Fast timeline, tight budgets, federal worries: Legislators launch short session

Each short session in the Oregon Legislature is more of a sprint than a long slog.

In even-numbered years, state lawmakers have up to 35 days to make budget adjustments, pass technical fixes to existing laws and — as increasingly has been the case in short sessions — tackle one large, complex issue. For example, in 2024, legislators spent much of their time building a system to help the state combat an epidemic of fentanyl overdoses sweeping Oregon. 

Even in normal times, the short sessions run at a rapid clip compared to the longer, 160-day-maximum sessions held in odd-numbered years. 

But these are not normal times in Oregon.  

When this year’s short session starts Monday, Feb. 2, lawmakers will cram the equivalent of a legislative marathon into a 35-day sprint. 

“There is a huge body of work that we need to take up this session just to respond to everything,” said Oregon House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene. 

The state budget has a gap of nearly $900 million that is forcing lawmakers to look at making painful cuts in state agencies. Meanwhile, the Republican-led Congress, at the Trump administration’s direction, has passed cuts to limit or reduce access to traditional safety net services for Oregonians, including food benefits and health coverage for people with low or moderate incomes. 

The impact will be long-lasting: Fahey said Oregon is on track to lose an estimated $15 billion in federal support during the next six years.

Civil unrest and concerns persist about the federal government’s reach, from Minneapolis to Eugene and beyond. Leaders and others have grown increasingly alarmed by the tactics of federal immigration officers after the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota. 

Democratic lawmakers are seeking ways to protect residents and hold federal law enforcement accountable. 

On other fronts, Oregon Republican and Democratic lawmakers will tussle this session over transportation funding and potential tax increases.

Here’s a preview of the issues likely to dominate the session.

Budget and economy 

In an interview with Lookout Eugene-Springfield, Fahey said Oregon lost nearly $900 million in revenue because of changes in the federal tax code mandated in President Donald Trump’s tax-and-spending bill Congress approved last summer.

“Overnight, we went from a surplus to a deficit, and that’s even before the $15 billion over the next six years,” Fahey said. 

To make up that difference, state lawmakers have a number of options, including cuts to state agencies, using state reserves and looking at tax breaks. To do that, lawmakers would need to decide how to separate part of Oregon’s state tax system from the federal tax system – and where. 

Oregon’s state tax system aligns with the federal system, making accounting and tracking easier for filers. So tax breaks approved by Congress also affect Oregon.

“If any of those tax rates actually help generate economic activity, economic growth, job creation here in Oregon, investments, then we should stay connected to those,” Fahey said. “But if those tax rates are just giveaways and they don’t benefit Oregon at all, it doesn’t make sense for us to stay connected.” 

Fahey added that tax breaks should generate economic gains in the state, not for investors outside Oregon.

“I don’t care if someone creates a job in Delaware,” Fahey said.

But in a visit with reporters, House Republican Leader Lucetta Elmer of McMinnville said the state’s lost revenue from federal tax changes is money that remains in the state.

“It’s just going to be in my pocket, in your pocket, in our pockets,” Elmer said, adding the tax cuts will allow Oregonians to put more money back into the economy.

Lawmakers still will need to make tough budgetary decisions.

Rep. Nancy Nathanson, D-Eugene and chair of the House Committee on Revenue, said Oregon, unlike the federal government, must have a balanced budget.

“We’re in a real pickle because this administration and this Congress has taken action that Oregon didn’t vote for,” Nathanson said. “This Congress can run a deficit. It doesn’t matter to them whether they balance a budget.”

State agencies were ordered last year to develop scenarios for 2.5% and 5% cuts. Agencies save money from keeping open positions unfilled, but “our goal is to protect front-line services and workers” without layoffs, Fahey said. 

“We’re looking to preserve the people that are actually doing the work.”

On another front, Oregon voters may get a chance to decide whether they want to keep the so-called “kicker,” which gives taxpayers money back when revenues exceed projections. One measure, sponsored by Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, would ask voters to decide if they want half of the surplus revenue to instead go to the state for public education and wildfire suppression when the excess revenue exceeds $300 million.

Lawmakers also are looking for ways to grow the economy, which has softened with sluggish job growth.

Response to federal initiatives

Democratic lawmakers are pushing back against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts and are proposing a bill to limit when police officers — including federal officers — can wear masks.

If passed, the measure likely would face a court challenge from the federal government. 

“I will say that my lens on immigration legislation this session is that we need to make sure that the policies we pass both make a difference on the ground for Oregonians, that they actually affect change and that they have the highest likelihood of standing up in court,” Fahey said in a legislative preview event for reporters.

