The legislative process is how elected officials take a policy concept from an idea to a new law. It is intensely rigid, happens in the capitol building and can feel outdated and formal in many ways… but it is also essential to making change in our systems! This blog post is going to cover our approach to legislative change, tell you more about when in the process community members can raise their voice, and the differences in different types of engagement we might ask you to do.
TL:DR (although we hope you do read!)
- Oregon has a biennial legislative schedule.
- Even numbered years (like 2026!): Short Sessions are about 35 days long. There is not much time for debate so new legislative concepts, those that require a lot of discussion and lengthy arguments are often not tackled during these years.
- Odd numbered years: Long Sessions run from Mid January to late June. This is where substantive debate happens, legislative work groups can be convened, and new programs have a better chance of being implemented.
- All legislative sessions follow the same formula, but short sessions have a much shorter time frame:
- Bills are introduced in either the House or Senate and assigned a committee in that chamber.
- Bills are given a hearing and work session (vote) in their committee
- Bills that are voted out of committee go to the chamber floor for a vote by the full membership.
- If they pass out of their first chamber they go to the second and do the process all over
- Only after passing both chambers can they go to the governor for signing.
- Public testimony can be given during committee hearings only, but there are lots of ways to get involved:
- Giving testimony verbally on the record (in person or remotely via video)
- Writing testimony to submit on the record
- Writing to or calling your legislator to tell them about your experience or concerns with a particular issue
- Meeting with your legislator to tell them about your experience
- Signing a petition or sign on letter (like this one for the 2026 budget reduction packages!)
- Working with an organization like FoFF to tell your story to educate the community on the impact of a policy or inaction.
- Sign up for updates and info:
- The bottom line is that law makers always base decisions on the information they have. The more info you share with them about how a policy will impact you, your farm, or the food system means the more opportunity they have to act in your interest. Many legislators have little to no experience on farms, we need to tell them how their decisions impact us.
Legislative Mechanics in Oregon
Oregon has a bicameral (two chamber) legislature just like the national congress. We have the Oregon Senate and the Oregon House of Representatives. Each person is represented by both a House Rep and a Senator. You can look up who represents you here.
Each chamber has “Leadership” which are Senators or Representatives that are elected internally to these positions and have extra authority to determine committee placement, chamber priorities, and more. The Senate has a President (currently Senator Wagner), a President Pro Tempore (currently Senator Manning), a Democratic Leader (currently Senator Jama), and a Republican Leader (currently Senator Starr). The House has a Speaker of the House (currently Rep. Fahey), a Speaker Pro Tempore (currently Rep. Gomberg), a Democratic Leader (currently Rep. Bowman), and a Republican leader (currently Rep. Elmer). Leadership are always important in activism because of their ability to influence other legislators and elevate an issue in the session calendar. It is really important that we make sure they know about our issues, who they impact, and why they are important.
Committees
Each of these chambers has committees that are split up by topics. Bills are assigned to a committee based on the type of issues that it covers. Bill assignments are done by leadership and always start in the chamber where the bill is introduced. If a bill is introduced by a lead sponsor who is a Senator, that bill will be assigned to a Senate committee.
Committees are where the debate happens. During committee hearings members of the legislature and the public have the opportunity to give testimony for or against the bill, committee members can ask questions, amendments can be introduced and adopted, and the content of the bills take shape. Hearings are required for a bill to move forward and if there is broad support (or opposition), these can be pretty brief, i.e. a 15 minute agenda item for a larger meeting. If there is a lot of discussion on a bill, hearings can be long and multiple hearings are possible. Hearings are the primary opportunity for public involvement and testimony is accepted in person, remotely, or in writing. Keep in mind that testimony given in these hearings becomes a matter of public record and you must give your name and address when providing testimony.
Work sessions are the name for committee sessions where a vote takes place. This can result in a bill “dying” (being voted down and therefore not moving forward in the session), being sent to the House or Senate floor for a vote of all members of the chamber, or being referred to another committee (usually Ways and Means, Rules or Revenue) for further debate. Work Sessions do not have opportunities for public input, although all committee meetings are open to the public, broadcast online live, and recordings are available through the committee webpage.
All issue based committees are subject to the legislative calendar (which we will discuss later in this post, its SO IMPORTANT!) with deadlines for bills to have been scheduled for hearings and work sessions, and deadlines to make it out of their committees so that the session can move along. These deadlines do not apply to certain committees, notably the joint committee on Ways and Means, the Rules committees, and the Revenue committee. These committees have room for additional debate.
