Environmental and Climate Progress: Despite Longest Republican Walkout in Oregon’s History

To say that the 2023 Legislative Session was challenging would be an understatement. Ten Senate Republicans staged the longest walkout in Oregon history, nearly grinding the legislature to a halt. Their walkout made an already tough session nearly impossible.

Despite the incredible challenges caused by the walk out, we are happy to report that one of our biggest wins in the 2023 Legislative Session was the comprehensive Climate Resiliency Package, which provides $90 million in funding for more than a dozen climate bills.

However, with the good, unfortunately also comes the bad. Defending against bad bills took more work than it has in years. Six bills were designated as Major Threats and there was a slew of bad bills that would have undercut Oregon’s iconic land use laws. One of those bills, HB 3414 was a housing bill that became a bad land use bill in the last days of session. The bill was one of Governor Kotek’s priorities for the 2023 session, but once an urban growth expansion was added to the bill we had to designate it a Major Threat to a Healthy Oregon, and our efforts along with our partners led to the bill dying on the Senate Floor by one single vote.

Thanks to all our efforts alongside our partners, and OLCV’s amazing volunteers and members, not a single Major Threat passed this session, and we had some significant wins. Please check out our full 2023 Legislative Scorecard to learn more about the session and to see how your lawmakers fared on the climate and environment.

More from the scorecard:

• Note from the Executive Director
• Session Highlights
• 2023's Notable Leaders
• Bill Graveyard
• Priorities for a Healthy Oregon
• Looking to the future

What next?

1. Tell your legislators you know the score.
2. Spread the word: #orleg #olcvscore
3. Donate.

Tell your legislators you know the score. It only takes a minute to say thanks — or no thanks — to your legislators. Then, share this scorecard with your friends, family, and neighbors so they can find out their elected officials’ results. Finally, because we could not accomplish our mission without the generous help of our members, please make a donation so that we can continue the fight to address climate change and protect Oregon’s natural beauty.

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Explore the Scorecard: Oregon House

Explore the Scorecard: Oregon Senate

Explore the bills:

Bill Graveyard

We had a lot of big wins this session–on climate, public health, and waste reduction–but a lot of good bills were stalled due to the Senate Republican walkout. And, as in past sessions, we were forced to spend far too much time defending against bad bills and rollbacks to our previous hard fought victories. Read more in the Bill Graveyard