Oregon Senators staged a walkout of the state Capitol on Wednesday, with 10 Republicans and one independent absent, according to the office of Oregon Senate President Rob Wagner.
The senators walked out of the chamber as two bills, one about healthcare for transgender people and another issuing wide-ranging restrictions on guns, were scheduled to hit the floor.
OREGON HOUSE PASSES WIDE-RANGING GUN CONTROL BILL
Senate Republicans said the bills were not written in plain language, citing a state law from 1979 that requires legislation to be above a 60 on the Flesch readability test, which indicates around an eighth- or ninth-grade reading level.
GOP Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp told the Washington Examiner that a large number of legislation fails this test, making the Democratic bills “unlawful and unconstitutional and the most extreme in the country.” Knopp said that out of all the bills introduced, only one qualified.
Among the bills that Republicans deemed unfit is House Bill 2002, which offers more coverage for gender care and allows minors to get an abortion without notifying parents under Medicaid and private insurers. The bill would prohibit lawmakers from participating in an interstate investigation involving reproductive health and gender care treatment and bars subpoenas related to the matter on the individual seeking medical care. Democrats passed the bill in the House late Monday, by a vote of 36-23.
Knopp noted that the major problem Republicans have with House Bill 2002 is that it's "unconstitutional to violate parental rights," referring to the expansion of rights given to minors.
Knopp said that while the Democrats are claiming they ran on the stance of being supportive of abortion rights, this bill doesn't match their rhetoric.
“It's a complete and bold-faced lie because nobody ran a campaign that said, ‘Elect us, we support abortion through all nine months of pregnancy for any reason whatsoever for a girl of any age without parental knowledge.' Not consent, just knowledge, with infanticide, you know, when the baby is born.”
Oregon is the one state in the country with zero abortion restrictions, and Knopp claims the Democrats are trying to expand on that.
The other bill the Republicans are opposing is House Bill 2005, dubbed the gun violence prevention bill, which increases the age to purchase types of rifles and other guns to 21.
Oregon Republicans both in the House and Senate have a record of Capitol walkouts over various Democrat-backed legislation.
In May 2019, Oregon Senate Republicans protested a tax plan aimed at funding state schools, claiming the $1 billion proposed additional funding from the Democrats would raise costs without fixing the education system. Republicans believed the walkout “is the only tool we have to draw attention to the injustices of this legislation on Oregon voters and businesses,” Senate Minority Leader Herman Baertchiger said.
House Bill 3427 was eventually passed in exchange for Democrats tabling two other bills Republicans opposed, relating to gun restrictions and non-exempt vaccine restrictions.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Senate Republicans staged a walkout in February 2020, with House Republicans following a few days later, to prevent a vote on a climate change bill. Senate Bill 1530 was targeted at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and Republicans opposed the legislation due to concerns over negative effects on businesses and the economy. The Republicans refused to come to the floor for several days, eventually forcing the Democrats to table the bill.
Oregon is one of the few states that hold a high quorum requirement, empowering the minority party, declaring two-thirds of all lawmakers in each chamber must be present to conduct business, an atypical rule that is similarly followed by Texas, Indiana, and Tennessee.
“Senate Republicans have said you have to follow the rules — Senate rules,” Knopp said. “You have to follow our laws here in Oregon, and you have to abide by the constitution. Neither of which they [Democrats] want to do. They just say, 'We have the votes. So we're going to just move forward anyway.'"