In a rare legislative move Wednesday, the state Senate voted to override one of Gov. Tina Kotek’s vetoes and re-approve a measure aiming to protect the rights of children placed in the state’s custody.

The governor wrote in a letter Tuesday night that she was vetoing Senate Bill 875, which tries to ensure siblings placed in different foster care placements are able to visit one another. Kotek’s rationale: She said it was unclear why “this level of prescriptiveness” was needed in statute, according to her veto memo.

Both Republicans and Democrats in the state Senate disagreed.

In a 18-9 vote, they voted to override the governor. It takes a two-thirds vote of present lawmakers to override a veto.

The veto comes as the governor’s big priority bill dealing with child welfare this legislative session appears dead. Kotek threw her weight behind a controversial bill that would have allowed the state to send children in foster care to facilities in other states and changed the definitions around restraints and seclusions.

The governor argued her priority bill, House Bill 3835, which died, would have cleared up ambiguities in the child welfare statutes. She wrote that Senate Bill 875, which she attempted to overturn with a veto, made things even murkier. Kotek wrote that rather than addressing the system as a whole, lawmakers were deepening the confusion around child welfare laws.

Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, D-Corvallis, who introduced the bill, pointed to the rarity of state lawmakers overriding a governor’s veto.

“My stomach hurts a little to be honest,” she said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

But, she said, she kept thinking about the number of kids she has spoken with over the years who have told her stories about not being able to see their siblings once they were placed into child welfare’s custody. Gelser Blouin noted that children in foster care are already supposed to have the chance to see a sibling. But this measure would make it explicit. It also says a court must decide when it’s not appropriate for a child to see a sibling and make that decision clear in writing.

“Our current law says that that right exists (to see a sibling) as long as it’s appropriate, but it doesn’t say who makes that determination and it doesn’t really provide the youth with the understanding of why they are being denied that access,” Gelser Blouin said. “So this just makes it clear that when it’s a right it’s like any right.”

Gelser Blouin also pointed out that the bill sailed through the Senate earlier this month.

“We debated, we negotiated, we had hearings, we made adjustments to the bill. It has bipartisan sponsorship,” Gelser Blouin said. “It passed both chambers with more than the two-thirds threshold. And at no point prior to that were the issues in this letter ever brought up to me by the governor’s office or by the agency.”

The governor did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, voted against the override, saying the governor’s letter cast “a shadow of doubt” over whether the state Senate was heading in the right direction.

Meek said it was appropriate to take a step back and consider Kotek’s concerns.

The bill will now head to the House. If two-thirds of the present state lawmakers in the House re-approve the measure, it will become law.

This story will be updated.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/06/25/oregon-senate-overrides-governor-tina-kotek-veto-child-welfare-legislation/