State senator outlines 2025 wins and flags housing, transportation challenges for Sherwood

State Senator Nieron Mislan (Senate District 13) told the Sherwood City Council on Oct. 7 that the 2025 legislative session and a recent special session produced a mix of policy changes that may affect Sherwood and the surrounding area.

Mislan said the special session preserved funding for Oregon Department of Transportation oversight and for highway incident response and maintenance, and removed obsolete tolling language. “We maintained funding for hundreds of Oregon jobs that will do things like incident response on our highways and freeways, maintenance, filling potholes, plowing roads,” she said.

On a locally significant transportation project, Mislan said she secured $1,000,000 for geotechnical and archaeological studies for Boone Bridge seismic and capacity upgrades and is pursuing another $6,000,000 to prepare the project for federal funding. “My goal is to get the Boone Bridge shovel ready for federal investment,” she said.

Mislan highlighted consumer and utility protections enacted this year, including the Fair Energy Act (which requires an economic assessment before rate increases) and performance‑based regulation to encourage utility modernization. She said the session also produced a “power act” to provide protections for ratepayers when large energy users such as data centers enter a community.

Council members asked whether the laws address transmission and high‑voltage grid upgrades. Mislan said those issues remain under study: policymakers are exploring incentives and offsets to reduce stress on transmission lines, and interim strategies such as microgrids and battery storage. “We need to be creative because transmission needs a lot of work in Oregon,” she said.

On housing, Mislan described protections for manufactured‑home communities adopted this year. She said advocacy from residents in Sherwood and nearby cities contributed to a bill that capped certain increases at 6% and limited management practices such as mandatory interior inspections. “This will really stabilize a lot of our senior communities who are at greater risk of becoming houseless,” Mislan said.

Mislan also summarized health‑care and workforce bills: provisional licensing pathways for internationally trained physicians through the Oregon Medical Board, workplace violence prevention measures, and Senate Bill 951 reforms she said would allow physicians greater control over clinical decisions. On behavioral health, she noted $6,000,000 in workforce grants and funding for facilities including the Clackamas Recovery Campus.

The senator noted the high level of public engagement during the year’s legislative process — more than 100,000 pieces of written testimony and over 17,000 people signing up to testify — and acknowledged council concerns about last‑minute bill insertions and the pace of the session. She said conversations about bill limits and process reforms continue among legislators and advocates.

Mislan concluded by inviting local officials to follow up with her office on specific concerns and to continue partnering on policy priorities. “If there’s another thing you want to talk about, make a meeting with me,” she said.

What’s next: Mislan said she will continue interim outreach and preparatory work ahead of the February 2026 short session; councilors and staff said they will remain engaged on transportation and housing priorities affecting Sherwood.