Republicans in the Oregon Legislature continued their boycott over a climate change bill on Monday, marking the sixth day in the Senate and the fifth day in the House.

And unlike last year, Democrats will not forge a private deal with Republicans to lure them back to Salem and end the session with a flood of votes to get key business done, the top officers of the House and Senate warned.

With the Legislature required to adjourn by midnight Sunday, there are just six full days left before the 35-day short session must end, even if there is a complete lack of action by then.

Democrats’ top priority this session is a market-based plan to cap and attach a price to greenhouse gas emissions. Most GOP lawmakers walked out last week in an effort to kill the bill or force Democrats to refer it to voters. Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. has said he believes that putting the measure before voters would also effectively kill it.

Two Republicans, Rep. Cheri Helt and Sen. Tim Knopp, both from Democratic leaning swing districts in Bend, have continued to show up for floor sessions each morning. But Democrats need a two-thirds quorum to read and vote on bills under the state Constitution, which would require two Republicans to be present in each chamber. That leaves Democrats unable to wield the supermajorities they won in 2018 to pass their top priorities.

House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, said during the House floor session Monday morning the number of bills waiting to receive a vote continues to grow.

“Most of these bills came to the House floor with unanimous support or near unanimous support,” Kotek said, citing examples including legislation to allow college athletes to sign endorsement deals, set aside space at the Capitol State Park for a Vietnam War memorial and fund a state study forecasting the demand and supply for behavioral health professionals such as therapists. "The list of bills continues to stand in limbo,” Kotek said.

The walkout has also held up as much as $490 million in spending on priorities such as wildfire fighting and foster care which lawmakers were considering approving this session.

“At this point in time, we have not been given any indication that they will be coming, that the Republicans will be coming to the floor except for one that we have," Senate President Pro Tempore Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, said before adjourning. To Knopp, she said, "Thank you for showing.”

There has been no indication Republicans or Democrats are willing to budge from their respective positions. In a joint statement Monday morning, Kotek and Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said “All of the bills and budgets that have moved through the legislative process this year deserve a floor vote."

Kotek and Courtney effectively ruled out any deal like the one Gov. Kate Brown, also a Democrat, struck last year with Senate Republicans during their first walkout over a business tax to fund public education. Republicans had a long list of bills they wanted to kill, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported at the time, and Brown agreed to nix gun control and vaccine bills in order to bring Republicans back to the Capitol to vote on the tax plan.

“We will not be part of closed-door negotiations or last-minute deals," Kotek and Courtney said in the statement. “We will not pick and choose which bills will live and which bills will die. The only job required of a legislator as specified by the Oregon Constitution, and thus captured by our oath of office, is to vote on legislation. Once again, we urge the absent Republicans to return to the Capitol and make their voices heard by voting, rather than continuing this government shutdown.”

Senate Republicans’ second walkout last year, to stop an earlier version of the cap-and-trade plan, ended when Courtney conceded his caucus was short of the votes necessary to pass it. That’s not the case this year, Courtney has said.

House Democrats last week issued subpoenas for their absent Republican counterparts to return to the Capitol and testify Thursday on the reasons behind their boycott. The governor has dangled the idea that she might call lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special session if the regular session ends with Republicans continuing to deny quorum. A political action committee associated with the public employee union backed nonprofit Our Oregon is paying for an ad campaign calling for “no more costly walkouts.”

Baertschiger, the Senate Republican leader, reiterated on Twitter Monday that “Cap & trade needs to be referred to voters. Let the people decide!”

House Republican Leader Christine Drazan, of Canby, issued a statement in response to Kotek and Courtney’s comments Monday afternoon. “Oregonians should be disappointed that Democrats have apparently thrown in the towel and refuse to participate in good faith conversations moving forward," Drazan said. “We are not asking for secret negotiations or last-minute deals. We have repeatedly and publicly asked the majority party to allow the people of Oregon to vote on the cap-and-trade bill and to limit the scope of bills to those consistent with the intent of voter approved short sessions.”

— Hillary Borrud | hborrud@oregonian.com | 503-294-4034 | @hborrud

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