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March 16, 2026
Hello Friends, Family, and Neighbors,
I am sending this on Monday March 16. Happy almost St Patricks Day. Most of you know I took a week off from doing this newsletter last week, so I could rest and so I could let the dust settle after the 2026 legislative session that ended. I also wanted to see how things shook out in terms of what passed and what didn’t and gauge the reactions from the public and of course the news media. In retrospect, this last session was highly productive and successful, and maybe the busiest ever.
So far the most salient statement I’ve heard describes the session as getting long session goals done on a short session timeline. Without spoiling too much for what you will hopefully read below, we Democrats passed a tax increase for wildlife funding, while also partially disconnecting from the federal tax code and balanced our budgets. And yes we also moved the election date for the referendum on gas taxes from November to May. Democrats also passed a law protecting planned parenthood while shoring up that organization’s funding. We also passed as many bills as we reasonably could to address challenges with ICE and overzealous immigration enforcement. And perhaps among the most important bills we passed a bonding measure that will help update and refurbish the Moda Center. I will touch on all of these below.
If this update is not enough, and it is going to be a bit long, and you want to learn more, I will be hosting a town hall along with Senator Kathleen Taylor and Representative Mark Gamba on Thursday April 9th from 5:30 to 7:00 pm at the SMILE Station in SE Portland. The event will also be hosted by none other than Portland’s Mayor Keith Wilson!
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Okay, on to the newsletter where per usual I will start with a summary of news articles that grabbed my attention. I will share observations about the session in the Last Weeks Schedule part which is really more about the week of March 2nd through March 5th. At the end I mention a show I went to on Friday and I share a few personal reflections on the session of my own on bills that I worked on.
And with all that lead up, now on to the newsletter.
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The Week in the News
With regard to the news there’s only a few stories here I am going to highlight.
First up, an update on the war in Iran which I am trying to follow as best as I can. As a reminder, President Trump launched airstrikes on Iran on Saturday, February 28. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the attack. Administration officials have offered several different justifications for the war, including stopping Iran from building nuclear weapons, following Israel’s lead on an imminent attack, and telling the United Nations that it was in self-defense. You can read this article to follow all the justifications. It is both fascinating if you have the time to dig into it and headscratching. By the way I have been seeing more articles from the Guardian which has a very interesting journalism history if you end up going down that rabbithole as I did on Sunday when I was putting this all together.
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Aside from why the war started, there’s lots of other outstanding questions as well. Will there be troops on the ground? What does victory look like? How will the war impact both domestic and international politics? It is for sure starting to impact oil prices. Perhaps the answer to some of those questions can be found in this analysis from AP News. It is a video that is only about two minutes long and I highly encourage you to take a look at it. The crux of the video is that whichever side that can endure more economic pain is the side that will come out on top. Iran is obviously seeing its military and civil infrastructure come under intense attack as the United States’ bombing campaign rains down on the country. But Iran is not without tools itself. The country has said that no oil tankers will be allowed to move through the Strait of Hormuz.
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One-fifth of the world’s oil supply moves through this part of the world. Closing the Strait has resulted in higher gas prices, including a 30-cent climb recently in Oregon alone. Crude oil even hit as high as $120 per barrel before dropping. There does not appear to be a cap or end in sight as to how high the cost of oil will get, but the ripple effects of rising gas prices will show up meaningfully on the economy here in the United States and the rest of the world for sure at some point as so many things like fertilizer and plastics rely on oil. So again, the question is what side will be willing to endure more pain. I doubt that our country will not tolerate higher gas prices for very long without a lot clearer purpose for this whole thing. We keep hearing it will all be over soon but I don’t know.