Special note on the Joint Ways and Means Committee
Any time a bill requires the state to spend money for its implementation, that bill has to be referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. This joint committee is broken up into topic based subcommittees where agency budgets and general funds are debated. Oregon has to balance its budget and the finite nature of state resources means that sometimes there is not enough money to go around. It is common for a bill with a price tag (also officially called a fiscal impact or “fiscal” in jargon) to go to Ways and Means, not pass, and then have the expense be included in another spending package or the “Christmas Tree Bill” also known as the end of session budget reconciliation bill. This makes advocacy in this committee tough, because there are often not the same opportunities or landmarks for advocates to look for. This is why we often request individuals and stakeholders to meet with W&M lawmakers directly to tell them of the importance of their bill.
Legislative Calendar
Short Sessions and Long Sessions have the same landmarks, but the short session is on a much shorter timeframe. You can view the legislative calendar with all dates and deadlines here. No matter how long the session is, bills must follow the same process to become law (as shown in the helpful graphic from the legislature.
Here is the general flow of the session with notes about how we might ask you to chime in:
- Bills populated in OR Legislative Information System (OLIS)
- Normally happens 1-2 weeks before Session
- FoFF Action: Review all bills and see what is coming up related to small farms and agriculture. Sometimes we find bills that we didn’t know about brought by groups we aren’t in coalition with.
- Public Action: Look out for session preview webinars, hot lists from FoFF and other trusted partners, or sign on letters to show your support or opposition to something we know is coming in the session.
- Session starts!
- Bills are assigned to committees
- Happens within the week surrounding the start of session
- FoFF Action: Monitor the committee agendas and start alerting stakeholders and farmer experts about where to watch.
- Public Action: Look out for updates, look for us to reach out to you for individual meetings if your legislator is on a committee with relevant bills.
- First chamber committee hearings
- These can happen as soon as session starts and legally only require 2 business days notice. Watch out for urgent testimony requests.
- Normally happens 1-2 weeks before Session
- FoFF Action: Start lining up impacted community members (farmers, ranchers, farmers market managers, etc) and subject matter experts (researchers, folks with a lot of experience in a matter, etc) for hearings and drafting templates for folks to use to simplify testimony.
- Public Action: Sign up for remote, in person, or written testimony. Look out for FoFF action alerts and templates to help you get started. This is your biggest opportunity for input on the record.
- First chamber work session
- Major deadline, listed on the calendar.
- If the committee doesn’t vote by the listed date, the bill is dead.
- First Chamber Floor Vote
- This is a mid-point deadline for the session
- No opportunity for public input, but floor votes are broadcast live on the legislature’s website.
- Assigned Second Chamber Committee
- Done in the first week of the second half of session
- FoFF Action: Start meeting with second chamber committee members and educating them on the importance of the issue. Circulate sign on letters and templates for legislator outreach (phone calls, emails).
- Public Action: Look out for action alerts and meeting requests if your legislator is on a relevant committee! Meeting with people in their district impacted by an issue is the biggest way to influence a law maker. Also look out for calls to action for writing to or calling your legislator, FoFF has templates and technology to make it easy!
- Second Chamber committee hearing (just like the first chamber with a new audience)
- These can happen as soon as the measure is assigned to a second chamber committee and legally only require 2 business days notice. Watch out for urgent testimony requests.
- FoFF Action: Start lining up impacted community members (farmers, ranchers, farmers market managers, etc) and subject matter experts (researchers, folks with a lot of experience in a matter, etc) for hearings and drafting templates for folks to use to simplify testimony.
- Public Action: Sign up for remote, in person, or written testimony. Look out for FoFF action alerts and templates to help you get started. Again, this is your biggest opportunity for input on the record.
- Second chamber work session
- Major deadline, listed on the calendar.
- If the committee doesn’t vote by the listed date, the bill is dead.
- Second Chamber Floor Vote
- This must be done by the sine die (end of session)
- No opportunity for public input, but floor votes are broadcast live on the legislature’s website.
- Sine Die
- The constitutionally required end date of the session
- Anything left undone by this date is gone and you have to start over next year.
2026 Session
We are about to head into the 2026 session and we want you to get involved! Now that you know when and how public input can be given, prepare yourself for all the hurry up and wait of the legislative process by getting updates from FoFF: