House hearing on House Bill 2454 proposes legislative audit officer to staff JLAC, separate performance audits from constitutional financial audits

House Rules Committee members opened a public hearing Feb. 26 on House Bill 2454, a bill that would create the office of a legislative audit officer to be selected by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC) to investigate, review or conduct performance audits and evaluations of executive branch agencies, programs and functions.

Representative Ben Bowman, sponsor of the committee discussion, said the proposed officer would “investigate, review and conduct oversight of executive branch agencies, programs and functions to identify opportunities and areas of improvement” and would report to JLAC and appropriate policy committees. He and other sponsors emphasized the office would not replace constitutional financial audits performed by the Secretary of State.

Representative Kim Wallin (Medford) and Representative Bowman framed the proposal as a means for the legislative branch to exercise an explicit, formalized oversight role — for example, to check that agencies implement legislative intent and to follow up on program outcomes and complaints from constituents. The bill text circulated at the hearing clarified that the legislative audit officer would not be responsible for financial statement audits constitutionally assigned to the Secretary of State.

Committee members asked about operational details: who would hire the officer (the bill text directs selection by JLAC), the composition and partisan balance of JLAC, and whether the office would have enforcement power if an agency rejected a legislative counsel finding that a rule exceeded statutory authority. Sponsors and committee members acknowledged some disputes could require litigation and that the proposed office would primarily report and recommend rather than impose legal remedies.

Paloma Sparks of Oregon Business and Industry testified in support, saying the bill would strengthen the feedback loop between the Legislature and agencies and improve transparency around rulemaking and implementation. Sparks suggested annual reporting and said businesses face challenges when agency expectations are communicated through directives or memos rather than statute or rule.

Committee members discussed JLAC’s current workload and staffing (the sponsor said the new officer and staff would staff JLAC and the LFO function would no longer staff that committee). Members also debated committee composition; one member noted JLAC is not statutorily evenly split between parties and the bill’s governance details will be relevant to how the office operates. A few members noted other states place the performance-audit function inside the legislative branch, sometimes under minority-party control; committee discussion acknowledged there are different state models.

No formal vote on HB 2454 occurred in the Feb. 26 meeting; the measure was the subject of the public hearing and discussion.