Next up is a bit of election news as last week was the fiing deadline. Most of you for sure know this is an election year and I will be commenting on all kinds of election-related news quite a bit in the spring and in the fall. Control of Congress is certainly on the line. Republicans only hold a 3-seat majority in the House of Representatives, and it is expected that President Trump’s continued unpopularity will cost his party control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and maybe even the U.S. Senate. I can only hope. Here in Oregon there are highly contested races, including the race for governor, where incumbent Tina Kotek is up for reelection. And of course, there are 45 seats up in the state legislature that are up as well – half the State Senate and all of the State House where I serve. This article notes that hundreds of Oregonians signed up to run for state or local office. If you click on the link you can see that I was at an event that is held at the state capitol every two years on the floor of the House celebrating the filing deadline. You can see the picture of me looking at my phone when I should have been doing a better job listening to Secretary of State Tobias Read.
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Being the secretary of state, makes Read the state’s chief election officer and he officiated the ceremony with a nice speech before gaveling down and officially declaring election season open. There are four senate seats that are truly competitive – one in the Portland suburbs, two around Salem/Keizer/Woodburn, and one down in Ashland, where senator Jeff Golden is retiring. Meanwhile, while there’s lot of contested primary elections, there are only a handful of truly competitive races in the Oregon House. These include a seat on the coast, a seat in East Multnomah County, two seats in the Portland suburbs, one seat in the Woodburn area, and one seat in Bend. Interestingly, a number of seats that are usually competitive didn’t draw Republican or Democratic challengers, meaning that whichever party currently holds that seat will keep it. For instance, Democratic Representative April Dobson represents a swing seat in the Happy Valley area and did not draw an opponent. The same goes for Republican Representative Kevin Mannix down in Salem. While Rep. Mannix has a primary opponent, I think it’s safe to say he’s returning to Salem next year.
Closing out this section are two education-related stories. First up is the news that both faculty and support staff at Portland Community College have gone on strike. This is the first time there has been a strike at PCC and I think it may be one of the first community college strikes ever in the history of public sector collective bargaining in our state. One professor on the negotiation team said “The college is focused more on cutting costs and downsizing than it is on supporting our students. They make their decisions based on consultants rather than working with us.” Striking workers have complained they have not received a cost of living adjustment in years, and that benefits have stalled. Meanwhile, administration officials are citing declining enrollment, loss of federal funds, and rising costs all make raises harder to justify. Both sides are reported to be incredibly far apart: faculty and staff are seeking COLAs ranging from 6.75% to 8.5%, while the administration is offering just 0.35%. I’ve gone through a few strikes in my years as a labor organizer and contract negotiator and of course observing them a bit from the sidelines as a state representative who is often asked to weigh in. I will be checking in with PCC leadership and the leadership of the union to see what if anything I can do to be helpful in getting this resolved. Here’s hoping the strike doesn’t last too long and there’s an amicable end.
One last story is about the budget woes at Portland Public Schools. PPS is looking to cut administrator jobs as the school district seeks to balance its budget. “We are reducing 13 licensed administrative roles and consolidating responsibilities across the [academic] division, resulting in nearly a one-third reduction of central office academic administrators,” said Dr. Kymberly Armstrong, the PPS superintendent. But this is only one step in closing a $50 million budget gap. The rest of the article goes on to explain that teachers at PPS are facing their struggles with the budget; teachers may be asked to take furlough days or see jobs get cut. This is one that I am watching very closely for so many reasons, because of the funding challenges that schools are experiencing, the importance of schools and the reputational hit they are taking in our state right now, and the belief that some people have that PPS is too big and too top heavy with administrators. I expect there will be a lot of energy around school challenges in the legislative session next year.
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The 2026 Legislative Session In Review
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Okay, like I have already mentioned, the 2026 legislative session is finally behind us, and I am glad to be done. In the end it was very productive but it was so much work because so much got done and frankly I am still a bit tired. (I also worked a lot behind the scenes for months in advance to get ready.) Not very much came easy and it felt like everything was a struggle. In the end I feel like I personally accomplished quite a bit, but I also had some public losses too. As I alluded to, I will talk about my personal policy wins in the closing section at the very end but I think it is best if I start with the bigger stories and observations first as this was not a session dominated by my usual topics healthcare and behavioral health. The Trump Administration loomed large over the session as well as we dealt with many things related to HR1 “the one big beautiful bill” and ICE and immigration. Here we go and be forwarded, it is a lot of detail.
