Governor Kotek on 2025 Session: Progress on Key Priorities, Unfinished Business on Transportation Remains

Oregon legislators concluded the 2025 legislative session Friday night. Governor Tina Kotek worked with lawmakers to tackle problems with purpose and vision and to embrace opportunities for change together.

Following the conclusion of the 2025 session, Governor Kotek issued the following statement:

“I made a commitment to Oregonians that I would fight to stay the course on addressing homelessness and housing supply, mental health and addiction care, improving outcomes for Oregon students, and holding the line on Oregon values. I believe progress was made this session and I thank lawmakers for their work in these areas.

“However, the legislature adjourned two days before Constitutional Sine Die without meeting even the basic needs of our transportation system. I will be huddling with my team today to start planning for next steps.”

The Governor’s top priorities for the session included building on progress in reducing homelessness, cutting red tape to build more housing, increasing access to mental health and addiction care, improving student outcomes through enhanced accountability and more predictable K-12 funding, and addressing critical gaps in wildfire funding for prevention and response. Lawmakers had less revenue than what was projected for the Governor’s Recommended Budget last December, which resulted in different prioritization and choices in final budget bills.

Addressing Homelessness and Housing Affordability Crisis:

• Maintaining the statewide shelter system

In the first two years of her administration, the Governor collaborated with local leaders to stand up a statewide shelter system, estimated to have added 4,800 beds for Oregonians in need. In the 2025 session, the Governor successfully worked with the legislature to make sure those shelters did not lose state support and the regional infrastructure created would continue to serve Oregon communities. House Bill 3644 will create – for the first time – a permanent statewide shelter program and invest $204.9 million to keep all open shelters operating.

• Moving Oregonians from shelter into stable housing

Oregonians who are making the difficult path from shelter to housing can continue to depend on investments in rehousing and long-term rental assistance, with $137.7 million dedicated to their success. These funds have been successful in the past two years, keeping Oregonians from slipping through the cracks and back on to the street.

• Cutting the red tape that stands in the way of an affordable home for every Oregonian and jumpstarting development

Oregon cannot solve the long-term cause of the homelessness crisis without building more affordable homes. The Governor worked to secure $100 million for affordable homeownership units and $545 million for rental and permanent supportive housing units.

According to the most recent state analysis, Oregon must build approximately 30,000 more homes per year for the next decade to have a healthy housing market where everyone can afford a home. But bureaucratic red tape often slows or stalls housing production, making building more expensive and the cost to Oregonians even higher.

The Governor focused this session on getting rid of unnecessary restrictions that stand in the way of solving this crisis. She introduced House Bill 2138, which further eases the way to more construction of middle housing like duplexes and cottage clusters across Oregon, and supported House Bill 2258, which will create a series of pre-approved building plans, streamlining approval processes and eliminating barriers to building housing options for Oregonians.

• Stopping homelessness before it starts

The most cost-effective strategy to combat our homelessness crisis is to prevent people from experiencing homelessness in the first place. The Governor strongly advocated to secure as much eviction prevention funding as possible. The legislature passed $44.6 million in the 2025-2027 budget.

Increasing Access to Mental Health and Addiction Care:

• Children's mental health and well being

Oregon’s youth urgently need more community-based mental health and substance use disorder treatment capacity to support immediate crisis needs as well as school based health and suicide prevention services. The legislature answered this call with $25 million across these programs.

• Opening more beds for more Oregonians to get the care they need

The Governor worked with the legislature to pass House Bill 2059 to add more places for Oregonians to get the care they need – when they need it. The investments go directly into communities across Oregon to improve the continuum of care by adding an additional 200 beds for adult mental health services, substance use disorder residential treatment, and withdrawal management. The bill also includes investments in supporting community mental health providers to create the robust care system that Oregonians need.

• Ensuring qualified workers are there to help

When Oregonians are in need, someone should be there to help who can get the job done. House Bill 2024 included $6 million to grow a diverse and culturally responsive behavioral health workforce. Investments included behavioral health education and training programs, wrap-around supports for students, tuition assistance, and scholarships.

• Improving processes for people to get the help they need

People who are suffering from a mental health crisis and are a danger to themselves will have an easier path to treatment through civil commitment and will move through the criminal justice system more quickly to get into services in their home community because of House Bill 2005. The legislation retools Oregon’s civil commitment and aid and assist laws to be able to better assist people in crisis. It creates a clearer pathway for individuals experiencing severe mental health symptoms to receive treatment through the civil system rather than through the criminal justice system.

Improving Outcomes for Oregon Students:

• Investing in K-12 education and providing predictability for districts

The Governor worked with the legislature to secure a historic $11.36 billion for the State School Fund for Oregon’s K-12 public schools, alongside House Bill 2140, which will provide much needed financial stability and predictability to districts. This historic funding delivers on the Governor’s promise to educators and districts.

• Making sure every dollar spent goes toward student success

Senate Bill 141 is the legislative lynchpin of the Governor’s education initiative, delivering on the Governor’s commitment to Oregon families that their investment will result in stronger student achievement. The bill renews Oregon’s education accountability system, reduces bureaucratic burden that does not increase student outcomes, and makes sure state education investments translate into high-quality instruction for every student across the state.

• Investing in summer literacy programs

The Governor partnered with the legislature to deliver on a central commitment: to provide high-quality summer learning opportunities for students and ongoing funding for districts. House Bill 2007 focuses on closing achievement gaps in literacy, and House Bill 5047 dedicates state funding for summer reading programs for the next three years, including $35 million for this summer.

• Making sure every Oregon child can read and write

The first year of the Governor’s 2023 early literacy initiative laid the critical foundation to help every child in Oregon read and write with confidence and competence. The Governor worked with the legislature to pass House Bill 3040 to strengthen and refine the program, and infused the program with an additional $13 million.

Protecting life, land and property from devastating wildfires in every part of the state

• More tools for wildfire prevention and response

The Governor strongly advocated to fill critical gaps to protect Oregon lives and property, avoid payment delays to firefighters, and make sure Oregon is ready for fire seasons. She fought to secure $150 million for responding to disasters and $117 million in new dedicated money for community prevention and resilience. While this progress is a powerful step forward, much of the funding is one time. The wildfire threat will remain into the future, so she will continue to work to ensure adequate and ongoing wildfire funding.

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