Legislators Juggle Heavy Workload, Federal Funding Uncertainty
We are now at the mid-point of the 160-day Oregon legislative session.
Since convening in January, Oregon’s 2025 Session has been characterized by a historic number of bills, full committee agendas, and budget concerns surrounding whether federal funds will materialize or not.
The 2025 Legislature had an abnormally slow start compared to previous years, primarily due to the volume of bills and a seeming lack of organizing priorities. On the very first day – January 21st – the legislature was already swamped with over 2,000 bills to consider. As legislators continued to propose new legislation in the following weeks, the total grew to over 3,400 bills – by far the largest number of bills of any previous session. This has had an ongoing effect on the legislature, leading to jam-packed committee agendas and very limited time to hear public testimony and have in-depth policy discussions.
Governor Kotek made clear early on that she would continue to prioritize the same issues as her previous two years in office: homelessness, increased housing supply, more mental health and addiction treatment, and $500 million more for Oregon’s K-12 public schools. While legislative leadership has largely deferred to the Governor’s priorities, the legislature struggled to gain its footing because of concerns over potential losses to federal funding and the effect it would have on the state budget. Agencies were asked to propose “cuts” budgets to budget writers in the range of 5% to 10% in anticipation that federal funds may dry up.
It wasn’t until Oregon Office of Economic Analysis issued its official quarterly revenue forecast in March that legislators and budget writers could finally feel a sigh of relief. The forecast indicated lawmakers would have roughly $350 million more in General Fund revenue to spend in 2025. This forecast has given leaders and budget writers the ability to begin their process for setting the budget blueprint for the upcoming 2025-27 biennium. The final forecast in May will determine the final resources available for the 25-27 budget.