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Oregon News
POLITICS
Oregon Legislature wraps up a busy session
OPB | “Think Out Loud” with Dirk VanderHart
The gavel came down on this year’s session of the Oregon legislature on Friday. Legislators failed to pass a controversial funding package for transportation and infrastructure. They also took up gun bills, civil commitment, wildfire funding and many other issues. OPB political reporter Dirk VanderHart helps us understand it all.
Republicans block bill for limits on Oregon National Guard deployment
KOIN 6 | By Michaela Bourgeois
A bill in the Oregon legislature aiming to deter federal overreach in National Guard deployments failed to pass before the end of the legislative session on Friday — leaving concerns among Democrats for emergency preparedness in the state.
While the bill passed the House, the three Democrats blamed Republicans for the bill’s demise in a June 26 press release after a procedural move led by Senators Daniel Bonham (R-The Dalles) and Cedric Hayden (R-Fall Creek), that blocked the bill from heading to the Senate floor for a vote.
However, a spokesperson for the Senate Republican Office told KOIN 6 News on Wednesday, the bill “was not a serious attempt to improve emergency response readiness. It was a political statement targeting President Trump. That intent was clear from the bill’s language and the public rhetoric surrounding it. Senate Republicans saw through it and responded accordingly.”
According to the spokesperson, the Senate Republican Office raised “legal and operational” concerns with the legislature’s nonpartisan Legislative Counsel. Those questions included whether states could limit federalization of their National Guard units, and whether the Oregon bill would conflict with federal laws.
The spokesperson said the Republican office is also awaiting responses from the Oregon National Guard on operational impacts the bill would have had, including how the bill would affect dual state-federal mission readiness, leadership stability and coordination with federal partners.
“These are not hypothetical concerns. Oregon is already short hundreds of Guard members. The last thing we should be doing is adding legal uncertainty and administrative hurdles that could undermine readiness, jeopardize federal support, or politicize the Guard’s mission,” the Senate Republican spokesperson said.
Oregon Democratic Senator on transportation bill he helped kill
OPB | “Think Out Loud” with Mark Meek
When Oregon lawmakers convened in January to kick off the 2025 legislative session, among their top legislative priorities was a transportation funding fix for the state’s aging bridges, highways and roads. But the Democratic supermajority failed to get a transportation package over the legislative finish line when the session adjourned on Friday night.
Democrats waited until the last month to unveil HB 2025, which would have generated nearly $12 billion over the next decade through a mix of taxes and fees, including hikes in the state’s gas tax and vehicle and registration fees. Republicans balked at the proposal, including several who had been working with Democrats on transportation funding.
Defections emerged among Democratic lawmakers as well, most notably from state Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, a member of the Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment. Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, removed Meek from the committee on June 20 to boost the bill’s chance of passage.
But on Friday, Democrats conceded they didn’t have the votes to pass it, and they had to abandon a last-ditch effort to raise the state’s gas tax by 3 cents to avert looming layoffs at the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Sen. Meek joins us to share his thoughts on the legislature’s efforts to tackle Oregon’s transportation challenges.
From sanguine to saboteur: Why Mark Meek derailed Oregon’s transportation bill
Bike Portland | By Jonathan Maus
Many members of the Oregon Republican party are thrilled that transportation funding legislation did not pass this session. And while they take credit for it, the reason a bill didn’t pass was because of Democrats.
Or to be more precise, a Democrat. One named Mark Meek, a senator who represents District 20 which includes parts of east Portland, Happy Valley, Oregon City and Gladstone.
Hundreds of Oregon Department of Transportation workers will receive layoff notices next week
The Oregonian | By Carlos Fuentes
The Oregon Department of Transportation is preparing to lay off hundreds of workers after lawmakers’ plans to pass a comprehensive transportation package imploded in the final days of the legislative session that ended Friday.
“I know this is shocking, scary and frustrating for every single one of you. It is for me too,” Strickler wrote in the email, provided by the agency. “This inaction leaves ODOT without enough funding to continue our core operations and maintenance functions and serve the communities of Oregonians who rely on us.”
The layoffs could affect nearly 15% of all workers at the agency, which employs more than 4,700 workers across Oregon. More than half of agency employees work in the delivery and operations division, which is responsible for maintaining roads, fixing potholes, approving traffic plans, repairing heavy machinery, inspecting bridges and other field work.
