A total of 282 new state laws took effect Jan. 1, 2026, covering areas from health care to consumer protections and personal safety. Following are some that will likely have particular impacts on local communities.
Note: This list is just the tip of the iceberg and space prohibits us from listing many laws that may impact local residents one way or another. To see a list of these and more new laws, issued by the state Senate and House majority offices, visit bit.ly/2025-wins.
Jobs, Economy, and Workforce
HB 2087: Modifies and extends existing tax expenditures related to income, fuel and transportation taxes. It extends the expiration dates of several tax credits and subtractions, including the earned income tax credit and the first-time homebuyer savings account. The EITC was set to end by 2026, but HB 2087 extends it to 2032, among other provisions.
HB 2248: Establishes a new Employer Assistance Division within the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) to streamline support and compliance services for Oregon businesses. The division will offer a centralized resource to help employers navigate workplace regulations and access assistance.
HB 2338: Creates a new entry-level tax preparer certification – Certified Registered Tax Aide (RTA) – to support tax professionals in preparing returns. The program sets requirements for education (including 40 training hours), exams, supervision limits (up to two aides per tax professional), continuing education, fees, and disciplinary oversight by the State Board of Tax Practitioners.
HB 3024: Ensures that individuals who lose or quit employment due to a labor dispute, such as strikes, remain eligible for unemployment insurance benefits.
HB 3167: Named the Fan Fairness and Transparency Act, this law prohibits the use of bots and deceptive resale methods in ticket sales. It also requires sellers to disclose the full ticket price – including all mandatory fees – upfront, bans the sale of tickets not yet possessed, and blocks misleading domain names or websites that mimic venues or events. Violators may face civil penalties under Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act.
HB 3187: Strengthens Oregon’s age discrimination laws by prohibiting employers and recruiters from requesting an applicant’s age, date of birth, or graduation dates until after an initial job interview or a conditional offer. The bill also removes outdated age limits for apprenticeships, promoting fair access for older workers.
HB 3865: Classifies text messages as telephone solicitations and limits when and how businesses can contact consumers. The bill restricts calls and texts to between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., with no more than three contacts in 24 hours. It exempts contacts from established business relationships and public agencies. Violations are enforceable under Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act.
HB 3991 and 3992: These bills are essentially a bail-out for financially troubled Oregon Department of Transportation, signed by the governor in November. Supporters argue that the $4.3 billion transportation bill will maintain and invest in Oregon’s transportation future by repairing roads and bridges, improving safety, and ensuring Oregonians can travel reliably, whether they drive, walk, bike, or use public transportation. The bill, passed in September by the legislature, is suspended pending a 2026 voter referendum for which supporters have submitted more than 250,000 signatures – nearly four times the number they need to qualify for this year’s November ballot. It would impose a 6-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase, along with, tripling of registration and title fees, new charges for electric/hybrid vehicles, and a temporary doubling of the public transit payroll tax.
SB 426: Holds developers and contractors accountable when construction workers serve on a project but don’t get paid. Workers can now sue project owners and direct contractors for unpaid wages, whether the workers are direct employees or subcontractors. It allows civil action to recover wages, benefits, and penalties, while requiring subcontractors to provide payroll and worker information upon request. The goal is to prevent wage theft and improve transparency in Oregon’s construction industry.
SB 430: Prohibits hidden fees – “convenience charge,” a “service fee,” or other extra costs tacked onto online purchases without warning. It requires sellers to disclose all mandatory fees and charges upfront in the advertised price, excluding government-imposed taxes and reasonable shipping fees.
SB 433: “Modernizes” self-storage lien sale procedures, raising the value threshold for public sales to $1,000 before a public notice must be posted, and allowing notices of lien sales to be posted on an approved online auction platform rather than in a newspaper. The bill also permits lien notices to be delivered electronically if the renter has opted in.
SB 605: Stops medical debt from going on your credit report. Medical service providers – like hospitals and clinics – are prohibited from notifying consumer reporting agencies that you owe money for your care or how much. The reporting agencies also are banned from including in your report any amounts they know or should know are medical debts
Housing/Homelessness
HB 2138: Allows for denser styles (duplexes, triplexes, and “cottage clusters”) in more areas in the state in an attempt to increase available housing. The law requires that “middle housing,” as these dwellings are known, be permitted in unincorporated urban areas, and HB 2138 prohibits private restrictions, like homeowner association rules, from barring middle housing or accessory dwelling units, among other provisions.