This article in OPB offers a great high-level overview of what the legislature ended up passing. I will touch on quite a few of them below in more detail, but some random yet important things worth mentioning are: recreational liability reform (this grants the ability for places like ski resorts to have waivers that limit their liability when there’s some sort of accident), raising the transit lodging tax to pay for some wildlife conservation programs, and a gun bill that delays the implementation of Measure 114 (this bill got eaten up by politics and would eventually be dramatically scaled back). There were brief walkouts, characterized by Republicans as “pauses.” I mean, a walkout is a walkout, but I get that a one-day walkout is more of a boycott than a straight up shutdown. Republicans in each chamber used the “boycott” tactic. Campaign finance reform was also an issue that was tackled this session, again with the appropriate amount of drama/tension. Secretary of State Tobias Read needs more time and money to properly implement all the changes that were made in 2024. The legislature also dealt with controversies that were kicked up toward the end of the 2025 “long session” over farm stands of all things. This article is another good guide to the session, and also includes a guide of who is retiring this year. Quite a few state representatives are stepping down, including two longtime Democratic members, Ken Helm and John Lively. Lastly this article lists out the major bills that got bipartisan support, and repeats a little about some of them that I just mentioned but it lists them out in an easy to read format.
The budget took on a particular prominence this year given Oregon’s economy that, although is not in full on recession, does show signs of struggle combined with a stark loss of revenue due to President Trump’s HR 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill. Despite those challenges, the worst case scenarios I was dreading for Oregon’s budget did not come to pass… at least not yet. This article outlines the major changes the legislature made to the budget. Among the standouts are $273 million investment in the Oregon Health Authority to implement new changes to Medicaid and Food Stamps required by the federal government (this was offset by $101 million in “savings” as enrollment in Medicaid declined), $673 million in step increases and other state employee pay, and $77 million towards wildfire relief.
Meanwhile, as chair of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Capital Construction I have a front row seat to how bond dollars get allocated. This article lists out the projects the legislature funded. Of course, funds for the Moda Center create the biggest line item, but there were quite a few projects around the state that were funded as well. One thing the legislature ended up doing was allocating $2,135,000 to purchase the 92-foot tall Abiqua Falls and the 160 acres of land around it. The falls are currently owned by the Abbey Foundation of Oregon, a non-profit affiliated with the Mount Angel Abbey that has maintained the landmark as a public space. The surrounding land is owned by a timber company. Our state is planning to purchase this land at an incredible bargain and our state agencies will be able to take a proactive conservation role once the sale is complete.
The legislature found another $42 million to help with the reclamation of lands and the construction of the Student Health and Recreation Center at the OSU-Cascades campus. This project will directly benefit both student health and success while also laying the groundwork for future housing and academic facilities. Critically, this ask is matched by $22 million from the university AND $20 million paid by students with student fees. Students themselves voted for these fees because they feel so strongly about the need for this facility.
Back here in Portland, the Williams and Russell Business Hub will receive $11,500,000. This 26,000 square-foot business hub will provide affordable office space, event and retail spaces, and room for business-support organizations. This will also create a central space for Black-owned businesses and restore visibility to Black enterprise and culture in a neighborhood from which Black people were systematically removed. Something that has been a long time in coming. The article lists out a few more, but those are the ones I especially wanted to highlight.
Again, the worst of my fears around the budget did not come to pass this year, although I still fear that next year will be much, MUCH worse. Oregon had a few things going for us this year, which ultimately saved our budget. For starters, the state spent $150 million less last biennium, meaning the legislature was starting from a cushion that big, and corporate tax revenue brought in an unexpected $100 million.
But ultimately perhaps the biggest savings will result from disconnecting from the federal tax code, which will generate $342 million this year alone. As a bit of history, Oregon’s tax code is automatically connected to the federal government’s tax code. That means changes at the federal level are automatically applied to Oregon’s tax code. This is important because President Trump’s massive tax break for the wealthy contained in HR1 was poised to blow a hole in Oregon’s budget for years to come. Thankfully, the legislature passed a bill to disconnect partially from the federal tax code. The article in the link provides a good summary and mentions the expansion of the earned income tax credit a progressive policy that many of us were happy to see included in the bill.
