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83rd OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2025 Regular Session
House Bill 2163
Introduced and printed pursuant to House Rule 12.00. Presession filed (at the request of House Interim Committee
on Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources, and Water for Representatives Ken Helm, Mark Owens)
SUMMARY
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject
to consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor’s brief statement of the essential features of the
measure as introduced.The statement includes a measure digest written in compliance with applicable readability
standards.
Digest: The Act amends a part of the wildlife laws. The Act is about allowing persons with
certain disabilities to fish and harvest shellfish. (Flesch Readability Score: 62.7).
Classifies a person with a documented intellectual or developmental disability as a person with
a disability for purposes of wildlife laws that pertain to angling and harvesting shellfish.
A BILL FOR AN ACT
Relating to the classification of persons with disabilities under the wildlife laws; amending ORS
496.018.
Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:
SECTION 1. ORS 496.018, as amended by section 107, chapter 73, Oregon Laws 2024, is
amended to read:
496.018. (1) In order to be considered a person with a disability under the wildlife laws, a person
shall provide to the State Fish and Wildlife Commission either:
[(1)] (a) Written certification from a licensed physician, licensed nurse practitioner or licensed
physician associate that states that the person:
[(a)] (A) Is permanently unable to walk without the use of, or assistance from, a brace, cane,
crutch, prosthetic device, wheelchair, scooter or walker;
[(b)] (B) Is restricted by lung disease to the extent that the person’s forced expiratory volume
for one second, when measured by a spirometer, is less than 35 percent predicted, or arterial oxygen
tension is less than 55 mm/Hg on room air at rest;
[(c)] (C) Has a cardiac condition to the extent that the person’s functional limitations are clas-
sified in severity as Class III or Class IV, according to standards established by the American Heart
Association;
[(d)] (D) Has a permanent, physical impairment that prevents the person from holding or
shooting a firearm or bow or from holding a fishing rod in hand; or
[(e)] (E) Has central visual acuity that permanently does not exceed 20/200 in the better eye
with corrective lenses, or the widest diameter of the visual field is no greater than 20 degrees; or
[(2)] (b) Written proof that the last official certification of record by the United States Depart-
ment of Veterans Affairs or any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States shows the person
to be at least 65 percent disabled.
(2) In order to be considered a person with a disability under provisions of the wildlife
laws that pertain to angling or harvesting shellfish, a person shall provide to the commission
either:
(a) Written certification described in subsection (1)(a) of this section;
NOTE:Matter in boldfaced type in an amended section is new; matter [italic and bracketed] is existing law to be omitted.
New sections are in boldfaced type.
LC 610 HB2163
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(b) Written proof described in subsection (1)(b) of this section; or
(c) Written certification from a licensed physician, licensed nurse practitioner or licensed
physician associate that states that the person has an intellectual or developmental disability
that prevents the person from holding or operating angling or shellfish harvesting equip-
ment, including rods, reels, clam guns, shovels and other equipment typically used for angl-
ing or for harvesting shellfish.
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