Well, today Republicans in the Oregon
■
Senate continued their walkout,
now in its sixth day.
Legally, the Senate there cannot
conduct any business because thy
don't have enough senators and y
don't have what's called a quor.
So as the House continues to work on bills,
the Senate is stalled,
stop dead in its tracks.
Senate President Rob Wagner
held sessions over the weekend,
but to no avail,
although it did mean that
some Senate Republicans racked
up more unexcused absences,
putting them closer to that
magic number of 10.
By my count,
several Republican senators have
five or more unexcused absences.
If a lawmaker has 10 or more thn
in a single session, they're no.
They are disqualified from
running for reelection following
the end of their current term,
so it's kind of a big deal.
That's thanks to Measure 113,
which voters in Oregon passed by
a big margin back in November.
Now,
there's been talk recently among
some Republican leaders that soe
members may actually hit that
10 absence in order to test the
constitutionality of Measure 11,
but we'll have to wait and see on that one.
That brings us, though,
to the reason for the walkout
in the first place.
Democrats continue to say it's l
because the GOP does not want a
number of bills to go through tt
have already passed the House.
And because Democrats have the
majority in the Senate,
the GOP really has no way to stp
those bills unless they don't
show up for work.
So that is what they're doing.
But the Republicans spent much
of last week insisting that it
had really nothing to do with
the bills themselves.
They argue instead it's about
Senate rules and the state law
that require bill summaries to
be written in a way that any
8th grader could understand.
Which in theory,
is not a bad hill to stand on,
except for the fact that the bis
the Republicans are also pushing
do not follow that law either.
Which brings us to this exchange
from Friday between KG W's Tim
Gordon and Deputy Republican Ler
Lynn Findley of Eastern Oregon.
People are saying, look,
they're bringing this up,
right when they don't want
to deal with these bills.
That's absolutely perception.
But it's not the case, you know?
Absolutely. The case is let's
comply with the darn law. All r,
so let's comply with the darn l,
shall we? Senator Finley,
here's what state law says ORS
171.134 passed back in 1979.
The title is Readability Test fr
Legislative Digest and Summarie.
Any measure digest or measure summary
prepared by the Legislative Assy
shall be written in a manner tht
results in a score of at least n
the flesh readability test or meets an
equivalent standard of a comparable test.
Senator Lynn Finley is a chief sponsor of
nearly 100 bills in the Oregon legislature.
This session we randomly chose five of
them on various topics to see ie
bill summary passes the law thae
Senator is so adamant that others follow.
Let's start with Senate Bill 45,
which would create a task force
for Tax Competitiveness.
We copy the bill summary listedn
the Legislature's website and plug it
into a flesh readability calcul.
Remember, the law says it has to score
60 or above, and this one scored 27.5.
Fail. Absolutely.
The case is let's comply
with the darn law. Well, how
about Senate Bill 57?
That's an agricultural bill
concerning the sale of female
cattle that don't have a certai.
Vaccination. Grab the summary.
Throw it in the calculator 31.2. Fail.
Absolutely. The case is let's
comply with the darn law. How
about Senate Bill 127,
which concerns the corporate activity tax?
Plug the summary into the flesh.
Calculator 43.7.
Well, it's closer, but it's still a fail.
Let's comply with the darn law.
Perhaps a bill that began over on the House
side would fare better for the Senator,
where he is one of the
chief sponsors for HB2417.
This one is about disorderly
conduct involving a family memb.
Plug in the summary, 37.
Well, that's still not quite 60.
Another fail.
That's absolute perception.
But
it's not the case, you know?
Absolutely. The case is,
let's comply with the darn law.
And finally, how about House Bill 3068?
This one has to do with high school diplomas.
The summary goes into the calcur
and this one scored a 14 at last check.
That's less than 60.
Let's comply with the darn law.l
right, listen, remember,
we're not on anybody's team,
but come on, man.
By the way, we emailed Senator
Finley's office today asking foa
statement about many of his bil.
Failing that readability test,
the policy analyst responded to
us and said the senator is out
of the office and unavailable.
And pointed us to the communicas
director for the Senate Republi.
But you get the point making
this about readability law.
It's nonsense.
And because that argument
is so easily exposed,
it does appear that the Senate
Minority Leader, Tim Kanoke,
might be starting to change the narrative.
An article by Julia Shumway in the Oregon
Capital Chronicle says that durg
a phone call with Kanope yester.
He said the Republicans are
protesting around 20 different
bills that they call hyper part,
including the measures on abort,
transgender healthcare and guns.
Kanope told Shumway If Democratt
those bills to the side and have
bill summaries fixed on other b,
Republicans will come back.
I would venture to guess there's about
0% chance of the Democrats doing that.
So for now we'll remain in the
legislative standoff in the Sen.
And if you've lived in Oregon fa
few years, you may be thinking, Oh my,
this walkout business is famili.
And that's because yes, it is.
Republicans did the same thing
in 2019 and 2020 over carbon cap
and trade legislation.
In those years,
Democrats did end up setting the bills
aside in order to get the GOP back to Salem,
although Governor Kate Brown lar
used her executive powers to
institute cap and trade anyway.
And this year's session also hae
massive piece of unfinished business.
It's the budget,
so it's really a question of
who's going to give first.
Democrats have the high ground.
They're urging Republicans just come on,
get back to work.
But the GOP is in desperation m,
doing perhaps the only thing tht
they can to stop the bills thaty
do fundamentally disagree with.
So which side makes concessions?
This year's session lasts until June 25th,
and the clock is ticking.