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Oregon News
POLITICS
These are some of major bills that passed during the 2025 Oregon Legislature
Statesman Journal | By Dianne Lugo
The 2025 legislative session concluded at 11:15 p.m. on June 27, marking the end of more than five months of public hearings, work sessions, floor votes, and behind-the-scenes negotiations that culminated in the passage of hundreds of bills.
Thirty-seven bills made it across the finish line in the final hours, but not a multibillion-dollar transportation funding package that was the Democrats' priority legislation. House Bill 2025 was abandoned on June 27 when it was clear there were not enough votes for passage, and an attempt to pass a bill to prevent job cuts and service reductions for the Oregon Department of Transportation was declared dead about 11 p.m.
A county fair, a bridge, a port: See who got millions in 11th hour spending bills
The Oregonian | By Sami Edge
Lawmakers this week approved billions of dollars for new buildings, special projects and emergency needs across the state.
Big-ticket winners include affordable housing programs, construction projects at Portland State University and wildfire fighting efforts.
End-of-session budget bills, including the “Christmas tree bill,” so nicknamed for its assortment of coveted expenditures akin to ornaments on a tree, traditionally reward certain lawmakers and address priorities of the Legislature’s top leaders and its powerful budget-writing Ways & Means co-chairs.
Lawmakers close out 2025 session with housing, mental health wins, botched transportation package
The Oregonian | By Carlos Fuentes
Oregon lawmakers have wrapped up a 2025 session that will be remembered above all else for Democrats’ towering failure to get any transportation package across the finish line.
Oregon Legislature adjourns without approving a transportation package
Statesman Journal | By Anastasia Mason
Years of work on a transportation funding package fell apart on the last day of the 2025 Oregon Legislature and without additional funding, Gov. Tina Kotek said she would begin ordering layoffs at the Oregon Department of Transportation on June 30.
Kotek said the bill had bipartisan support, had it made it to the floor.
"Republican leadership in both the House and the Senate refused to provide that collaborative procedural motion," Kotek said.
HB 2025 transportation funding package struggled to gain support
Tax increases in the bill were unpopular with Republicans and many constituents.
Democrats repeatedly said before and during the session that transportation funding was a priority, but the bill was released on June 9, with just 20 days left in the session.
Revenue and fiscal analysts struggled to keep up, meaning public hearings were held without estimates on how much House Bill 2025 would raise. And Republicans on the committee responsible for crafting the legislation said they had been left on the sidelines.
When the bill's sticker price was eventually released, it became a sticking point, with Republicans deeming it "the largest proposed tax increase in Oregon history."
Meanwhile, some transit agencies and climate advocates felt the package did not go far enough to meet Oregonians' needs.
Some Democrats have defended the timeline, pointing to House Bill 2017, which was also released late in the session but ultimately passed with bipartisan support.
Wagner said in February a framework for the package could come out that month. No framework was shared until April.
Also in February, the Statesman Journal published an investigation into the last major transportation package. Wagner and Fahey announced they would put a focus on accountability and selected Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, to lead the efforts. Starr voted against sine die, saying there was more work for lawmakers to accomplish.
Dems squander supermajority as session ends with no transportation bill
Bike Portland | By Jonathan Maus
The 2025 legislative session has come to an end and lawmakers have failed to pass any transportation legislation.
After years of work, a statewide listening tour, dozens of committee meetings and public hearings, Democrats who led the process failed to bring a bill over the finish line. It’s a massive political defeat of historic proportions that comes with consequences likely to be felt in every corner of the state.
After the main transportation bill died, a last ditch effort to pass a plan-B bill, House Bill 3402-3 (the “-3” refers to the amendment that was adopted by committee) was slated for a vote on the House floor late Friday night, but Democrats needed help from Republicans to clear time-sensitive procedural hurdles and they didn’t get it.
Democrats — despite having a supermajority in the House, Senate and holding the Governor’s office — were unable to keep all their Senators in line and ultimately lost the game to the minority party.
Gov. Kotek blames transportation package failure on Republicans ‘who just wanted to go home’
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Baumhardt
Gov. Tina Kotek blamed Republicans for the state Legislature’s failure to pass a bill this session that would have provided enough funding for the Oregon Department of Transportation to avoid layoffs.
At a news conference Saturday morning, following a late-Friday-night race to end the 2025 legislative session, Kotek touted what she said was progress on most of her key priorities for the state and “unfinished business” in what was supposed to be passage of a historic transportation investment package. She criticized lawmakers from both parties for ending the session two days before they were constitutionally required.
