Ten bills to overhaul Oregon policing practices got a bipartisan seal of approval from Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and House Republican Leader Christine Drazan.

All of them spoke before the House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to approve amended versions of the bills, half of which go to a vote of the full House and half to the Legislature’s joint budget panel because of their price-tag implications for state agencies. A few bills are pending, although they may not reach a committee vote.

Though none of the bills goes as far as some advocates of change want — for instance, there is no outright ban on tear gas or rubber bullets to disperse violence — they build on the work that lawmakers did in a 2020 special session called a month after the death of George Floyd triggered nationwide protests about police conduct toward racial and ethnic minorities.

Brown set up a task force to examine public safety standards and training, and a Racial Justice Council to look at broader aspects of racism in Oregon.

“During this past year, we have heard urban and rural Oregonians standing up to make their voices heard and calling for racial justice and police accountability, even in the midst of a pandemic, because the need for change is so pressing,” she said before the House committee voted April 6.

“We have responded with action… We are here to get these bills one step closer to the finish line.”

Most of the task force’s recommendations are incorporated in House Bill 3162, but the 10 bills cover a range of issues.

“Oregon is doing the work to reimagine how police interact with the communities they serve and how we hold officers and departments accountable,” Rosenblum said. “It will help our communities build faith in law enforcement and in our justice system.”

Rosenblum gave credit to the Oregon Association Chiefs of Police and the Oregon State Sheriffs Association for coming up with suggestions to advance the process.

Three of the current Judiciary Committee members also were involved in the 2020 bills. They are Democratic Chairwoman Janelle Bynum of Clackamas, a Black businesswoman who had an encounter with police in 2018 when someone reported her as a “suspicious person” while canvassing her district, and Republican Reps. Ron Noble of McMinnville and Rick Lewis of Silverton, retired police chiefs in their communities.

They and two other lawmakers were on a subcommittee focused on the policing bills.

“These folks have established an ability to work across the aisle in a way that few others could have conceived or predicted,” Drazan said. “I could not be more proud that we can come together tonight in mutual support of a package of bipartisan amendments that will allow us to work together a more fair, equitable and transparent policing across our state.”

One bill, in its amended version, sidesteps a controversy involving arbitrators asked to review police agency decisions to discipline or fire officers over alleged misconduct. If an arbitrator finds for the officer, the discipline is set aside.

The bill imposes a new legal test for arbitrators, who cannot overturn agency decisions if doing so “is inconsistent with the public interest in maintaining community trust, enforcing a higher standard of conduct for law enforcement officers and ensuring an accountable, fair and just disciplinary process.”

But it does so in the context of setting up a 15-member commission that will recommend statewide standards for conduct and discipline — and those issues will no longer be subject to collective bargaining between police agencies and unions.

Noble said the current bills set in motion other processes by agencies and commissions that lawmakers will have to review over the next year or two, just as the half-dozen bills passed in 2020 set the stage for committee work this session.

“In some ways, they are more significant because we have improved on those,” he said. “However, we have more work to do. But I appreciate the opportunity to come together in a time when our society is pretty split and torn apart.”