Justin Brecht, left, a senior policy analyst for the Senate Republican Caucus, and Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, talk about the readability rule that Republicans cited as a reason for skipping a floor session on Wednesday.
By BEN BOTKIN and JULIA SHUMWAY/Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — Most Oregon Republican senators skipped the Senate’s floor session Wednesday, bringing the upper chamber’s work to a halt without the required two-thirds quorum as they face votes on the most divisive issues of the session: reproductive health and gun control.
The walkout – which Republican leaders are calling a work stoppage – comes amid frustrations between minority GOP senators and Democratic leaders over contentious issues like firearms regulations, transgender rights and abortion. GOP leaders say the move is not tied to any one bill and is to combat an unconstitutional process of passing bills that fail to meet legal requirements for readable language that the public can understand.
Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp of Bend said Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, has resisted efforts to correct the problem.
“He’s driving a very partisan and what we say is unlawful and unconstitutional Legislature,” Knopp said in an interview with the Capital Chronicle shortly after the Senate ended its meeting without conducting business. “He’s the one that can fix that. He can make it bipartisan. He can follow the law. He’s choosing not to. That is his fault, just because we react to try to defend democracy and defend transparency.”
Knopp and Sen. Dick Anderson of Lincoln City were the only GOP senators on the Senate floor, when Wagner said the sergeant-at-arms could not locate members with unexcused absences. In all, 12 senators had excused or unexcused absences, leaving the body just two members shy of the required 20-member quorum.
The move marks an escalation of Republican protests. Senate Republicans attempted to remove Wagner as Senate president on Tuesday and have insisted on reading bills in full, a slowdown tactic that has led to late nights.
This is the first walkout, a tactic Republicans used frequently in past sessions, and comes months after voters approved a constitutional amendment to prevent walkouts from grinding business to a halt. Any member with 10 unexcused absences cannot run for reelection under Measure 113, which was passed with a wide majority in November. Wagner dismissed the Republicans’ stated reason for the walkout.
“What we’ve seen today is that the excuse that we had from Republicans for missing today’s floor session are meritless,” Wagner told reporters. “The real reason that we see the walkout today is to show that people are obstructing the ability for senators to vote on reproductive freedom and sensible gun safety.”
In a lengthy press conference after the aborted floor session, Knopp said he didn’t know whether the members of his caucus remained in Oregon. Republicans including Knopp fled the state during past walkouts. He remained in the Senate because Republicans wanted him there as their spokesperson and leader, he said, but he didn’t rule out joining protesting Republicans at a later date.
Knopp said Republicans and an independent senator are taking their protest day-by-day, and that it’s possible at least one will rack up 10 unexcused absences to have legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of the new-voter approved law.
“How that happens and who it is I think is an open question,” he said.
For now, the passage of the ballot measure will not slow down unexcused absences, said Jim Moore, a political science professor at Pacific University.
”They’ve got nine more unexcused absences,” Moore said. “They still have as many lives as a cat. Right? So it shows the weakness of the law that we the people passed in November.”
Democratic leaders said the walkout is an attempt to stall a vote on House Bill 2002, a reproductive health bill.
“The people of Oregon are not fooled,” said Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber, D-Beaverton. “It is no coincidence that the Republicans are employing these tactics just at the time that we were about to address, House Bill 2002.”
The bill would shore up gender-affirming care in Oregon and further solidify abortion rights by protecting providers from lawsuits.
The five senators with unexcused absences included four Republicans: Sens. Daniel Bonham of The Dalles; Lynn Findley of Vale; Cedric Hayden of Fall Creek; and Dennis Linthicum of Klamath Falls. They were joined by Sen. Brian Boquist, I-Dallas. The seven excused absences included six Republicans and a Democratic lawmaker.
Other Republicans, including Knopp, requested excused absences. Wagner denied those, and said he’ll consider requests for excused absences for a legitimate reason, such as health concerns or the loss of a family member. But he said he won’t approve requests for absences that try to obstruct the Senate’s work.
“There’s a bright line in terms of how we’re going to be treating those request forms in the future,” he said.
Wagner adjourned the floor until 10:30 a.m. Thursday, though it’s unclear whether they will have the necessary quorum.
The session must end no later than June 25.