Mid-Session Update: Tracking the Flow of Our Water Bills

We're officially past the halfway point in this legislative session. After dozens of meetings with legislators, and hundreds of Oregonians contacting their representatives to speak up for the issues that matter most, this is a key moment when the fate of our bills - and the thousands of other bills that have been submitted - is determined.

Oregon's 83 rd Legislature must wrap up by June 29, 2025. However, there are also deadlines that bills must meet if they are to advance and become law. April 9 was one such deadline. Let's break down where we are in the legislative timeline:

Bills start their lives in one of two chambers: either the Senate or the House. There, they are worked on by various policy committees (Energy and Environment, Education, etc.). Those committees can hold public hearings for input, "work sessions" where they discuss and modify the specific contents of a bill, and ultimately vote on them. If a bill makes it through this process, it moves to the other chamber to repeat these same steps. In this session, April 9 was the mid-session deadline for bills to advance. At that point, any bills that did not move to the floor of the initial chamber were effectively dead.

There are, however, two important exceptions: committees will move some bills from their starting chamber to either the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, or either the House or Senate "Rules Committees." In simple terms, Rules committees focus on the policy contents of bills, and Ways and Means focuses on the fiscal contents. In Rules, lawmakers work through the nitty gritty of bills' contents - shoring up holes, working to address stakeholder concerns, and determining how they would function in practice. Ways and Means works on bills with budgetary components. They determine which bills will get a slice of the state budget, and how big the slice will be. (Read more in our recent Ways & Means blog).

So, where do OEC's water bills stand at this junction?

• SB 830 (expands DEQ septic repair program to include grants and low-interest loans) - moved to the House's Climate, Energy, and Environment Committee in a unanimous vote
• SB 1154 (revises the Groundwater Quality Management Act to improve how our state monitors and protects groundwater) - moved to Senate Rules Committee
• HB 3525 (requires landlords to test for water safety and share results with tenants in properties that rely on private wells for domestic use) - moved to House Rules Committee
• SB 427 (makes water rights transfers subject to environmental review, protecting water quality, wildlife and domestic users downstream) - moved to Senate Rules Committee
• HB 2947 (provides funding for Oregon State University to study the effects of PFAS in biosolids - fertilizers made from sewage - when applied to agricultural soils) - moved to Ways and Means
• HB 2169 (establishes state policy on water reuse) - moved to Ways and Means
• HB 2169 (funds programs to repair or replace damaged septic wells) - moved to Ways and Means
• HB 3526 (requires home sellers to test for water safety and share results with prospective buyers in properties that rely on private wells for domestic use) - Dead

The next major deadline is May 9. On that day, bills that have not been added to an agenda for a public hearing in their new chamber committee will die. Stay tuned for more updates as we push forward through the homestretch of this legislative session.