Members of Oregon’s Republican House caucus are boycotting Legislative action on Tuesday, joining their Senate counterparts who walked out Monday morning to stop progress on a controversial climate bill.
Both the House and Senate adjourned for the day shortly after 11 a.m. when it became official that absent Republicans had made it impossible to move forward on bills.
In a statement explaining why House members, too, walked out, House Republican Leader Christine Drazan cited objections to what she said has been Democrats’ “rigged” handling of the climate cap-and-trade bill.
The upshot of the Republicans’ walkout is to halt progress on all remaining legislation, including the climate bill; funding for homelessness, mental health, foster children, people with disabilities, wildfire prevention and other budget items; independence for the state’s government transparency advocate; requiring free school breakfast be offered to more than 100,000 children; bonding for building improvement and expansion at all of Oregon’s public universities; and other bills that are still alive this session but need House or Senate approval or both.
Oregon is one of a handful of states that require two-thirds of a chamber’s members to be present in order to read and pass bills on the House and Senate floors. Democrats hold supermajorities in each chamber, so they can pass bills without any Republican support, but they need Republican cooperation to reach a quorum.
Senate President Peter Courtney said Monday that Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. has not definitively told him there is no scenario under which some or all of his members would return to vote on legislative business before the mandated adjournment date of March 8. But Courtney said Senate Democrats who’ve been key architects of the climate plan, Senate Bill 1530, won’t give in and do the one thing that Baertschiger and others have said would bring them back to the Capitol: Refer the climate bill to voters.
On Tuesday Courtney said his message to Republicans is “I beg and implore you” to return to “do what we came here to do.” He said it’s not too late to pass many more bills and that he and his caucus will “stay here to the very end” in hopes of doing so.
Baertschiger told reporters on a telephone call Tuesday that he’s confident other Senate Republicans have left Oregon. "They’ve been through this before, and it’s just a lot less pressure on them if they leave the state,” the Senate Republican leader said. When asked where he was, Baertschiger refused to say. “Why would I tell you that?” he said.
On the House floor, Speaker Tina Kotek appeared unruffled as she introduced civil air patrol members to lead a flag salute and a teenage singer-songwriter from Beaverton to perform. The plaintive Fleetwood Mac song the high school sophomore sang “is about keeping sight of love and a goal, even when things appear to be falling apart,” said Rep. Courtney Neron of Wilsonville. Kotek pronounced the song “one of my favorites” before allowing lawmakers to introduce guests and reminding her audience about a food drive, then adjourning.
Drazan issued a statement saying, “From the first day of this short session, it has been clear that Governor Brown and the majority party have not had an interest in respecting the legislative process and have repeatedly refused to compromise. ... I had remained optimistic up until yesterday that a compromise could be reached. Unfortunately, our attempts to achieve a bipartisan consensus that would take into account the views of all Oregonians were denied. Oregon House Republicans are taking a stand, with working families, in opposing cap-and-trade and this rigged process. We will continue to keep all lines of communication open.”
Kotek for her part issued a statement denying she has been unwilling to compromise and urging House members to report to work. “I have routinely reached out to Republicans in a genuine effort to hear their ideas and compromise where we can. My door is always open. For now, they have chosen to walk off the job. We may disagree on policy, but one thing is for sure – we can’t reach consensus if the Republicans don’t show up for work.”
House Democratic Leader Barbara Smith Warner took a more exasperated and partisan tone in her statement: “In just the last year alone, we have held more than 35 hours of public hearings, gone on a statewide tour, had countless hours of conversations between stakeholders and made significant changes in response to our Republican colleagues’ concerns.The reality is, in today’s Republican party run by Donald Trump, nothing will ever be enough for them.”
One moderate Republican House member, Cheri Helt, remained at the Capitol. She said she opposes the climate bill but wishes to continue working in a bipartisan spirit. Her district is home to more registered Democrats than registered Republicans.
Similarly, in the Senate, moderate Republican Tim Knopp of Bend reported for a second day of work. He said Monday that he felt he could help make progress on bills other than the climate bill that have bipartisan support.
In a letter to Baertschiger and Drazan Monday, Gov. Kate Brown listed several compromises that she and other Democrats made in response to cap-and-trade opponents’ concerns. For example, Brown pointed out Senate Bill 1530 would essentially exempt “trade exposed” businesses that purchase natural gas through 2030, including “all nurseries, food processors, wood products manufacturers, and other rural manufacturers.” Brown told Baertschiger and Drazan that she informed fellow Democrats, environmentalists and businesses that support cap-and-trade that such changes were necessary.
“These were difficult discussions, but I know they had to happen and I had them,” Brown wrote. “Unfortunately, neither of you have exhibited any similar fortitude in leading activists or your fellow legislators to negotiate and find compromises. I am disheartened by your lack of leadership on this matter.”
Republicans say they object to Democrats’ plans to impose limits on the amount of carbon that many of the state’s industries and sectors can emit and to use a market-based approach to drive those limits down and encourage consumers and businesses to opt for greener options. Republicans in both chambers have said they would return and allow Legislative business to resume only if Democrats agree to refer the proposal to voters.
The Republicans who walked out represent 36% of Oregon by population, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent estimates, from 2014 to 2019.
Committees can continue to meet even with all Republicans absent, and the rules committee in each chamber as well as the budget-writing Joint Ways & Means Committee and its subcommittees can continue to pass bills on purely Democratic votes.
The House Rules committee, for example, unanimously advanced two new bills of note today related to climate change and fuel taxes. One would allow the Legislature to designate up to half of proceeds from a fuel tax to be spent as lawmakers direct, not necessarily put into the State Highway Fund, as current law directs. The second would lower Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions much like the climate bill that spurred the walkouts. But rather than set out how the state would accomplish that, it would direct a state agency to come up with a plan and implement it.
Both of those bills include a provision that would place them on the November ballot and only allow them to take effect if approved by voters.
But bills that don’t clear both chambers by March 8 will die.
Senate Republicans walked out twice during last year’s long legislative session, first over a $1 billion a year tax for education, which subsequently passed, then over last year’s version of the cap-and-trade bill, which they helped derail.
Last session, the House Republicans, led by Wilson, remained on the job from start to finish.
Senate President Peter Courtney on Monday implored his Republican colleagues to return to work but he declined to send state police troopers to try to find them and persuade them to return. Courtney said that, unlike last year when a shortage of Democratic support ultimately doomed the climate bill, he said he has more than the 16 votes he needs to pass it.
Under this year’s version of the bill, most of the money raised would come from taxes on transportation fuels. But most parts of the state, including all of rural eastern Oregon, would be exempted from the gas tax indefinitely.
Helt, in a statement, explained her rationale for not walking out with the rest of her caucus. “Sadly, partisan polarization has pushed the Capitol to this moment once again,” she said. “As a moderate who wants to vote for common ground climate legislation, I will remain in the Capitol in hopes we can dig deeper, try harder and reach further to find a policy that works for all Oregonians.”
House Democrats pushed back against the Republicans’ narrative that Democrats have been disrespectful and refused to engage in bipartisan compromise. They put out a fact sheet noting that 24 of the 59 bills passed so far in the session had at least one Republican chief sponsor.
This is a developing story and will be updated. Politics editor Betsy Hammond contributed to this report.
-- Hillary Borrud; hborrud@oregonian.com; @hborrud