Oregon Senate shutdown enters second week, stalling key legislation

Published 6:00 pm Monday, May 8, 2023

The rift between Democrats and Republicans in the Oregon Legislature grew wider on Monday, May 8, as House Republicans boycotted a key committee meeting while GOP absences kept the Senate shut down for a sixth straight day.

The parliamentary moves and flurry of press releases swirled around hot-button legislation on abortion, transgender rights, guns and child welfare with a renewed fight over rent control surfacing this week.

The possibility of House Republicans joining the shutdown was “on the table,” said Claire Lynn, communications director for House Republicans who are led by Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville.

“We stand with our Senate Republican colleagues,” Lynn said.

The walkouts come as key pieces of the Democratic agenda are coming up for a vote in the Senate after winning approval in the House. If approved, the bills would go to Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, who supports all of the legislation.

Republicans first organized the walkout to stop consideration of House Bill 2002, an abortion-access and transgender-rights bill approved by the House. The House also recently passed gun control legislation in HB 2005, which is waiting its initial reading in the Senate. On Monday, the Senate Rules Committee passed a bill that would cap possible future residential rent increases at 10% per year.

For Democrats, the slowdown represents parliamentary obstruction of the outcome of the November 2022 election — and a string of Democratic legislative majorities going back for more than a decade.

“It is abundantly clear that there is a concerted effort to undermine the will of the people and bring the Legislature to a halt in violation of the constitution of the state of Oregon and the voters who put their sacred trust in our service,” said Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, last Thursday.

In a possible harbinger of a larger House slowdown, the four Republicans on the House Early Childhood and Human Services Committee issued a statement Monday that they would boycott the remainder of the panel’s meetings before May 19, the deadline for bills to be voted out of committees and to the floor of the House. Anything left behind is dead for 2023.

The four Republicans on the 10-member panel said committee chair, Rep. Lisa Reynolds, D-Beaverton, and the majority Democrats were dismissive of the GOP initiatives.

For now, the House action is primarily symbolic, while the Senate is stuck in a parliamentary tangle.

Oregon is one of a handful of states where the minimum number of lawmakers who must be present for any business to be done is more than a simple majority. Oregon’s standard is two-thirds: 20 in the Senate or 40 in the House.

The Senate has 17 Democrats and 12 Republican senators and one GOP-aligned independent. In the House, Democrats hold 35 seats to 25 for Republicans.

In both chambers, Democrats have the votes to pass most bills, but not enough to ensure a quorum with just their own party members.

Two senators — one from each party — are on long-term excused absences due to medical conditions. That leaves 28 lawmakers potentially available to get to the minimum of 20 senators present on the floor if the Senate is to meet.

Republicans have kept no more than two members on the floor for sessions since last Tuesday. With 18 senators in attendance, each day has ended quickly with a failure to meet the quorum.

In response, Sen. Wagner has put Senate sessions on a quick march pace. He’s called floor sessions daily — including Saturday and Sunday. The Senate did not have a quorum either day, but the no-shows on the roll call move closer to a threshold that leads to political repercussions.

Democrats have used the quorum in the past when they were the minority party. But Republicans have walked out in 2019, 2020, 2021 and now 2023 to stall the Democratic agenda. The 2020 walkout ran through the constitutional end of the 35-day session, killing hundreds of bills.

A Democratic-backed effort to curb the practice was launched for the 2022 election. Measure 113, approved in November 2022 with 68% of voters in support, punished lawmakers who have 10 or more unexcused absences as taking part in “disorderly behavior.” They are barred from reelection to their current office.

“Except for those who might have decided not to run again anyway, it’s a serious consequence,” said Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland.

Wagner has called another session for Thursday.

Republicans recently claim that along with the abortion and other issues in the bills, they are challenging the Democrats for violating the minimum reading level of legislative analysis of the bills produced for lawmakers. Under a 1979 law, bills are to be written to an approximately eighth-grade reading level.