Another bill would require schools to develop policies for how to respond when federal immigration officers arrive on school property. The bill would require school districts to notify a student’s parents or guardians when the district provides information about the student to federal immigration officials.

Another proposal would establish a mechanism to allow the state to withhold funds it typically pays the federal government if federal officials illegally withhold funds from the state and refuse to pay a court-ordered judgment.

Overall, the bills that address federal issues are a “whole body of work in addition to the normal responsibility” lawmakers face when they’re in session, Fahey said.

License plate readers

Data and privacy rights will be key issues this session.

In Eugene and Springfield, police departments removed license plate reader cameras and canceled agreements with Flock Safety, a vendor that has shared data with federal officials. 

Law enforcement officials have said the cameras are a tool to fight crime; for example, the technology helped Eugene police crack a burglary ring that targeted Asian households. But the cameras triggered concerns from residents about the security of the data and who can access it.

Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he’s working on a proposal that would make it clear who has access to the data and require that the information is encrypted. Under the bill, Prozanski said, the vendors that contract with law enforcement agencies would not have the ability to “go in and see what is in that data.” 

“The key to unlock that stays with the agency,” he said at a recent City Club of Eugene event about the session.

Health care  

Urgent care clinics will get a closer look. 

Nathanson is sponsoring a bill that would require medical clinics that advertise “urgent care” services to provide adequate medical care to walk-in patients for illnesses and injuries. The bill defines urgent care clinics and requires them to have, in most cases, at least one health care provider on site and to meet other requirements.

Nathanson said the definition is needed because the law currently does not regulate which medical facilities can advertise as “urgent care” clinics. 

For non-life-threatening situations, urgent care clinics can help fill a gap and take pressure off swamped hospital emergency rooms, but a definition is necessary, Nathanson said.

“If there’s a health care provider working in the urgent care, of course they’re licensed, but the urgent care clinic itself is not reviewed, licensed, regulated,” Nathanson said. “It’s not even defined.”

Nathanson is sponsoring another bill that would make it easier for caregivers in certain settings like home health and adult foster homes to transfer their credentials and background check results to different employers and settings more easily. That will reduce the lengthy waits qualified caregivers face while the state processes their background check applications, Nathanson said.

Rep. Darin Harbick, R-Eastern Lane County, is sponsoring House Bill 4048, which would give a rural health care income tax credit to pharmacists. That tax credit currently goes to other types of health care providers, even as rural pharmacies struggle to stay open. 

Housing bills 

Gov. Tina Kotek is proposing a housing measure that would allow cities to expand their urban growth boundaries to add manufactured home communities and affordable housing for seniors. The measure, House Bill 4082, is intended to boost the supply of affordable housing in cities, taking pressure off the housing market, Kotek’s office said. 

Another housing bill, sponsored by Rep. Ben Bowman, D-Tigard and the House majority leader, takes aim at private equity firms that are gobbling up residential real estate and driving up prices. Bowman’s bill would prevent private equity firms from bidding on a house within the first 90 days it’s on the market. 

“If you’re a first-time home buyer, if you’re a working-class family, you’re not going to win in a bidding war against a multibillion-dollar private equity company,” Bowman said at a legislative preview event last week for reporters.

Transportation tussle ahead 

Lawmakers will revisit the transportation issue.

The Legislature passed and Kotek signed a transportation package in 2025. But it’s on hold because opponents, including Republican lawmakers, gathered more than 250,000 signatures to place the measure’s fuel tax and fee increases on the ballot.

Republicans want to place the issue on the November general election, because those elections draw the biggest voter turnout. Democratic legislators, meanwhile, have said they will pursue a bill to put the measure before voters on this May’s ballot; the idea is that if voters reject the tax and fuel increases then, lawmakers would have more time to craft proposals for the 2026 session.

Fahey said the uncertainty means the state will need to redirect money from projects to essential safety needs like snowplowing and filling potholes.

Get involved 

The public will get a chance to comment on state budget reductions as lawmakers wrestle with how to plug a gap estimated at $900 million. 

The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Ways and Means has a hearing from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3. The meeting is in Hearing Room 40 in the Oregon State Capitol in Salem. The public can attend in person or virtually through the Oregon Legislative Information System.

People who want to testify – in person or virtually – about possible budget reductions must register through the committee’s webpage on OLIS. Written testimony also can be submitted for up to 48 hours after the hearing.

That’s not the only time you can weigh in, of course. 

Throughout the session, the public can visit the Oregon Legislative Information page to look up bills and see hearings as they are scheduled for legislative committees and in the House and Senate. 

To find out who your legislators are and other information about the session, visit the Oregon Legislature’s homepage.