The Oregon Capitol in Salem, where GOP lawmakers returned Thursday, June 15, 2023 after a six-week walkout that paralyzed the Legislature.

SALEM — The rift between Democrats and Republicans in the Oregon Legislature grew wider on Monday, May 8, as House Republicans boycotted a key committee meeting while GOP absences kept the Senate shut down for a sixth straight day.

The parliamentary moves and flurry of press releases swirled around hot-button legislation on abortion, transgender rights, guns and child welfare, with a renewed fight over rent control surfacing this week.

The possibility of House Republicans joining the shutdown was “on the table,” said Claire Lynn, communications director for House Republicans, who are led by Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson of Prineville.

“We stand with our Senate Republican colleagues,” Lynn said.

The walkouts come as key pieces of the Democratic agenda are coming up for a vote in the Senate after winning approval in the House. If approved, the bills would go to Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, who supports all of the legislation.

Republicans first organized the walkout to stop consideration of HB 2002, an abortion access and transgender rights bill approved by the House. The House also recently passed gun control legislation in HB 2005, which is awaiting its initial reading in the Senate. On Monday, the Senate Rules Committee passed a bill that would cap possible future residential rent increases at 10% per year.

For Democrats, the slowdown is parliamentary obstruction of the outcome of the November 2022 election — and a string of Democratic legislative majorities going back more than a decade.

“It is abundantly clear that there is a concerted effort to undermine the will of the people and bring the Legislature to a halt in violation of the Constitution of the state of Oregon and the voters, who put their sacred trust in our service,” said Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, last Thursday.

In a possible harbinger of a larger House slowdown, the four Republicans on the House Early Childhood and Human Services Committee issued a statement Monday that they would boycott the remainder of the panel’s meetings prior to May 19, the deadline for bills to be voted out of committees and to the floor of the House. Anything left behind is dead for 2023.

The four Republicans on the 10-member panel said the committee chair, Rep. Lisa Reynolds, D-Beaverton, and the majority Democrats were dismissive of the GOP initiatives.

“House Republican committee members are being asked to facilitate the Democratic majority’s agenda,” said Rep. Anna Scharf, R-Amity, the Republican vice chair of the committee.

For now, the House action is primarily symbolic, while the Senate is stuck in a parliamentary tangle.

Oregon is one of a handful of states where the minimum number of lawmakers who must be present for any business to be done is more than a simple majority. Oregon’s standard is two-thirds: 20 in the Senate or 40 in the House.

The Senate has 17 Democrats and 12 Republican senators and one GOP-aligned independent. In the House, Democrats hold 35 seats to 25 for Republicans.

In both chambers, Democrats have the votes to pass most bills, but not enough to ensure a quorum with just their own party members.

Two senators — one from each party — are on long-term excused absences due to medical conditions. That leaves 28 lawmakers potentially available to get to the minimum of 20 senators present on the floor if the Senate is to meet.

Republicans have kept no more than two members on the floor for sessions since last Tuesday. With 18 senators in attendance, each day has ended quickly with a failure to meet the quorum.

In response, Sen. Wagner has put Senate sessions on a quick-march pace. He’s called floor sessions daily — including Saturday and Sunday. The Senate did not have a quorum either day, but the no-shows on the roll call move closer to a threshold that leads to political repercussions.

Democrats have used the quorum in the past when they were the minority party. But Republicans have walked out in 2019, 2020, 2021 and now 2023 to stall the Democratic agenda. The 2020 walkout ran through the constitutional end of the 35-day session, killing hundreds of bills.

A Democrat-backed effort to curb the practice was launched for the 2022 election. Measure 113, approved in November with 68% of voters in support, punished lawmakers who have 10 or more unexcused absences as taking part in “disorderly behavior.” They are barred from re-election to their current office.

“Except for those who might have decided not to run again anyway, it’s a serious consequence,” said Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland.

Wagner has called another session for Thursday, May 11.

Republicans claim that, along with the abortion and other issues in the bills, they are challenging the Democrats for violating the required reading level of legislative analysis of the bills produced for lawmakers. Under a 1979 law, bills are to be written to an approximately eighth-grade reading level.

Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, accused Wagner of disregarding the law. A Marion District Court judge last week declined to hear a petition by Sen. Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook, backed by a House Republican lawmaker and the advocacy group Oregon Right to Life arguing that the Senate should not consider HB 2002 until court challenges on the reading level issues were heard.

Republicans say Wagner’s attempt to add floor sessions was political payback.

“In our view, it’s clear that Wagner is retaliating,” said Ashley Kuenzi, House Republican Caucus communications director. “His arbitrary and capricious behavior continues to prove Senator Knopp’s assessment of Wagner right: that he is untrustworthy, deeply partisan, and lacks the necessary skills to run the Senate in a bipartisan fashion.”

Republicans say they will seek additional court rulings on the reading proficiency level law. They also said for the first time that they expect to challenge Wagner’s use of excused and unexcused absences as unconstitutional.