“I’m here,” she said. “Constitutional sine die is tomorrow, and legislators have gone home. And they have not produced anything on transportation that we need right now in the state. So that conversation is very much unfinished business.”
Kotek hinted she could use her power as governor to call lawmakers back to Salem to finish this “unfinished business” in a special session.
“There’s a process for notifying if, for some reason, I’m going to change any of the bills. I don’t know what those will be at this point,” she said. “As governor, my job is to get the job done. And I have tools at my disposal to get that done. And I just hope everyone’s going to show up for work when they need it.”
ODOT director calls legislature’s transportation bill failure ‘shocking,’ ‘scary’ warns of layoffs
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Mia Maldonado
In an email to ODOT staff Saturday, Director Kris Strickler said the agency will be forced to eliminate hundreds of positions.
Oregon Gov. Kotek slams ‘disappointing’ legislative inaction on road funding
OPB | By Dirk VanderHart
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek had plenty of blame to dole out Saturday, a day after the surprising and dramatic collapse of her party’s signature transportation funding bill.
In a meeting with reporters in Salem, Kotek accused Republicans of being unreasonable by refusing to waive legislative rules that might have allowed at least some new funding for the Oregon Department of Transportation.
In the session’s final moments, House Republicans declined to provide enough votes to fast-track Democrats’ last-ditch effort at raising gas taxes by 3 cents per gallon.
“There was bipartisan support for that. There was time to do that,” Kotek said. “What didn’t happen was support from Republican leaders who just wanted to go home.”
The governor also had choice words for Democratic leaders, who opted to adjourn the session two days earlier than necessary rather than battle for transportation funding into the weekend.
“I want to point out that it is Saturday here in Salem and my team is working,” she said, “but the Legislature has gone home.”
Death of State Transportation Package Puts Portland’s Road Maintenance “at Risk,” City Says
Willamette Week | By Sophie Peel
Last week, Oregon Democrats’ major transportation bill died a dramatic death, marooning an $11.7 billion tax package that Democrats had hoped would fund state highway projects.
Now, the city of Portland and Mayor Keith Wilson are also bemoaning the death of House Bill 2025, saying its demise will likely put “critical maintenance and safety services at risk” and lead to layoffs within the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
With failure of transportation bill, TriMet says cuts to bus and MAX service coming
KATU
TriMet could be forced to make significant cuts to service after Oregon lawmakers failed to pass a transportation package during this year’s legislative session.
After Oregon Legislature's transportation package goes down in flames, layoffs and cutbacks coming
KGW | By Blair Best
The 2025 long legislative session came to an end Friday in Salem, two days ahead of its constitutionally mandated cutoff. While lawmakers made progress on a number of their priorities, one of their biggest missions for the session — fixing the state's transportation budget — ended in abject failure.
While Democrats failed to get their caucuses aboard enough to pass a funding bill even with their supermajorities, they also faced a near-universally obstinate Republican party.
Though the backup bill, House Bill 3402, passed out of committee Friday night, the rules of the Oregon House needed to be suspended so lawmakers could vote on it Friday night. That vote required GOP support, which it did not get — killing the bill and ensuring that the ODOT layoffs would happen.
Kotek made sure to spread the blame for that outcome.
Oregon lawmakers fail to pass transportation funding bill: What happens now?
KATU | By Vasili Varlamos
"This week, ODOT will begin the layoff process. By the end of July, hundreds of positions will no longer be at ODOT. The agency is using vacancy savings wherever possible in order to minimize the number of layoffs, but will still lose hundreds of current hard-working employees," said ODOT spokesperson Kevin Glenn in a statement to KATU News.
Glenn said that ODOT cannot solve its revenue crisis on its own and that the agency needs the legislature to find solutions. He added that Oregon drivers will soon experience a less reliable transportation system.
During Saturday's press conference, Kotek seemed to shift blame to Republicans for holding up the vote, which she said had bipartisan support.
"Republican leadership in both the House and Senate refuse to provide that collaborative procedural motion to move a bill that had the votes forward to pay for basic transportation services in our state," said Kotek.
Kotek hinted that she may call lawmakers back for a special session to appropriate money for ODOT.
Gov. Tina Kotek hints at possible special session to fund Oregon Department of Transportation
The Oregonian | By Sami Edge, Betsy Hammond
Less than 12 hours after lawmakers ended their five-month long session without passing any new transportation funding, Gov. Tina Kotek hinted Saturday that she might summon them back to a special session to keep the state transportation agency fully functioning.
