The Oregon state legislature is currently considering a bill which would allow for the Governor to seize, use, or possess any private property during a state of emergency.
HB-2238 is supposedly meant to clarify the “Governor’s authority to use property during an emergency.” There are already provisions in place to allow for limited use of private property by the state government, but this bill seeks to drastically expand these. As proposed in HB-2238,
“Whenever the Governor has declared a state of emergency, the Governor may issue, amend and enforce rules and orders to:
1) Control, restrict and regulate by rationing, freezing, use of quotas, prohibitions on shipments, price fixing, allocation or other means, the use, sale or distribution of food, feed, fuel, clothing and other commodities, materials, goods and services;
"Winston Smith, white courtesy phone..."