By Nathan Proctor
More and more lawmakers are coming around to Right to Repair advocates’ simple premise: People should be allowed to fix their stuff.
The campaign for the Right to Repair has been steadily building support – and this year, we’ve accelerated that pace even further. Here are some of the big recent highlights.
5 STATES HAVE PASSED 6 BILLS
On May 19, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed two Right to Repair bills, one covering most consumer electronics and appliances, and another covering powered wheelchairs.
Then, over a one week span at the end of May into early June, the Oregon and Nevada state legislatures passed their own wheelchair Right to Repair bills, while Texas and Connecticut lawmakers passed measures about fixing personal electronics. Other than wheelchairs, medical equipment continues to be a challenge to include in legislation.
This surge of progress makes 2025 the most productive one ever for our work on Right to Repair – and the year is not even halfway over.
MILITARY RIGHT TO REPAIR GAINS BIPARTISAN SUPPORT
In an op-ed on Fox News Digital published on May 29, Senators Sheehy (R-Mont.) and Warren (D.-Mass) announced their plan to push a new military Right to Repair bill to reform the military’s outdated procurement process. As the Senators note, the current process forces the military to rely on contractors to repair weapons systems and equipment and leads “to three critical problems: readiness, cost and lack of competition.”
Not surprisingly, a recent bipartisan and nationally representative poll of likely 2026 general election voters PIRG commissioned from Lake Research Partners and The Tarrance Group showed that voters overwhelmingly support Congress passing a law ensuring the U.S. military can repair its own equipment. The support was strongly bipartisan, with 78% of Republicans and 73% of Democrats supporting Congressional action.
Medical device repair has been one of the topics around Right to Repair for the military. Several service veterans shared stories from their time fixing medical equipment, even in war zones, while facing significant obstructions from manufacturers.
