Senate Republicans plan to return this weekend.

Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr., R-Grants Pass, said in a press conference Friday morning he expects most of his caucus to return for the 9 a.m. session Saturday.

The 11 Republican senators left the state last week to deny Senate Democrats the quorum necessary to pass House Bill 2020, climate legislation to regulate carbon emissions.

“Our mission of walking out of this building was to kill cap and trade … and that’s what we did,” Baertschiger said.

Gov. Kate Brown contacted Baertschiger and he returned to the Capitol alone Wednesday afternoon, he said. In meetings with Brown and Senate President Peter Courtney, Baertschiger said he was assured HB 2020 was “dead.”

Courtney announced June 25 the legislation lacked the Democratic votes needed to pass, even though the bill has already been scheduled for a third reading, which typically occurs before the final vote.

Without a quorum, the Senate cannot take any action on the bill, so it technically remains alive.

Baertschiger said, as an insurance policy against Democrats attempting to use legislative maneuvers to revive HB 2020, Senate Republicans would not approve sweeping rules suspensions to speed up the process.

With the legislative session mandated to adjourn by 11:59 p.m. Sunday, little time remains left to consider budget and policy bills that have not already passed.

Baertschiger said legislators have a constitutional duty to pass the remaining budget bills. After that, he said they would consider policy bills. He said he liked some of the policy bills and that they should receive an up or down vote.

The Senate Republican Leader said he was confident everything could be wrapped up before the Sunday deadline.

Baertschiger said the goal of the walkout was only to kill HB 2020, and after its death had been conceded, no other agreements had been reached with Democrats.

He said his caucus reached a unanimous agreement to walk out after listening to constituents’ concerns the bill would be devastating to many rural industries.

A rally at the Capitol Thursday attended by more than 2,000 loggers, ranchers, farmers and others opposed to HB 2020 was unprecedented, he said, with people traveling hundreds of miles to make their opposition known.

Baertschiger said he believed climate legislation was possible without dismantling the economy.

“I don’t think anybody is against coming up with a carbon-reduction policy,” he said, “but we’ve got to get it right.”