Oregon Senate Republicans boycott floor session in protest of coronavirus restrictions

Senate Republicans refused to show up for the Oregon Senate's scheduled floor session Thursday morning in protest of coronavirus shutdowns and slow vaccination rollout to seniors.

It is the fourth time Senate Republicans have denied a quorum over the past three legislative sessions, a move Democrats have called undemocratic.

Two-thirds of the Senate's 30 members must be present for the upper chamber to do any business, including passing bills. Democrats are in a supermajority with 18 members, but unless two Republicans are also in the chamber the floor session cannot begin.

Previous walkouts have been used to kill greenhouse gas emissions cap-and-trade bills and in protest of a multibillion-dollar K-12 education funding package.

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The 11 Senate Republicans sent a letter to Gov. Kate Brown announcing their intentions to deny quorum, saying they had not received enough attention regarding their expressed concerns about kids not being in school and seniors not receiving vaccines.

"In this show of solidarity with Oregonians who are being failed by the current direction of your policies, we hope this action conveys the importance of these issues," the letter read, in part.

On Wednesday, Brown toured Salem's Kalapuya Elementary School and encouraged parents to send their kids back to the classroom. Salem-Keizer Public Schools will begin incrementally bringing kids back to school by grade starting March 2. 

Brown last year shut down in-person schooling and instituted policies that prevented schools from reopening based on COVID-19 case metrics. In December, she announced that starting Jan. 1 it would be optional for schools to base their decision to reopen on those metrics.

Districts that started in-person learning before meeting county-recommended metrics were required to take additional steps, such as providing on-site COVID-19 testing.

She was among only a handful of governors that pushed teachers toward the top of the line to access vaccines, ahead of older residents. 

Oregon has the third-to-worst senior vaccination rate in the country, Republicans wrote in their letter. The Oregonian first reported that statistic.

Adults age 80 and older were allowed to start getting shots Feb. 8, with younger adults added each week after that. Currently, adults age 70 and older qualify. Adults 65 and older will be eligible starting March 1. 

"Gov. Brown is using all available tools and resources to respond to the crises facing Oregonians. This includes addressing the health and economic needs of Oregon families as a result of the pandemic, as well as using all available resources to safely return Oregon students to the classroom," said Charles Boyle, Brown's deputy communications director. 

Boyle added that the governor expects all elected officials to show up for work every day.

Back to school:Gov. Kate Brown says Salem-Keizer 'followed every single protocol' to ensure safe re-entry

Dru Draper, communications director for the Senate Republican Caucus, said the denial of quorum is not planned to be a multi-day affair like previous walkouts, but the decision on future floor sessions has not been made either way.

"As of right now, it's just today," he said. "We're going to do whatever we have to to make sure that we're standing up for seniors not getting vaccinated, kids not in schools and people who are out of work."

Draper said Republicans have been harping on these issues for weeks, receiving little acknowledgment from the Governor's Office or their Democratic colleagues. The frustration has been building for some time, but he couldn't say exactly when the decision was made to deny quorum in protest.

After denying quorum, the Senate Republican office published a list of "demands" calling on Democratic leaders to refocus the legislative session on responding to the pandemic with more urgency.

They want schools reopened immediately, seniors to be prioritized in vaccine distribution and Republican bills passed on the issue of economic relief.

Republicans will be releasing an education package Friday that would "give parents and kids control over their education and use budget authority to reopen schools."

During previous Republican walkouts, Democratic lawmakers described the action as undemocratic, denying the will of the majority of Oregonians who voted for the current make-up of the Legislature.

In November, voters re-elected Democrats to supermajorities in both the House and Senate and gave Democrats all of the statewide offices on the ballot.

“Senate Republicans continue to sabotage Oregon’s democracy and undermine the will of voters. They have abdicated the oaths of office many of them took just weeks ago," Senate Democratic Leader Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, said in a statement.

Draper said the American political system has long protected the rights of the minority and that Democrats not acting on the issues they raised was an abuse of their power.

"Just because you have the numbers doesn't mean you can abuse your power. Doesn't mean you should abuse your power," he said.

How to sign up:Oregon seniors can get alerts on when, where they can receive the COVID-19 vaccine

During the attempted floor session, Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, asked Republicans to come to future floor sessions so the body could do the "people's business."

There were five bills scheduled to be moved forward so they could be voted on next week.

"They did not inform me they were going to do this. Yes, there are hard feelings here and there, but nothing of this magnitude," Courtney said. "They need to be here and do what they need to do to show their opposition on the floor and allow us to move forward."

Staff in the Senate Republican office and the Senate President's office were not speaking in the aftermath of the Republican's quorum denial, but resumed communication in the early afternoon.

Reporter Connor Radnovich covers the Oregon Legislature and state government. Contact him at cradnovich@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6864, or follow him on Twitter at @CDRadnovich.

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