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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

OR Lawmakers Pass Up Health Protections for Hourly Workers

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Monday, March 3, 2014   

SALEM, Ore. - One casualty of the short Oregon legislative session was a bill that said an employer cannot reduce a worker's hours on the job just to keep from having to provide the worker with health insurance. For the millions of people working not quite full-time, the news that their company could skirt the intent of the Affordable Care Act by cutting their weekly hours to 29 or fewer could be daunting. Senate Bill 1543 said if that happened and a worker complained, the employer would have to prove other reasons for the cutback.

Health care activist Rich Rohde, with the Oregon Strong Voice coalition, said it would have been an easy fix for a situation that is bound to happen.

"This is partially in response to the threats that companies were going to do this - in some cases, they've tried to do it," Rohde said. "This is just a very simple bill that says if you cut for that reason, it gives the employee a way to fight back and to get a redress on that issue."

From restaurant workers to adjunct college professors, nationally it is estimated that 6 million people are considered full-time employees, but work 30 to 35 hours a week. For these workers, additional cuts in hours would be a financial strain as well as a health insurance issue, said Delmar Stone, executive director, Oregon and Idaho chapters, National Association of Social Workers. Stone testified on behalf of the bill.

"You know, it's difficult to even get health insurance, as most of us know. Now, they have that added challenge, and losing hours," Stone said. "That is the biggest concern, actually."

It would have been up to the Bureau of Labor and Industries to enforce the bill, had it become law. It had a hearing last month, but did not make it out of a Senate committee. Supporters promised to introduce the idea again in the next session.



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