It’s too early to say which specific jobs will be targeted, said Kevin Glenn, spokesperson for the agency. The agency also plans to slash vacant positions and reduce other non-essential spending, he said.
ODOT Layoffs Will Hit Key Democratic Constituency
Willamette Week | By Nigel Jaquiss
To better understand the high stakes of the final days of the 2025 legislative session, it’s useful to consider one fact that was largely absent from the debate over House Bill 2025, the multibillion-dollar transportation funding measure that failed in numerous incarnations: The biggest immediate loser will be the members of Service Employees International Union who are set to be laid off later this week.
Portland and other Oregon cities will soon feel impacts of a failed transportation bill
KATU | By Vasili Varlamos
Portland and other Oregon cities will soon feel the impacts of the legislature’s failure to pass a transportation package this session. The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has announced that cuts to its services are forthcoming.
‘Catastrophic’: Oregon crime victims face $18.5 million funding cut as Legislature fails to act
The Oregonian | By Aimee Green
District attorneys’ offices and social service organizations across Oregon watched the end of the legislative session in defeat. They had failed to convince state lawmakers to backfill $18.5 million in lost federal funding for victims of crime over the next two years.
Oregon lawmakers regulate guns, public defense, while crime victim, exoneree funding stall
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Shaanth Nanguneri
Bills that would have funded care for crime victims and those who have been wrongfully incarcerated languished in committee in the 2025 legislative session.
Oregon Legislature Honors Friends of Timberline for 50 Years of Stewardship
Mountain Times | By Marie Kennedy
The resolution itself is simple – almost poetic in tone:
“Be It Resolved that we recognize and honor Friends of Timberline for five decades of exceptional service and express our deepest appreciation for their perseverance in ensuring the lodge remains a beacon of Oregon’s heritage.”
That language comes from House Concurrent Resolution 30 (HCR 30), introduced by Oregon State Representative Jeff Helfrich and Senator Daniel Bonham to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Friends of Timberline, a nonprofit that has spent decades restoring, protecting, and preserving one of Oregon’s most beloved landmarks.
Oregon’s sanctuary hotline sees nearly 300% reporting increase
The Oregonian | By Yesenia Amaro
Oregon’s sanctuary hotline saw a sharp increase of nearly 300% in reports received during the most recent reporting period, the Oregon Department of Justice and the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission announced Tuesday.
Oregon, 19 other states sue after Trump administration releases Medicaid data to deportation officials
Associated Press
The Trump administration violated federal privacy laws when it turned over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to deportation officials last month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleged on Tuesday, saying he and 19 other states’ attorneys general — including Oregon’s — have sued over the move.
EDUCATION
Gov. Tina Kotek orders Oregon schools to prohibit students from using cell phones
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Baumhardt
By the middle of the upcoming school year, Oregon students will not be allowed to use their cell phones in school.
Gov. Tina Kotek on Wednesday issued an executive order to Oregon’s 197 school districts, requiring they adopt a policy for banning student cell phone use by Oct. 31, 2025. Those policies must be fully implemented by Jan. 1, 2026, the order reads.
The move follows the Legislature’s failure to pass a similar, bipartisan bill — House Bill 2251 — during the recent Legislative Session.
HOUSING
Gov. Kotek launches new agency to fast-track housing construction
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Baumhardt
The “doors are open” on a new state office charged with meeting Gov. Tina Kotek’s goal of getting 36,000 new homes built in Oregon each year.
Kotek announced on Tuesday the official launch of the Housing Accountability and Production Office, or HAPO. Lawmakers laid the groundwork for the agency in 2024 when they passed Senate Bill 1537, meant to give cities more leeway to add land for housing to their urban growth boundaries — the state-approved line around a city that dictates where and how it can expand.
ECONOMY
NE Oregon sawmill to close, lay off 62 employees
The Oregonian | By Tristin Hoffman
A sawmill in Pilot Rock will close Sept. 1, its operators notified state officials Tuesday. Sixty-two of its employees will be laid off.
The building supply maker Woodgrain, based in Idaho, acquired the Northeast Oregon sawmill and another in La Grande seven years ago from wood manufacturer Boise Cascade.
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