A question buzzed through the Oregon Senate late Wednesday, an hour before a scheduled 5 p.m. floor session: Where are the Republicans?
Staffers spotted empty parking stalls in the Senate garage. They also saw empty desks when walking through the warren of offices where lawmakers do their work. Some Republicans skipped committee hearings. Later, when the floor session started as scheduled, Democrats couldn't help but notice the 12 empty desks.
Where were the Republicans? They were gone.
With just 17 of 18 Democrats on the floor, and without at least one Republican, senators lacked the bipartisan 20-member quorum they need to convene.
"You've got to have a quorum to do the work of the Senate," a weary President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said from the dais at 5:13 p.m. as Democrats milled about the chamber. Some were bemused, others frustrated. A handful of House Republicans, gawking at the spectacle, had joined them.
The coordinated no-show -- unheard of in recent memory -- threatens to send this session's partisan tensions to a new zenith. It also comes, crucially, as time runs out to pass bills before the Legislature's March 6 deadline to adjourn.
Efforts to set new renewable power standards, along with measures on affordable housing, renter relief and gun control, all hang in the balance amid a growing backlog of bills.
That backlog has accumulated thanks to another tactic Republicans have used with some relish this session: forcing bills to be read aloud before votes, some for hours. That read-aloud rule is part of the state's constitution. And Republicans and Democrats traditionally vote unanimously to suspend it.
Not this year.
Upset that Democrats had teed up a host of contentious subjects for the 35-day session, from the minimum wage to renewable power, Republicans have largely refused to provide that courtesy.
That's softened in the House, after a major minimum wage increase moved to Gov. Kate Brown's desk last week. But Senate Republicans have held firm.
Their insistence has added hours to the legislative process. It's also created a pileup of bills awaiting action -- leading Courtney to consider night and weekend sessions, like Wednesday's, and to think twice about moving bills that might spark further fights.
By 5:20 p.m., Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, issued a statement acknowledging the walkout and admitting that a slowdown was precisely the point. If senators want to pass bills, he said, they'll have to do it during regular business hours.
"This session we've seen the Democrat majority put their partisan agenda ahead of both the needs of Oregonians and the law," his statement said. "Senate Republicans will not work late into the night to fast track an agenda pursued by the Democrat majority that features back room deals between Democrats and special interests and numerous broken promises of collaboration and compromise."
Ferrioli also said his members would be back in the morning. Floor sessions typically start at 10:30 a.m.
"Senate Republicans will be back tomorrow to fight against this extremely partisan, destructive agenda," he said.
Ferrioli's biggest target appears to be House Bill 4036, one of the most expansive pieces of environmental legislation in decades. Ferrioli told the Portland Business Journal earlier this week that he would do whatever it took to stop it.
The bill would require that ratepayers at Oregon's two largest utilities, Portland General Electric and Pacific Power, stop paying for power from out-of-state coal plants by 2030. It would also require that utilities serve half their customers' demand with renewable power by 2040.
To work around delays, legislative leaders have discussed stuffing HB 4036 into another bill that's already passed the Senate and gone to the House. That amended bill would still have to return to the Senate for approval -- but final votes on another chamber's amendments traditionally go to the front of the line.
Republicans have also threatened to hold firm against land-use bills sought by developers as part of a deal on lifting Oregon's ban on affordable housing mandates. Lobbyists, worried their bills might die, followed Ferrioli to his office after a committee hearing earlier Wednesday.
It's unclear what's in store Thursday morning when lawmakers return to work.
As Courtney's 5:30 p.m. deadline passed, he stood up again and spoke. Instead of calling in the Oregon State Police to bring in wayward Republicans, he resignedly called it a night.
"I guess they're not coming," he said. "I want to thank you for being willing to do the work. This does not make me happy. This makes me sad."
(c)2016 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.)