HB 3054: Limits the maximum allowable rent increase on spaces at mobile home parks and floating home marinas to 6% a year beginning in 2026. The cap does not apply at parks and marinas containing 30 or fewer spaces and has exceptions for rent increased to finance repairing, replacing, and upgrading park infrastructure, though it has provisions for renters to vote to finance such. It also prohibits a landlord from requiring interior inspections or aesthetic or cosmetic improvements of home as a condition for purchase.
HB 3144: Requires that new planned communities allow prefabricated or manufactured homes to occupy single-family lots just as traditionally built homes can. State law already required local governments to permit prefabricated and manufactured homes, but homeowner associations had retained the option to ban them.
HB 3378: Requires landlords to give tenants options for safely locking and unlocking a rental home’s doors without relying solely on an app on the tenant’s own mobile phone. Landlords now have to offer alternatives like an access code, fob, key card, or another physical key.
HB 3521: Gives prospective tenants more protections for getting back a deposit they put in before signing a rental agreement. Landlords must return the deposit if the potential tenant finds serious problems that make the home not habitable. Those could be things like a leaky roof or window, inadequate heat, unsafe drinking water, accumulated trash, or nonworking locks
HB 3522: Allows property owners and landlords to reclaim premises from squatters by providing a 24-hour written notice to vacate. It ensures that the notice does not grant any legal occupancy rights to the squatter and classifies remaining on the property after the notice period as unlawful holding by force.
Public Safety and Justice
HB 2005: Updates Oregon’s civil commitment laws, refining when and how individuals with mental illness may be committed for treatment. It clarifies key definitions, strengthens court procedures, and allows treatment diversion before hearings. HB 2005 also sets new rules for health facility stays and community restoration.
HB 2008: Strengthens privacy protections around this data collected on cellphone users, banning the sale of data on children and prohibiting targeted advertising to minors under 16 based on their personal data or precise geolocation.
HB 2299: Expands the definition of Deepfake ‘Revenge Porn’ to include AI‑generated deepfakes. The bill creates first- and second‑degree offenses, elevating the crime to a felony for repeated violations and extending protections to all victims of intimate-image abuse.
HB 3875: Requires automakers to comply with state legal protections for consumer data, massive amounts of which is collect in modern cars with onboard sensors, microphones, and cameras, as well as the phones and devices drivers connect to their cars. The law requires automakers to honor consumer requests to delete personal data, give consumers a copy of their data, or stop selling it or using it for targeted advertising.
SB 159: Expands Oregon’s veterans’ recognition registration plate program to include motorcycles and mopeds. Previously, these specialized plates were available only for passenger vehicles.
SB 170: Toughens penalties on people who commit workplace violence repeatedly. The law makes assault in the fourth degree a more serious crime when the victim is assaulted while performing their job duties and the defendant has assaulted others while at work or because of a victim’s occupation.
SB 243: Prohibits rapid-fire devices, also known as “bump stocks,” that convert semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic firearms. It also lets local governments decide whether to restrict firearms in highly-sensitive portions of their public buildings.
SB 470: Allows guests to seek compensatory damages and reasonable attorney fees for invasion of personal privacy against those who operate hotels or vacation rentals who, without consent, capture, make, store, transfer, transmit, or broadcast visual images or audio recordings of guests in private spaces within transient lodging under their control.
SB 548: Raises the minimum legal marriage age in Oregon to 18, eliminating the previous exception that allowed 17-year-olds to marry with parental consent.
SB 551: Eliminates plastic film checkout bags at restaurants, grocery stores, and retail establishments.Starting in 2027, only paper bags made with at least 40 percent post-consumer recycled content or 40 percent non-wood renewable fiber will be permitted, with a minimum charge of five cents per bag. Proposed restrictions on single-use plastic utensils, condiment packaging, and small plastic toiletry containers were removed during the legislative process.
SB 1191: Ensures that individuals cannot be criminally charged for informing others of their civil or constitutional rights. The bill amends existing statutes to clarify that such acts do not constitute obstruction of governmental or judicial administration, refusal to assist a peace officer, or interference with a peace officer or parole and probation officer. This legislation reinforces the right to share information about legal rights without fear of prosecution.
Health Care and Human Services
HB 2748: Prohibits prohibits nonhuman entities from using specified titles used by licensed professionals in the practice of nursing. Introduced by Rep. Travis Nelson, D- N, NE Portland, a registered nurse himself, it addresses concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) programs labeled with nursing titles could mislead patients and undermine the integrity of the nursing profession in patient care settings.
