The Senate was empty while the House plowed through legislation with a doubtful future on Tuesday, as the stalled session hit 20 days of stalemate.

Ten senators — nine Republicans and an allied conservative Independent — have stayed away almost three weeks to deny a quorum of 20 senators needed to move ahead with pending bills dealing with abortion, transgender medical care and guns.

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, issued a statement promising the 10 senators would return to the Capitol on June 25, the final day the legislature can meet under the constitutionally-set deadline.

Knopp said the GOP lawmakers would return “to pass lawful, substantially bipartisan budgets and bills” to “address the issues most important to Oregonians — homelessness, affordable housing, public safety, cost of living, job creation, and fully-funded education.”

“We are not interested in facilitating an agenda that is unlawful, uncompromising, and unconstitutional,” Knopp said. “This has not changed.”

Democratic leaders rejected the idea as an attempt by Knopp and the other GOP senators to dictate a narrow agenda out of step with the majority of Oregon voters.

“That is not negotiating in good faith, that is hostage taking,” House Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, said in a Tuesday afternoon meeting with reporters.

Rayfield said Knopp was seeking veto power over bills on abortion access, transgender medical treatment, gun control, rent control and scores of other topics that Democratic majorities have the votes to pass into law. But the walkout triggers the constitution’s requirement that two-thirds of lawmakers be present for a quorum. 

“This is a typical politician closed-door tactic to kill whatever he wants,” Rayfield said. “That is the game he is playing.”

Quorum rules

Under Measure 113, approved by 68% of voters in November, lawmakers who have 10 or more unexcused absences would be barred from re-election. The bill’s supporters argued that would be a brake on walkouts as lawmakers would not want to endanger their future political careers. But the 10 senators have passed the mark and show no signs of returning. Rayfield said the bill seemed like a strong deterrent, but hasn’t worked in its first test.

“Ten Senate Republicans hold hostage a whole legislature — that is a failure,” Rayfield said. 

The Legislature could send a constitutional referral to voters for the next general election in November 2024 to change the quorum from two-thirds to a simple majority or less as is the case in 46 other states.

Rayfield said he wanted to study the ramifications of the change before he would endorse or oppose the idea. Kotek last week said she did not support a vote to change the quorum at this time.

Rayfield said he was working with House Minority Leader Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, to keep House Republicans on the floor and voting on legislation. 

While often ideologically opposed, Rayfield said he and Breese-Iverson have a “cordial” relationship as opposed to the “caustic” attitude Knopp has shown toward Senate President Rob Wagner.

“In the House, we are just keeping our head down,” and working through legislation, Rayfield said.

Breese-Iverson has said she supports the Senate walkout and has left open the possibility of the House GOP caucus joining a walkout in the future. Her husband, Prineville political consultant Bryan Iverson, is the director of the new Oregon’s 13 Constitutional Defense Fund, a political action committee formed to support the senators who have walked out.

Flurry of House bills

On Tuesday, the House Republicans were on the floor to create a quorum. Votes on 36 pieces of legislation were held with all but three being Senate bills, most of which can go to Gov. Tina Kotek to sign into law. 

Votes included a party line vote on House Bill 2004, which would use ranked-choice voting in elections for president, U.S. Senate, governor and other statewide offices. But the House bill now goes to the Senate, where hundreds of pieces of legislation are backed up.

House Republicans tried again to have a bill sponsored by their caucus pulled from a committee and onto the floor for a vote. The effort this time was for House Bill 3627, sponsored by Rep. Tracy Cramer,  R-Gervais. It would fund K-12 education at $10.4 billion, or about $200 million more than the latest budget proposals in the Democratic-majority Joint Ways & Means Committee.

“As we have stated time and again – budgets reflect priorities,” Breese-Iverson said in support of the move. “We must get back to the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic and invest in our students now before it is too late.”

The motion to move Cramer’s bill from the House Rules Committee to the floor received 30 votes, one short of the number needed. Five Democrats, including Rep. Emerson Levy, D-Bend, voted in favor of bringing the bill up for a vote.

Gov. Tina Kotek met separately with the House Democratic and Republican caucuses. The visits came the day after a talk with Senate Democrats was followed by a planned meeting in the Capitol with Senate Republicans, where only one — Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City — appeared in person while others took part via zoom. 

Kotek called the GOP snub “disrespectful.”

Knopp’s offer of returning for the final day of the session has fueled the possibility that Republicans could stay out until the 160-day limit of the session passes on June 25. All legislation still pending, along with the budget, would expire.

Kotek could then call a special session to deal with the budget.

Asked about a special session, Rayfield said he hoped the regular session would resume. But added “we have a duty to govern.”

“You have to acknowledge the fact that if the Senate Republicans don’t come back, we still have to pass a budget.”