Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, shown in this file photo, announced that protocols in place during the COVID-19 pandemic will be lifted Wednesday, June 30, 2021.

SALEM — The Oregon Senate, and effectively, the legislature, came to an abrupt stop Monday when 11 Senate Republicans disappeared.

For the second time in less than a year, they left the Capitol to protest a bill to cut the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Their departure prevents the Senate from taking votes.

The senators’ departure — or, as Gov. Kate Brown put it, a “taxpayer-funded vacation” — was long anticipated around the Capitol, ever since lawmakers convened in early February for a 35-day session that must by law finish on March 8.

The walkout throws into doubt the last two weeks of this year’s session. It could derail, or at least postpone, proposals to ease the state’s homelessness crisis, boost funding for state troopers and tighten the state’s gun laws.

Brown told reporters that the walkout jeopardizes legislative work that could provide relief to the flood-ravaged Umatilla basin as well as money for community corrections.

The question, now, is what happens next. If Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, asks her to, Brown can call on the Oregon State Police to bring the wayward legislators back. But that’s an option Courtney has shown no appetite for.

The governor could later call a special session, which would have no mandatory end date, unlike the current session. But if there is a specific game plan, Brown was not telling.

“I think we want to let the next couple weeks play out,” said Nik Blosser, Brown’s chief of staff. “And then we’ll see.”

Republicans have been grousing over Senate Bill 1530, which aims to cap and shrink the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by creating a market for emissions allowances, which are essentially permits for companies to pollute. The idea is to nudge the economy away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources of energy.

In a rare move Monday morning, Courtney took a seat on the legislature’s budget committee and voted to advance it.

Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger, Jr., pointed at Courtney’s maneuver as the trigger for the boycott Monday.

“Senator Courtney’s actions leave no other option for Senate Republicans but to boycott and deny quorum because cap and trade is on the way to the Senate floor,” said the Grants Pass Republican in a statement. “Democrats refused to work with Republicans and denied every amendment that was presented. Pay attention Oregon – this is a true example of partisan politics.”

Republicans are also upset that Democrats blocked their request to refer the proposal to voters, something that Democrats behind the bill refuse to do.

Democrats, meanwhile, counter that they have made a slew of changes to the plan since last year. For instance, the current plan frees companies who import fuel into most rural counties from having to pay for emissions allowances, which proponents say could spare rural drivers from higher prices.

“I think from the governor’s perspective, more than this bill is at stake,” Blosser said. “A functioning democracy is at stake. And (Republicans are) acting like they want to be in the super minority forever. They’re acting like they don’t want democracy to function for the vast majority of Oregonians.”

Both Courtney and Brown said they talked with Baertschiger over the weekend.

“We took them at their word that they had concerns with the bill,” Blosser said. “We had countless meetings and made countless changes to it. And we just need to get that out there. This is a different bill. We did listen to all these constituencies. We did make all these changes.”

Sen. Michael Dembrow, a Portland Democrat and main sponsor of the greenhouse gas reduction bill, called the walkout “unconscionable.”

“This is more than about the bill,” he said. “This is about the state of politics and I think a certain amount of contempt for the system that’s out there.”

A bill must pass both the House and Senate to be put into state law.

As of Monday afternoon, only three bills have cleared both chambers.

Senate Republicans have fled with at least seven of their personal proposals still in play.

They include a bill from Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, to freeze property taxes for seniors, Baertschiger’s bill to modernize the state Forestry Department, and a plan from Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, to improve groundwater quality in the Umatilla Basin.

Last year, Republicans came back after Courtney declared he didn’t have enough Democratic votes anyway to pass the climate legislation.

Now, though, 17 Democrats favor the greenhouse gas legislation, one more than needed to pass the bill, Courtney said.

“And that is not going to change,” Courtney said.