HB 3912: Regulates the use of “doctor” title in healthcare, requiring an individual who uses the title “doctor” in connection with their health care practice to identify the health care profession in which they earned a doctoral degree on all material.
HB 2005: Reforms Oregon’s civil commitment laws, refining when and how individuals with mental illness may be committed for treatment. It clarifies key definitions, strengthens court procedures, and allows treatment diversion before hearings. The law also sets new rules for health facility stays and community restoration.
SB 536: Changes the rules on who may serve as a medical examiner to include licensed physician associates and nurse practitioners and clarifies that physicians serving in this role must be licensed.
SB 537: Requires violence-prevention procedures and protections against safety risks in health care settings. Across the country, health care workers make up 10 percent of the workforce but endure 48 percent of nonfatal injuries caused by workplace violence. Among the measure’s requirements are annual workplace violence prevention trainings and “flagging” systems in health records or elsewhere for potentially violent individuals.
SB 699: Expands requirements for individual and group health insurance plans to cover medically necessary prosthetic and orthotic devices, including their repair and replacement.
Environment and Wildfire
HB 2978: Strengthens the state’s program to create safe road crossings for animals. In 2022 alone, Oregon saw more than 4,800 crashes between vehicles and wildlife. The law requires the Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to work together in choosing high-priority locations.
HB 2982 – Watercraft Fee Expansion: HB 2982 expands and raises Watercraft Access Permit requirements to now include nearly all boats, including nonmotorized kayaks and paddleboards, regardless of length. Legislators passed the law to raise money to support boat inspections and management aimed at keeping invasive species such as zebra mussels out of Oregon waters.
HB 3546: Creates a new electricity rate class for the large energy users like data centers and cryptocurrency processors, and makes them responsible for the full cost of the grid infrastructure needed to serve them. It’s been typical in Oregon for huge industrial users of electricity to be charged a lot less – sometimes even half the rate – per kilowatt hour than regular households.
SB 83: Repeals Oregon’s statewide wildfire hazard map and related property maintenance rules, replacing them with flexible, locally adoptable building codes and fire safety standards. It expands the Wildfire Programs Advisory Council with new members from firefighting and insurance sectors and requires comprehensive reporting on wildfire risk reduction, community smoke response, and utility wildfire mitigation efforts.
SB 830: Expands and updates Oregon’s septic financial assistance program to include grants, loans, and other tools that help families and small businesses repair or replace failing systems. The bill prioritizes support for low- and moderate-income households and aims to protect public health, housing stability, and water quality.
Education and Children
HB 2007: Creates stable funding for a Summer Learning Grant Program, giving students in kindergarten through 12th grade access to affordable summer activities that boost literacy.
HB 2307: Exempts school districts from the prohibition on the sale or distribution in or into Oregon of compact fluorescent lamps and linear fluorescent lamps until Jan. 2, 2030. The state is phasing out the sale of new fluorescent light bulbs in an effort to reduce mercury pollution and promote energy-efficient LEDs. The exemption applies to lamps used in school buildings. The measure took effect on passage as an emergency.
HB 3083: Requires every K-12 public school to have emergency safeguards to protect the safety and well-being of students and staff at the school. The law outlines policies and procedures relating to school building security to the emergency safeguards schools must develop. It also requires schools to consider adding a panic alarm system consisting of either a wireless or wearable panic alarm, capable of connecting to emergency services to coordinate between multiple agencies, and integrating with 9-1-1 calls.
HB 3365: Requires the State Board of Education to ensure that academic content standards include sufficient instruction on the causes and effects of climate change and strategies for responding. It applies the new requirement to reviews and revisions of content standards that take place after the measure’s effective date.
SB 934: Modifies the requirements for school districts to identify talented and gifted children. It adds requirements that any person who knows a child be permitted to recommend screening, districts provide screening for any child recommended, districts inform parents of the process for recommending a child for screening, and districts provide information about the recommendation process on their websites.
SB 1098: Provides that decisions on textbooks and library materials are made by local educators and parents. The bill requires that people filing complaints about a book be connected to the school – parents, guardians, or school employees – not “out-of-state extremists.” The decision on whether a book stays or goes must come from a committee that is local. Also under the law,, a book cannot be banned simply for having content on a certain race, sex, religion, or other group protected by law in Oregon. Challenges and decisions must be in writing, and decisions must include the reasoning. Parents and guardians still can request removal of materials, and school boards and staff can still make their decisions by considering a reader’s age, book’s vulgarity, and the material’s educational value.
SB 1099: Requires counties and cities to allow preschool or prekindergarten education on real property where places of worship are permitted.