SALEM – A side door opened, and nine Republicans walked into the Senate chambers.
Lured back by a promise that Democrats would deep-six a massive bill to regulate greenhouse gas emissions since their own party could not muster enough support for it in the Senate, GOP Senators ended an attention-getting nine-day walkout Saturday morning.
Two Senators did not return to the Capitol Saturday, but those who resumed work were more than enough to provide majority Democrats the quorum needed to conduct business for the first time since June 19.
Minutes after the Senate convened, Majority Leader Ginny Burdick of Portland made a motion to send the carbon capping plan — which was on the agenda for a vote Saturday — to the Senate Committee on Rules. The motion didn’t technically kill the bill, but sending a measure to a committee in the final days of a session traditionally signals its death.
Burdick offered no speech or other explanation to support her motion, which passed 17-10 with support from eight Democrats and all present Republicans. “I have nothing to say," she said ruefully.
Senators didn’t have much to say about the other 62 bills they approved Saturday morning, either. Most of the measures were brought up and voted on in less than two minutes.
Those included some bills that would normally generate plenty of discussion. Among them:
· A bill to substantially limit the state’s death penalty
· A bill to provide pre-paid postage on ballot return envelopes
· A bill to create a special election in January if a new business tax for education is successfully referred to the ballot
· A bill requiring safety plans for oil trains
Lawmakers also hastily approved budgets for several large state agencies, including the Department of Corrections, the Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority.
As evening fell in Salem, lawmakers in both the House and Senate were still tackling a long list of pending legislation.
The reason for their haste: Under the Oregon Constitution, the 2019 legislative session must end by 11:59 p.m. Sunday. At that point, all remaining bills automatically die.
For more than a week, the walkout by Senate Republicans put in doubt the legislature’s ability to even finish work on state agency budgets. Crafting a spending plan is the only thing lawmakers are constitutionally required to do.
Lawmakers in both chambers are expected to be back at work Sunday morning as they continue their race to approve agency budgets and policy bills before that deadline.
The threat of a government shutdown was not an immediate concern. Democratic Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill on June 25 that provides funding through mid-September for state agencies without an approved budget.
But if the spending plans weren’t approved by Sunday, lawmakers would have had to come back to Salem for a special session. Brown indicated she was preparing to call a special session as early as July 2 if Republicans didn’t return.
Friday morning, Senate Republican leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. of Grants Pass held a Capitol press conference to say his caucus would return to the floor Saturday.
By and large, they did. Two members were absent: Fred Girod of Lyons and Dennis Linthicum of Klamath Falls.
A spokesman for Linthicum tweeted that the lawmaker was speaking at a gathering of young conservatives in Tennessee.
In a Facebook post, Girod noted the importance of the Senate’s vote to sideline House Bill 2020, which would have capped carbon emissions in Oregon.
He wrote, “I respect my colleagues who are going back to kill HB2020 and who are going to vote on budget items that frankly, matter to many of the families in rural Oregon.”
But, he added, “I made you a promise to stay gone, and I’m keeping it.”
A third Senator, Brian Boquist of Dallas, was not at the morning floor session but was listed as “excused.” He arrived at the Capitol in the afternoon, telling a reporter for The Oregonian/OregonLive that he had just driven nine hours to reach Salem.
Boquist generated more controversy than any of his fellow senators for his part in the walkout by threatening to shoot at and possibly kill any state trooper who approached him to try to get him back to work. He told KGW that he warned the head of the state police as follows: “Send bachelors and come heavily armed. I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple.”
Boquist did not report to the Senate floor in the evening despite being present at the Capitol
Senate President Peter Courtney can’t ban Boquist from the floor. To remove a lawmaker would require a vote of the entire Senate. But Courtney told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Boquist was officially “excused” from attending “because I asked him not to be here.”
The Salem Reporter reported Saturday that a private attorney advising the legislature recommended that Boquist be banned from the Capitol in the wake of his threat of violence to troopers. He was seen, however, interacting jovially with troopers at the Capitol Saturday. During the Saturday evening session, there was a visible presence by Oregon state troopers in the Senate chamber.
Many of the bills that passed the House and Senate in a dizzying rush were the subject of many public hearings over the past few months, including a bill that funds Oregon’s public universities and community colleges. Lawmakers held 16 public hearings on the measure. With no debate, it passed the Senate 25-2.
When lawmakers return Sunday, they’re expected to take action on several remaining high-profile bills, including a measure to establish a paid family leave program in Oregon and a bill that would refer a $2 per pack increase in the tobacco tax to voters.