WALKOUT STALLS OREGON SENATE

Republican Oregon state senators have been walking out of this year’s session of the Oregon Legislature for over two weeks now and show no sign of stopping soon.

This has brought action in Salem largely to a halt.

This isn’t the first walkout in recent times. In 2021, House Republicans walked out for two days over a bill that would redrawn Oregon congressional districts heavily in Democrats’ favor. The GOP has participated in six walkouts just since 2019. Democrats are not strangers to the tactic, either: From 1971 to 2001, they staged at least three walkouts. 

The Oregon Senate is made up of 30 senators total, 17 of which are currently Democrats, giving them a majority in that chamber. Currently, 10 Republican senators are continuing their walkout, along with one Independent member, and this means the senate can not vote on anything because the remaining 19 members do not meet quorum – quorum being the legal minimum number of people needed to be present to vote on legislation and other functions of the senate.

In Oregon two-thirds of the senate needs to be present: 20 members.

What’s different this year is that state legislators in Oregon who accrue more than 10 unexcused absences are banned from running for reelection. This is due to Measure 113, approved by 68% of voters who cast ballots in the November 2022 election, referred to voters after Republicans’ 2019 session walkout (several actually retreating to Idaho, to avoid contact by Oregon State Police sent to retrieve them) drew much attention.

As of May 23, 10 senators have exceeded the mark and are now not allowed to run for reelection. One is the Independent member; the other nine are Republicans.

The walkout is conservative members’ response to two bills under consideration this year, one that would protect gender-affirming care for minors and another that adds to gun control measures. The gun control bill would require individuals to be 21 years of age to legally possess a firearm and punishes possession, manufacturing, and transfer of ghost guns (those scrubbed clean of identifying serial numbers), among other things.

The other bill would protect medical providers who perform abortions or gender-affirming care from legal punishments. It also would expand what insurance policies must pay for, and makes other changes.

The bigger problem is that the current legislative session is set to end on June 25 and those who have been absent from the floor say they will only come to the senate floor on that final scheduled day to pass the state’s two-year budget and to pass any “bipartisan-approved” bills.

If the two sides do not negotiate a return to the senate floor – and little progress has been reported to date – those bills and all of the other proposed legislation since January will die, for this session.