Our 2025 legislative agenda
As we face an uncertain economy and extreme weather, one thing remains true: Oregon has a strong track record of taking action to advance climate justice. This session, we have an opportunity to build on this momentum and strengthen the resilience of Oregon families across the state.
Climate change is hitting our communities hard with extreme heat, high energy bills, and dirty air. But not everyone faces the same burden. People with disabilities, rural families, people of color, and folks struggling to make ends meet are getting hit the hardest. If we don’t put these communities first in our solutions, they'll fall even further behind.
As we build an affordable clean energy future that centers most impacted communities, we know that the solutions to our challenges are all connected.
Our main priorities
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Energy Democracy
Oregonians need healthy, affordable homes that run on clean energy. We’ll get there by lowering utility bills, limiting what corporate utility expenses can be passed on to customers, and making it easier for us to access energy efficiency upgrades and rebates. Three bills advance energy democracy by putting people over profit to ensure clean, affordable energy for all, regardless of income or race.
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Transportation Justice
As Oregon plans to fund our transportation system, every dollar must deliver on climate and air quality goals. When frontline communities don’t have safe streets and sustainable transportation, we suffer from pollution, poor health, and less economic opportunity. We can’t afford the status quo. We need a system that is safe, equitable, sustainable, and affordable for the long term.
OJTA also endorses these policy solutions for resilient communities:
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Led by OJTA member PCUN, this bill expands on the Oregon Worker Relief Fund by defining “climate disaster” at the state level and establishing a permanent program to support farmworkers who lose income from extreme heat, smoke and other climate disasters.
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Led by OJTA members Beyond Toxics and Verde, Planning for Healthy Communities Act establishes health and safety protections for schools, childcare facilities, hospitals, and homes if they’re near industrial areas.
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OJTA members Verde and Oregon Rural Action have focused on water issues for years. The 2025 water package will advance the priorities of both organizations. Bills include:
Well Abandonment, Repair, and Replacement Fund: Provides financial assistance to help Oregonians repair or replace and permanently abandon a household well that is dry, severely declining, or that was damaged or destroyed by wildfire that is unable to supply water for household purposes. This financial assistance is available to individual low to moderate income households or members of a federally recognized tribe in Oregon.
Water Equity Funding: Investments in the water sector need to include at least $4 million in funds for research, capacity building, outreach, stewardship, and local education led by environmental justice communities.
Domestic Wells and Domestic Wells for Renters: Landlords must test water and alert renters of the condition of the water.
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Led by OJTA member Oregon Rural Action, this bill helps rural Oregonians better understand the pollution they are exposed to through their waterways and drinking water sources.
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Led by OJTA ally Oregon Food Bank, Food for All Oregonians creates a state-funded program providing food assistance to all Oregonians, regardless of immigration status, with support matching SNAP benefits and outreach through multilingual navigators.
Budget priorities
Our budget priorities are programs that increase resilience in low-income communities of color and have not been allocated funding this year:
