Oregon Gov. Kotek signs 16 new bills into law covering cannabis, housing, worker rights

SALEM, Ore. — Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed 16 new bills into law this week, addressing cannabis regulation, worker protections, housing rules, water rights, privacy, environmental safeguards and expanded right-to-repair laws.

This list does not include laws filed with the Oregon Secretary of State or last year’s laws that just went into effect this month.

Here are the bills:  

This bill updates cannabis and hemp regulations, including authorizing law enforcement to destroy hoop houses, a greenhouse-like structure, while executing search warrants for illegal marijuana operations. It also repeals the restriction where marijuana retailers cannot be within 1,000 feet of prekindergarten or kindergarten program. FULL TEXT

This bill puts requirements in place for schools to accommodate a student that has been diagnosed with a concussion or other brain injury. FULL TEXT

This bill requires the Oregon Department of Administrative Services to submit an report on how the state’s Insurance Fund is doing every even-numbered year by Jan. 31. FULL TEXT

This bill requires Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission retail licensees to maintain invoices of alcoholic beverage deliveries. FULL TEXT

This bill holds owners and general contractors legally accountable for unpaid wages and fringe benefits owed by any subcontractor involved in the project. It allows workers, or their representative, including the Attorney General, to sue and recover unpaid wages, penalties, interest and legal fees. The law, however, excludes small residential projects and protects independent contractors. Oregon is the first state in the nation to sign such a bill into law. Supporters of it argue that it will hold owners and general contractors liable when subcontractors fail to pay construction worker, helping to eliminate wage theft. FULL TEXT

This bill prohibits hotel and similar lodging providers or intermediaries from recording guests in spaces where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy — such as guest rooms — without consent. It also creates a legal cause of action allowing individuals to sue for invasion of privacy if their image or audio is captured, stored, transmitted, or shared. FULL TEXT

This bill directs the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and Oversight and Accountability Council to review and revise funding structures for substance-use services, focusing on the Behavioral Health Resource Networks (BHRNs). It also removes the requirement for a statewide behavioral health hotline. FULL TEXT

This bill has the Oregon Geographic Names Board make a list of offensive geographic names in Oregon and to suggest new names. FULL TEXT

This bill limits how management services organizations (MSOs) influence professional medical entities. It prohibits MSOs — and their owners, officers, employees or contractors — from owner, controlling shares in or managing medical practices which they contract. FULL TEXT

This bill updates existing laws about how water rights are regulated and managed in Oregon. It will take effect 91 days after the legislative session ends. FULL TEXT

This bill allows a professional employer organization, or PEO, to choose whether to treat the workers it provides to a client as its own employees or as the client’s employees for certain unemployment insurance laws. It takes effect 91 days after the legislative session ends. FULL TEXT

This bill updates Oregon’s right to repair law by adding electric wheelchairs and complex rehabilitation technology to the list of items covered. It requires manufacturers to provide the same tools, parts or devices to owners and independent repair providers that they already offer to authorized service providers for diagnosing, maintaining, repairing or updating the equipment. FULL TEXT

This bill allows certain exempt well users to use up to 3,000 gallons of groundwater per day to water lawns or gardens up to a half-acre in size, whether for personal or commercial use. It permits water use for growing industrial hemp but not for other cannabis plants. For two years, the exemption does not apply to commercial gardens in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area. The total daily water use for industrial or commercial purposes, including a commercial garden, cannot exceed 5,000 gallons. FULL TEXT

This bill requires the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to help set up fall Chinook fish incubation nursery programs and report on them to the Legislature. The program will end on Jan. 2, 2040. The bill takes effect as soon as it is signed. FULL TEXT

This bill eliminates the subcommittee on public records and changes which legislative committees review reports from the Oregon Sunshine Committee. It also updates the deadlines for when those reports are due. FULL TEXT

This bill allows a landlord to pay a tenant one month’s rent to shorten the required notice period from 90 days to 60 days when the landlord is selling the home to a buyer who plans to move in. It also removes the rule that the home must be sold separately from other units. The bill takes effect 91 days after the legislative session ends. FULL TEXT

The end to Oregon’s Legislative session for 2025 is a little over two weeks away — it concludes June 29. This year, the number of bills introduced broke records with roughly 3,400 bills filed at the start of the session; in comparison, the last long session’s total was 700. 

KGW has been tracking which bills the governor has signed on the dotted line, officially becoming Oregon law. See previous coverage below.