She called coming up with hundreds of millions of dollars for the transportation agency “very much unfinished business.” She cited “dire” problems that could affect Oregonians if flammable vegetation isn’t mowed along highways and major roads aren’t plowed of ice and snow.
Oregon Legislature wraps for 2025 after eleventh-hour strife, historic funding shortfall
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Shaanth Nanguneri, Alex Baumhardt
As the clock ran out for adjournment Friday night, Democrats faced a high-profile loss after failing to pass a dramatically watered-down transportation funding package.
Legislative session ends with no transportation funding plan
AXIOS | By Kale Williams
Lawmakers in Salem ended the legislative session Friday night without passing a transportation funding package, leaving a top Democratic priority unresolved and prompting Gov. Tina Kotek to hint at calling a special session.
"This is a huge win for Oregonians," Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham said in a written statement. "Thousands of people spoke up and said to the Democrat supermajority and Governor Kotek: enough is enough."
Transportation funding bills fail as Oregon Legislative Session ends
KPTV | By Dylan Scott
The 2025 Oregon Legislative Session ended this past weekend without a vote on any legislation related to road improvements or transportation funding.
“[Lawmakers] have not produced, anything we need regarding transportation in the state right now, so that conversation is very much unfinished business,” Governor Tina Kotek said.
“We have to reset how we do transportation conversations in the state, it was too big, it was too complicated,” Governor Kotek said. “I think that’s what at the end of the day ran the calendar out.”
Meanwhile, Republicans were also strongly opposed to the $11.7 billion bill, which they say would be the largest tax hike in Oregon history.
Republicans block attempt to prevent federal overreach with Oregon’s National Guard
The Oregonian | By Sami Edge
A bill intended to clarify when the federal government can deploy the Oregon National Guard never made it to a final vote before lawmakers went home for the summer.
Republican Senators killed the bill with a procedural move, tying it up in red tape for so long that lawmakers ran out of time to consider it before they opted to end the 2025 Legislative session Friday night, chafing chief sponsor and veteran Rep. Paul Evans, a Monmouth Democrat.
In an interview after the bill died last week, Evans said he’d tried to craft the policy to avoid party politics and criticized Republicans Cedric Hayden of Fall Creek and Daniel Bonham of The Dalles for blocking a final vote on the bill “out of partisan reasons, with no respect whatsoever for history.”
“I can’t ever forgive them,” Evans said. “I can’t see them as anything less than people that care more about their political situation than they do what’s right.”
Asked for a response, Hayden praised Evans for his decades of military service and “continued commitment to our military,” but he said he’d rather see the state expand benefits for National Guard members than intervene in government arm-wrestling. Bonham argued his party shut down a political attack.
The bill was “never about deployment standards,” Bonham said in an email. “It was a political statement aimed squarely at Donald Trump. We saw right through it and acted accordingly.”
Oregon groundwater protection bill passes despite criticism that it’s too weak
The Oregonian | By Gosia Wozniacka
Legislators have just passed a groundwater protection bill that many nonprofit groups working on groundwater contamination said was too watered down to make a real difference.
Timberline Lodge faces 'challenging’ future after liability bill fails
Statesman Journal | By Zach Urness
Legislation to protect Oregon ski areas and outfitters from lawsuits, and provide new funding for wildlife habitat, narrowly failed to make it across the finish line during the final days of the Oregon Legislature.
Oregon governor touts legislative successes around housing
KATU
After this year’s legislative session, Gov. Tina Kotek touted success when it comes to housing.
Oregon lawmakers approve changes to permitting rules after KATU investigation
KATU | By Wright Gazaway
Oregon lawmakers have overwhelmingly approved changes to local permitting requirements following a KATU Investigation. Local governments will now be limited in how they condition building permits for remodels and renovations.
Conservative who once backed Republican state Rep. Cyrus Javadi attempts to get him recalled
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Baumhardt
Kristina Nelson in her petition criticized several of Javadi’s votes during the Legislative session for not reflecting ‘conservative moral order and values’.
ECONOMY
Unofficial Logging Co. in Bend Announces Closure Amid Economic Pressures
KTVZ
Unofficial Logging Co., a local axe-throwing bar and event space in Bend, has announced it will likely close its doors for good on July 2, citing ongoing economic struggles and a sharp decline in sales.
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