efficient version of the same programs while absorbing a
    federal SNAP cost-shift the state did not request. The fiscal
    question is not whether to spend, but whether to continue
    spending four times as much as required to accomplish the same
    objective.

SECTION 40. Effective dates.

    (1) Division I (Food Assurance): Effective July 1, 2027. Pilot
    centers operational within two years.

    (2) Division II (Health Equity): Effective July 1, 2027. Baseline
    assessment within two years.

    (3) Division III (Education Modernization): K-20 compulsory
    education phased in beginning with students entering ninth grade
    in the 2029-30 school year, with the first full cohort completing
    the pipeline in the 2036-37 academic year. Fully funded tuition
    phased in over three fiscal years beginning with the 2029-31
    biennium.

    (4) Division IV (Public Service and Resource Library): Effective
    July 1, 2030. Applies to the first cohort completing the K-20
    pipeline.

SECTION 41. Severability.

    If any provision of this act or the application of any provision
    of this act to any person or circumstance is held to be invalid,
    the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications
    of this act which can be given effect without the invalid
    provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this
    act are declared to be severable.

    CONSTITUTIONAL EDUCATION OBLIGATION. Article VIII Section 3
    of the Oregon Constitution requires the Legislative Assembly
    to "provide by law for the establishment of a uniform and
    general system of Common Schools." Pendleton School District
    v. State (2009) addressed funding adequacy. Division III
    completes this mandate.

SECTION 42. Emergency clause.

    This act being necessary for the immediate preservation of the
    public peace, health and safety, an emergency is declared to
    exist, and this act takes effect on its passage.

REFERENCES

The research and citations underlying this legislation are drawn from the Historical Apoplexy series (Cooper, 2025-2026), a ten-paper academic work, and established peer-reviewed literature:

FOOD SECURITY AND ECONOMICS: - USDA ERS Food Dollar Series (2023): Farm share 24.3 cents, markup 75.7 cents - 10 U.S.C. § 2484: Military Commissary Act (1867), 157 years of operation - Defense Commissary Agency: 236 stores, 2.8M+ authorized users - Penck, A. (1925): Earth carrying capacity 8 billion at 1920s technology - Cooper, I. (2025): "The Mathematics of Abundance" — Factory Proof, Grocery Proof - Cooper, I. (2025): "Stolen Futures" — retail collapse, 7,325 closures in 2024 - Galbraith, J.K. (1958): "The Affluent Society" — private opulence, public squalor - Veblen, T. (1921): "The Engineers and the Price System" — conscious withdrawal of efficiency - Fresco, J. (2007): "Designing the Future" — resource library model, three tiers - FRAC (2025): Oregon SNAP data — 771,719 recipients, $1.60 billion FY2024 - Oregon Food Bank (2024): 1.9 million food assistance visits, 14% increase

HIERARCHY AND HEALTH: - Marmot, M. (1967-present): Whitehall Studies, 10,308 subjects, 3x mortality gradient - Marmot, M. (2004): "The Status Syndrome" - Sapolsky, R.M. (1994/2017): 30-year baboon studies, cortisol normalization - Shively, C.A. (2009): 30-year macaque studies, serotonin-cardiovascular nexus - Blackburn, E. (2009 Nobel Prize): Telomere shortening from chronic stress - Cooper, I. (2025): Paper V — "The Targeting Error" (corrected Bowles & Gintis)

EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT: - Erikson, E. (1959): 8 stages of psychosocial development - Vygotsky, L. (1934): Zone of Proximal Development - Bjork, R. (1994): Desirable difficulties - Van Gennep, A. (1909) / Turner, V. (1969): Rites of passage - Luthar, S. (2003): Affluence pathology — NIH PMC1950124 - Jackson, P. (1968): "Life in Classrooms" — hidden curriculum - Hirsch, E.D. (1987): "Cultural Literacy" — Analogue Knowledge Base - Bloom, B. (1956): Taxonomy of Educational Objectives - Gardner, H. (1983): "Frames of Mind" — eight intelligences - Holland, J. (1997): RIASEC vocational model - Goleman, D. (1995): Emotional Intelligence - Bar-On, R. (1997): Emotional Quotient Inventory - Smith, A. (1776): "The Wealth of Nations," Book V — state-funded education - Cooper, I. (2025-2026): Vitruvian Quotient (VQ) framework — 8 quotients, neurological substrates - Cooper, I. (2025): Paper I — Historical Apoplexy concept definition - Cooper, I. (2026): Paper VII — The Structural Overload - Cooper, I. (2026): Paper VIII — Venus Prime - Cooper, I. (2026): Paper X — The Maturity Void - Hrabowski, F.: Meyerhoff Scholars Program, UMBC (1988-present) - Brinkhuis, H. et al. Nature 441 (2006): Azolla Event - CIL XI 1147: Tabula Alimentaria from Veleia — Nerva alimenta

OREGON-SPECIFIC: - Oregon Constitution, Article IV, Section 1 — initiative and referendum (1902) - Oregon Promise, ORS 348.272 (2015) — tuition-free community college - Oregon Health Plan (1994) — Medicaid expansion, evidence-based prioritization - Measure 110 (2020) — drug decriminalization; HB 4002 (2024) — partial rollback - Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office (2025): 2025-27 biennial budget, $37.3B General Fund - Portland State University HRAC (2024): Oregon homelessness estimates - William S. U'Ren and the Direct Legislation League (1902): The Oregon System - Oregon tribal termination and restoration history (1950s-1960s) - Oregon timber industry collapse (1990s-2000s): mill closures, rural community devastation

CIVILIZATIONAL AND STRUCTURAL: - Ibn Khaldun (1377): "Muqaddimah" — civilizational cycles, asabiyyah - Quigley, C. (1961): "The Evolution of Civilizations" — instrument to institution - Turchin, P. (2023): "End Times" — elite overproduction, internal conflict - Tainter, J. (1988): "The Collapse of Complex Societies" — diminishing returns of complexity - Fuller, R.B. (1969): "Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth" — ephemeralization - Meadows, D. (2008): "Thinking in Systems" — leverage points - Bowles, S. & Gintis, H. (1976): "Schooling in Capitalist America" - Bowles, S. & Gintis, H. (2002): Revisited — acknowledged contradictory roles - Alexander, M. (2010): "The New Jim Crow" - Cooper, I. (2026): Paper II — "Historical Arc" — full 600-year diagnosis

END OF BILL

Oregon Food, Resource, and Commodity Assurance Act Initiated Measure — Pursuant to Oregon Constitution, Article IV, Section 1 Filed with the Oregon Secretary of State

Prepared by: The Amanuensis — theamanuensis.com Originally proposed: 2016 (Cooper, Colorado) Adapted to Oregon: March 2026 Signature requirement: approximately 117,173 valid signatures

"Oregon gave America the initiative process in 1902. One hundred and twenty-four years later, use it for what it was built for."

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