As I already mentioned, the Trump Administration loomed large over the past legislative session. Just like sessions during the first Trump term, this session was largely about “Trump-proofing” Oregon’s laws. Back then those sessions were more focused on stopping the rollbacks of environmental or labor laws that protect Oregon’s values. This year as we saw ICE step up its enforcement in Oregon pretty dramatically the focus was on protection for immigrants living in Oregon. Ahead of session Democrats announced a vast slate of bills to strengthen the rights and protections of immigrants. This article helps recount other immigration bills that passed: “One high-profile bill that passed on the final day of the session will restrict mask-wearing by law enforcement officers and require them to visibly display their badge number or name and agency… Another bill that Democrats pushed through requires federal agents to have a warrant signed by a judge to enter someone’s home, a hospital, a school, a church or a vehicle on private property. And another bill will protect immigrants’ information from being sold or transferred to third-party data brokers if that information could be used for immigration enforcement.” This article is a great companion piece to the link above, as it lists out every immigration bill that was under consideration (or at least all the main ones).
HR 1 also necessitates major changes to Medicaid and our state is beginning to respond in kind. While it was not a session dominated by healthcare and controversial healthcare bills, there was legislation in his policy area. This article lists out all things the legislature took action in to begin addressing our state’s health care needs. (I worked on many of these bills though my name is not mentioned.) For starters, HR 1 singles out Planned Parenthood and cuts off their funding. There are 11 Planned Parenthood facilities across Oregon, and for what it’s worth only about 10% of their activities are abortion related. We passed HB 4127, which opens up a pathway for the state to step up and fund Planned Parenthood. Another area was vaccines. Last summer, RFK Jr. gutted a critical advisory panel that guides federal vaccine policy. Oregon responded by joining with California, Hawaii, and Washington to form the West Coast Health Care Alliance. This would let our states form a combined public health approach – a much needed approach given that the Trump Administration is turning the clocks back on all things health care. The legislature passed SB 1598, which allows our state’s public health officer to provide their own set of vaccine recommendations based on actual science. 2025 and to a lesser extent 2026 were not all about health care. I suspect that Medicaid as in Medicaid funding/cuts will be front and center next year for sure.
Shifting gears before I close out what admitted is a lot, the legislature stepped up in a major way to provide funding for the Moda Center. We all learned that the Moda Center is the oldest standing stadium to not have undergone renovations. Our state did not step up and provide the funding for renovations to the Moda Center then the Trailblazers would probably leave. I realize some of you will debate me on this but I think most of us did not want to try to call their “bluff” to use a poker phrase. Leading Republicans and Democrats struck a bipartisan agreement, by providing funding for county fairs in exchange for funding for the Moda Center. This was not exactly a kumbaya moment in the legislature. Despite how plainly obvious the benefit it is having the Blazers stay in Portland (and how plainly obviously bad it would be for our entire state if they left) was/is to me, there was bipartisan opposition to this bill. One Republican representative said this bill was like securing a tuxedo and dinner reservation before having a prom date. A Democratic state senator introduced an amendment to require some private investment which did not get included for lots of reasons. In the end, this is something that was really important for us to get done, and is easily one of my proudest and easiest votes of the session. I even got to assist on the floor by giving a speech in favor of the bill providing funding for the Moda Center.
Okay, closing out, the final thing I am going to touch on is that the legislature did in fact move the date of the referendum on the gas tax. This story goes back to 2024, when members of the Joint Committee on Transportation went on a roadshow. The committee toured Oregon, presented the Oregon Department of Transportation’s budget woes, and heard from Oregonians in urban, suburban, and rural communities about their transportation challenges. The goal was to gather feedback while making the opening case that the current structure our state uses to fund ODOT (which is an overreliance on dwindling gas taxes) needs to change in the form of collecting new taxes.
