Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
No matter where you live in our beautiful state or where you fall on the political spectrum, the strain and stress that many Oregonians are feeling these days is palpable.
The cost of living continues to rise. Forces outside of our control in Washington, D.C. are increasingly chaotic and alarming. Basic rights are being overridden in ways many of us couldn’t have conceived of even a year ago.
In times like these, Oregonians look to one another—and to our elected leaders—to steady the ship and make things better where we can. We expect our leaders to meet the moment, no matter how difficult that moment is.
In our state legislature, we take that responsibility seriously.
In Oregon, we have a citizen-run state legislature, meaning that lawmakers serve part time, and most have other jobs. This opens the door for people who may not otherwise be able to serve, and it helps us remain closely connected to the communities we represent. We meet for about five months in odd-numbered years, and just five weeks in even-numbered years.
Earlier this month, we concluded one of those five-week “short sessions.” And while five weeks is not enough time to take on all the major challenges facing our state, we knew that this year, more than ever, we needed to meet the moment.
We had three clear priorities heading into the session: making Oregon a more affordable place to live, with good jobs and thriving businesses; protecting Oregonians from the Trump administration’s overreach; and rebalancing our state budget after the federal budget bill (Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”) significantly cut the resources available to us as a state.
None of these challenges came with easy answers, particularly given the limits of what state government can do. We cannot control global conflicts or federal decisions around tariffs and energy policy that are driving up the cost of gas, groceries or utilities. We cannot override federal agencies or ignore decisions coming out of Washington.
Despite that, we acted with the urgency this moment demands—and delivered meaningful progress on each of our top priorities.
We addressed affordability by passing the largest increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit in Oregon history, which means we put more money directly in the pockets of over 200,000 Oregon households. We also worked to prevent corporate investors from driving up the cost of housing, to lower health care costs, and to strengthen consumer protections against predatory lending and ticket scams.
We took purposeful action to protect Oregonians in the face of escalating federal overreach. As immigration enforcement tactics have escalated into violence, we stood strong with our immigrant neighbors and passed a slate of bills to protect the rights of Oregonians. As one example, we passed a law restricting the use of masks and requiring all law enforcement—including ICE and Department of Homeland Security agents—to identify themselves, so that enforcement actions aren’t carried out by people who are masked and anonymous.
We also ensured that the thousands of Oregonians who rely on Planned Parenthood for cancer screenings, birth control, and other basic health care needs will continue to have access to their provider. And we protected providers against the criminalization of health care.
All of this work took place within a difficult budget environment. When Donald Trump signed his budget bill in July 2025, he instantly blew a nearly $900 million hole in our carefully crafted two-year state budget. We approached that challenge with discipline and balance by tightening agency budgets and by closing three tax loopholes created by the “Big Beautiful Bill” that benefitted the wealthy and big corporations.
As a result, we were able to protect last year’s historic investment in our education system and preserve funding for the services Oregonians need, like health care, childcare and public safety.
While we worked to balance our state budget in the short term, we also understood that growing our economy and creating new jobs is key to our state’s prosperity in the long term. So, we made economic development an intentional focus this session–streamlining permitting processes to help attract private investments, supporting small business recovery, creating a new Jobs Tax Credit to promote job creation across the state and building on Oregon’s distinctive economic advantages in key industries.
The work this session was not easy. But I believe we made Oregon stronger in meaningful ways: improving affordability, protecting our communities and stabilizing our state budget–now and in the long term.
While there’s a limit to what we can accomplish in just five weeks, I’m deeply proud of that progress. I’m also proud of the fact that as Washington, D.C. continues to stumble from crisis to crisis, our state legislators will continue the steady, community-based leadership that will move Oregon forward in these difficult times.
