SALEM — Democratic leaders in the Oregon Legislature brought the session to an abrupt and early close Thursday afternoon, after they were unable to resolve an impasse with minority Republicans over a controversial climate change bill.

“This is a failed short session,” Senate President Peter Courtney said before he gaveled out. "I can’t rely on human nature anymore.”

Nearly all Republicans in both chambers had been absent for more than a week, in a successful effort to kill the greenhouse gas cap-and-trade bill that was Democrats’ top priority for the 35-day session. Republicans also repeatedly objected to voting on any bills other than budget adjustments and tiny policy tweaks, saying that was all voters intended when they approved annual legislative sessions.

With the session set to expire automatically at midnight Sunday under the state Constitution, Democrats rejected Republican offers to return to the Capitol in exchange for Democrats killing cap-and-trade or referring it to voters. Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. has said he believes referring the climate change plan to voters would spell its end.

In comments from the House dais, Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, said it was clear the 21 absent Republicans in that chamber were not going to return in time to finish work this session.

“As Americans, as Oregonians, big questions are looming: Can our Democracy keep the people’s faith?” Kotek said. “Can elected leaders respect their oaths of office and the rule of law that allows us to get things done? I am so deeply disappointed today.”

She said that on Monday, she and Courtney will convene the Legislative Emergency Board, which has about $75 million in reserves it can allocate. “We intend to approve an emergency funding package for coronavirus response and flood disaster relief for the Umatilla Basin in Northeast Oregon,” she said. “Thankfully, the Emergency Board will be able to allocate funds with or without Republicans. Just as we have done for the last eight days, we will continue to do our jobs and do our best for the people of this state.”

But it would take a special session to pass any additional bills or to authorize spending of the magnitude lawmakers in both parties had contemplated for homelessness relief, wildfire prevention, foster care, mental health and other high-priority needs.

Gov. Kate Brown said in a statement that she is “open to calling a special session if we can ensure it will benefit Oregonians. However, until legislative leaders bring me a plan for a functioning session, I’m not going to waste taxpayer dollars on calling them back to the state Capitol.”

In a video conference call with reporters from an undisclosed location Thursday, the Senate Republican leader, Baertschiger, assailed Democrats for voting down Republicans’ proposed amendments to cap-and-trade. He accused Democrats of having “switched into campaign mode” by teeing the bill up for a vote midway through the session and predicted the party and its supporters will run ads against Republicans for killing bills that would have helped foster kids and people with mental illnesses.

At the same time, Baertschiger sounded deeply conflicted as he echoed some of the concerns Democratic leaders raised about using walkouts as a negotiating tactic, saying, "it scares me to death.” Lawmakers typically oppose bills by voting “no,” offering amendments or negotiating deals to kill them in exchange for helping kill or pass other legislation. Baertschiger said he anticipates lobbyists will increasingly push lawmakers to take it a step further and flee the Capitol to kill bills.

“This is not a good way to run a state, I can tell you that right now,” Baertschiger said.

Kotek and Courtney said they will likely seek a multi-day special session, to begin no sooner than 30 days after this session ended. Legislation they would likely take up includes budget bills, particularly spending on homelessness services, and a bill to make it easier to site shelters. “That work begins tomorrow,” Kotek said of determining a special session agenda. Both of the leaders said they would discuss special session priorities with their Republican counterparts.

Courtney, who represents Salem, said he is also interested in a second special session, possibly in September, to change Oregon’s two-thirds quorum requirement which is shared by only three other states in the nation. Since the provision is embedded in the state Constitution, lawmakers would have to refer any proposed change to voters.

Courtney said in remarks after both chambers had adjourned that he expects the Republican tactic will prompt Brown to do more via executive orders, including to enact provisions called for in the carbon cap-and-trade bill that died along with all other bills on Thursday.

Kotek seemed to agree. “We need climate action in 2020,” she said. "We are waiting to see the final executive order from the governor and that will determine where we go from there.”

Republicans offered in press releases sent out earlier Thursday to return to the Capitol on Sunday and pass budget bills. It was an idea Democrats had publicly rejected earlier in the week, saying they would not cut any deals and that all bills still alive at that point deserved to receive votes.

Democrats also increasingly voiced concerns at the prospect of repeating the bill passing marathon that occurred on the final weekend of the 2019 session, after Senate Republicans ended their second walkout of that session. “If you recall, there was no floor debate particularly on the Senate side and all those bills getting done,” Kotek said.

A backlog of bills also built up as House Republicans insisted that all legislation be read aloud in its entirety before votes could occur, including a bipartisan proposal to adopt protections of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act into Oregon law. It took three days of a House clerk reading the bill in blocks between other legislation, and a Republican boycott of an evening session scheduled to accommodate the bill reading, before it received a vote and passed.

Kotek said Thursday that since Republicans offered to return to the Capitol too late, “the blame is on them.” House Republican Leader Christine Drazan of Canby predicted voters will instead attribute the failure to Democrats. “The supermajority set the agenda for this session, they inexplicably refused to allow Oregonians to vote on cap-and-trade, and they own this failed outcome,” Drazan said in a statement.

Democrats said on Thursday that this Republican walkout, the third in 11 months in the state Senate, threatened to permanently undermine the functioning of the Oregon Legislature and giving in to the tactic would increase the likelihood that lawmakers from both parties would use it more frequently in the future.

Senate Democratic Leader Ginny Burdick of Portland called the Republicans’ boycott “absolutely revolting.”

Before the 2019 Senate Republican walkouts, the last lawmaker boycott to kill legislation was in 2001 when House Democrats — who at that time were in the minority — fled in order to stop a Republican redistricting plan. They returned after a week, after Senate Republicans offered a political compromise, and completed the work of the session.

Lane Shetterly, a former state representative, served as speaker pro tem of the House from 2001 to 2004 when Republicans held the majority. Shetterly, a lawyer who supports cap-and-trade, said Democrats were wrong to use quorum denial two decades ago and Republicans were wrong to use it in 2019 and 2020.

“If walkouts to deny a quorum are accepted, they will become expected,” Shetterly said during testimony before the House Rules Committee on Thursday. Lawmakers “will be under pressure more and more” to use them going forward, he said.

Baertschiger suggested Democrats are hypocritical for bad-mouthing Republicans, given that Democrats have walked out before. “We do it, we’re bad people,” Baertschiger said of boycotting the Capitol. "They do it, they’re heroes.”

In the end, Baertschiger said most Senate Republicans had no option but to walk out after Democrats reintroduced a new version of the cap-and-trade bill his caucus fled the state to kill in 2019, because Republican voters would be disappointed if they stayed at the Capitol. “We have no choice,” Baertschiger said he told Courtney before the walkout. “Our base is going to insist on it.”

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

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