In 2025 the legislature took 6 whole months to debate transportation funding. The transportation package was eventually unveiled late in the session and died. Then we regrouped and met for a special session last fall, eventually passing a tax increase that would stave off the worst layoffs at ODOT. Shortly after that, conservative anti-tax activists and leading Republicans in the legislature announced their intention to gather signatures to repeal the new gas taxes. They gathered an eye-popping 250,000 signatures in record time, successfully placing a repeal of the gas taxes on the November ballot.
That brings us to the 2026 legislative session. Governor Tina Kotek and leading Democrats in the legislature figured let’s just rip off the bandaid and not have the repeal hanging out there all year. It just makes plain sense to have the repeal go earlier, especially since it is widely expected that the repeal will pass. Many of us just wanted to repeal the whole thing with no election at all but turns out we were not allowed to do that. But legislative Republicans had different ideas. They hoped to stick an unpopular tax on Democrats for an entire election cycle, which could hopefully encourage Republicans to come out to vote for other candidates on the ballot. Despite their delay tactics, including "boycotts," we Democrats did eventually pass the bill moving the election to this spring during the May Primary. Republicans quickly sued to repeal the bill. A judge ruled against them last week. The election will be in the spring and we get this whole thing behind us and, well, start over and try again.
Wow, No wonder I am still so tired a little over a week later as this all ended on Friday, March 6th.
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Things are starting to get back to normal around here, as in my office. It’s time to lock in for the long research stage. I am unsure if I am going to be a part of any workgroups, but I know I’ve got several potential bills I am getting to work on. This week is pretty light.
On Tuesday I will be a part of a panel on the legislative process with some Portland State University graduate students that will include former state senator Michael Dembrow. It will be fun to see him.
On Wednesday I am checking in with major thought leaders on health policy issues, including the governor’s staff and CCO Oregon. Yes I am already thinking about that need to get done in 2027.
On Thursday I am attending a briefing put on by the governor’s office on Medicaid sustainability. More on what needs to get done in 2027 and attending/working with SOLVE on an inner SE Portland trash pick up/clean up in the afternoon.
And my week closes out on Friday with a check-in with the committee that’s picking out art for the newly reopened and renovated state capitol! If I can make this humble brag it is pretty cool to see the role I had in picking some of the art displayed in the stairway of the new concourse of the state capitol which well used to just be the basement.
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Normally I highlight a local business in my district here in inner SE and inner NE Portland but it was a weekend of art this past weekend where I took in the David Hockney exhibit at the Portland Art Museum which I highly recommend as well as the Oscars, a long time friend mine and Jim’s has an Oscar Party every year that we attend – shout to Tim Cook and his wife Paddy who I a pretty sure read this newsletter. Though I also took in the Buckman Elementary School Arts Show on Saturday which is in the District.
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I am in there somewhere if you look hard enough. So is the State Senate President Rob Wagner.
Okay, Jim and I also took in Fellow Travelers an opera sung in English that is being staged by the Portland Opera. We loved it and thus I am highlighting the show and the Portland Opera.
This article in the Willamette Week perfectly describes what Fellow Travelers is all about: “A forbidden love story between two men whose discovery would cause them to lose their livelihoods. A system that does not accept anyone who doesn’t fit into strict parameters. Raw emotional and physical intimacy. If this sounds like your favorite ‘gay hockey show,’ you’re not wrong, but these descriptors also apply to Fellow Travelers at Portland Opera.
Director Kevin Newbury, who has been with the project since its inception, told Willamette Week that Fellow Travelers ‘is the Heated Rivalry of opera. It is to opera what Heated Rivalry is to hockey.” In case you don’t know, Heated Rivalry is about the secret love life of two hockey players — they’re bitter enemies on the ice but devoted lovers when nobody’s looking. Um, yes, of course I watched Heated Rivalry. I am a gay man though apparently the show is quite popular with lots of “straight people” too!
Fellow Travelers takes a similar tract — the plot of secret gay lovers — but the setting is 1950s Washington, D.C., where the Red Scare and McCarthyism drove both suspected communists and homosexuals into hiding. The opera was adapted from a book, and eventually became a television series. Yes I watched that too.
