Please see Governance Overview here.

Jump to a topic:

• Overview

• Ethics

• Conduct

• Artificial Intelligence/Cybersecurity

• Elections

• Campaign Finance Reform

Overview, fourth week of session

Rebecca Gladstone

League governance work is intensifying and focusing on campaign finance, with legislative drama also around the gas tax referendum. Only one week remains in this short session. Policy committees may have information sessions, but the second chamber bill deadline has passed, and the tenor has changed with one-hour public notice. Joint Ways and Means subcommittees are intended to address funding, not policy issues.

HB 4018 persists as a League campaign finance reform priority. We are urging for opposition, likely headed to the Joint W&Ms Capital Construction subcommittee.

Ethics, campaign finance

Chris Cobey

We’ve heard that some legislators may be working on campaign fundraising during the legislative session. This violates the House Rules. From the 2026 Rules of the Oregon House of Representatives:

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS, PROHIBITED ACTIONS

19.10 Statement of Philosophy. The House of Representatives is committed to open deliberations. Prompt, thorough and accurate reporting of any campaign contribution is an integral factor in maintaining open government.

19.20 Campaign Contributions During Session. No member of the House, during a regular session, organizational session or during the period between the organizational session and the regular session scheduled during the odd-numbered year, shall accept and/or solicit a contribution to the member or the member's principal campaign committee or accept and/or solicit an expenditure in support of the member from any person. This does not limit a member from using existing campaign funds.

We did not see a comparable provision in the 2026 Rules of the Senate.

Conduct, Federal issues, immigration, etc.

Rebecca Gladstone

Conduct is a governance issue, and this session’s tensions have made press. The Senate Conduct agenda last week initially only listed adoption of rules. We attended and wondered what they would address.

On Monday afternoon, Feb 23, OPB reported an accusation of a “hostile work environment” relating to HB 4145, a gun permits bill. A few minutes later, OPB wondered about possible legislative delay tactics relating to HB 1599, a gas tax referendum, with efforts to move that ballot appearance from November to May. Shortly after, OPB reported a Senate floor boycott based on both of those. The hostile environment complaint was addressed with a committee chair replacement. The Senate Conduct Committee heard a complaint from last June. Per Oregon Capital Chronicle: Oregon Senate panel clears Democratic senator of discrimination, harassment.

Bills here are moving forward, with Governance and Social Policy consulting on numerous overlapping bills. Rep Chotzen refers to these for federal response and /or immigration justice: HB 4111, HB 4143, HB 4114, HB 4138, HB 4079, HB 4150, HB 4123, HB 4088, HB 4091, SB 1590, SB 1594, SB 1570, and SB 1587.

• HB 4091 this Oregon National Guard activation and authority bill progressed from Senate Vets, on partisan lines, no amendments. See supporting League testimony. see also League HB 3954 testimony (2025).

• HB 4123 A This landlord-tenant privacy bill passed unanimously from Senate Housing, with fixes to allow sharing contact information to admit maintenance workers, for example. It is set for a March 2 Senate floor vote. League testimony, in support.

• HB 4143 A, to fund payments between federal and state accounts, passed on partisan lines from Senate Judiciary. See our earlier LR and League testimony.

• SB 1530 was heard in House Rules to expand aggravated harassment to include threatening public officials, and increase penalties with the companion bill, SB 1516. It. See League testimony in support.

We’re following these:

• HB 5204 has still not been scheduled, assigned to Joint W&Ms Capital Construction, to make biennial budget changes, including for Secretary of State  software needs.

• HB 4024 Enrolled, to prevent event ticket resale unless the seller has or can get tickets, has been signed by both the Speaker and Senate President. See League testimony, supporting Senator Prozanski’s SB 430 Enrolled (2025) consumer protections, foundational for HB 4024.

• HB 4045 We missed this domestic violence & social media bill, moving with strong bipartisan support, passing unanimously from the House floor and from Senate Judiciary.

We could use your help, even with watching hearings from home and sharing thumbnail reports. Let us know, write to lwvor@lwvor.org.

Artificial Intelligence/

Cybersecurity

Lindsey Washburn

SB 1546 Notice of Artificial Output requires AI companion and platform operators to disclose that users are interacting with artificial output, implement safety protocols to detect and prevent suicidal ideation, and provide special protections for minors. The bill received a Do Pass recommendation from House Behavioral Health.

HB 4103 Senator Aaron Woods Commission on AI and Chief AI Officer establishes the Senator Aaron Woods Commission on Artificial Intelligence to monitor AI use statewide, report on policy implications, make legislative recommendations, and be supported by a Chief AI Officer hired by the Department of Administrative Services. Currently in Joint Committee on Ways and Means.

Elections

Barbara Klein

SB 1509 A-Engrossed (Uniform Faithful Presidential Electors Act). This bi-partisan bill moved from the Senate to the House as of Feb 19^th. A public hearing in House Rules was held on Feb 27^th and can be seen here (at approximately minute 9:00). The bill now includes a sponsor-supported amendment which the League welcomes. The committee sponsored bill to further protect Oregon's voters from being disenfranchised by faithless presidential electors has strong League support (both written and verbal testimony, at minute 16:10). As mentioned in past weeks, this bill would allow Oregon to join other states with strong laws. You can see this measure in OLIS This bill, among others, was also included in an LWVOR Action Alert to encourage support from members.

Campaign Finance Reform

By Norman Turrill

HB 4018 A on campaign finance is still sitting in J W&Ms and could be sent to the floors of both the House and Senate at any time. The League has characterized the bill as completely betraying the deal made in 2024 for withdrawing Initiative Petition 9 on campaign finance reform (CFR) in exchange for passage of HB 4024 and agreeing to work on technical fixes without policy changes. In 2024, the historic deal was made after extensive 4-way negotiations between HEO (Honest Elections Oregon, with the Oregon League as a constituent organization), legislative leaders including Speaker Fahey, labor union and business lobbyists. See a great Sunday Oregonian editorial, quoting the League’s testimony.

This bill includes many complex policies, changes that essentially allow huge campaign contribution limits on large business and labor union organizations, while still limiting individual contributors. The bill also delays the HB 4024 election financial disclosure changes for 3 years.

This is now one of the most important bills during the current short legislative session, so League members and voters should contact legislative leaders and their legislators ASAP. See our Action Alert

Interested in reading additional reports?  Please see our Climate Emergency, Revenue, Natural Resources, and Social Policy report sections.