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I wish the show was sticking around a little longer as it only played for four nights. I would be tempted to go see it again. Jim and I took some friends and we also got a backstage tour, something that was pre arranged I think when we bid on attending this show at the Portland Opera’s annual Gala almost a year ago. I feel like I am going to have to check out Verdi's Requiem on May 16th which is going to be performed by featured vocalists and the entirety of the Portland Opera Orchestra and Chorus, for only that one night at the Keller.
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Okay, I know this has been a very long newsletter, and as promised this is the part where I am going to close with my own personal reflections though I know I made a few personal observations along the way. Thanks for sticking with this and reading it all the way to the end.
As I said all throughout this newsletter, this session was all about dealing with President Trump’s policies and struggle. None of my legislative wins came easy. Straight out the gate, I abandoned a bill before the session even started, as in I did not file it because I came to understand the policy I was going to advance was not actually good policy. That is a longer story for another time but it had to do with telehealth and licensure and an out of state provider of talk therapy. That was a tough moment that I can go into in more detail for another time.
But it was not hopeless at all – it was mostly just hard. For starters, the rosier than expected budget protected all the arts funding I had successfully advocated for last legislative session, as in there were no cuts to arts funding. Arts funding was very much on the chopping block, and I feel lucky that we got to avoid those cuts. Meanwhile, Representative Pam Marsh introduced a bill that banned speculative ticketing; that is, the practice of third party ticket buyers gobbling up tickets to shows and then selling tickets they don’t actually have to us concert goers. This was a huge win for the arts community.
There was a bill creating new guidelines for hospitals for when ICE shows up. This will protect immigrants in health care settings, and I was glad to see this pass too.
Last year, it was revealed that the rates the state pays coordinated care organizations was inadequate to cover costs, as CCOs were demonstrating multimillion dollar losses. While the rates are ultimately set by what the legislature can afford, the process by which CCOs can meaningfully engage in the ratemaking process through more collaboration and data sharing with OHA was also a major problem. The bill I introduced ended up being the product of some intense negotiations between CCOs and the health authority during most of December. Eventually we got a consensus product and the ratemaking process will be much better, I hope, this summer and fall. We will see.
You may remember that I’ve talked about an omnibus health care bill. Since there’s bill limits in short sessions, I’ve routinely introduced a bill that includes several unique concepts that are all minor technical fixes to health care. I received over 30 concepts and the final bill, which also had to be vetted by the Ways and Means process, included 17 discrete policy proposals. I am most proud about a concept that will allow parents whole children experience both profound medical challenges and intellectual and developmental disabilities and need assistance as in care assistance to become paid parent caregivers for their own kids. This will save the state money and provide some much needed relief to parents. It is like a bit of a basic income for these families.
But lastly, the thing I am most proud to have gotten done was save Bay Area Hospital. House Bill 4075 was introduced by retiring representative Boomer Wright. Passing it involved intense conversations with the State Treasurer’s office, as well as the good will of many legislators as in overcoming their concerns. Our approach involved tapping dollars typically set aside for schools, drawing much consternation from the education community and legislators closely aligned with education advocates. The bill’s passage on the House floor featured lots of debate, but House Majority Leader Ben Bowman rightfully captured the vibes of the room: a conservative Republican from the South Coast will get to cap his legislative career by saving his local hospital while a liberal Democrat from Southeast Portland will go home knowing his proudest accomplishment this session was helping save the hospital. Meanwhile, passage in the Senate was a much harder affair. I missed the final vote, as I had to be back in the House to carry one of my bills, but Senate President Rob Wagner, who customarily votes last, provided the 16th vote needed for passage. (Thank you Rob) It was a nailbiter that came down to the wire, but House Bill 4075 passed, and we saved an important hospital for rural Oregon.
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Okay, done. We’ll see what the next session brings. I expect lots of hard work leading up to it, definitely my fair share of disappointments, but hopefully some wins that make it all worth it. Yes I am running for re-election.
Stay tuned and thanks for reading,
State Representative Rob Nosse
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Friends of Rob Nosse PO BOX 42307 | Portland, OR 97242 US
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