Reading gives pleasure to many people, but the forced reading of every bill that comes to the House floor is a source of frustration for Speaker Tina Kotek, who responded by scheduling 19 hours of floor sessions this week. However, after an unidentified person who had interacted on the House floor tested positive for COVID-19, all House floor sessions the remainder of this week were canceled.
House Republicans are employing the tactic to slow down floor votes to force majority Democrats to compromise. The Oregon Constitution requires all bills be read in full when they reach the House and Senate floors. However, that requirement is customarily bypassed by bipartisan agreement to read just a bill’s summary.
This issue came to a head this week when Speaker Kotek called Republican and Democratic leaders into her chambers to discuss the reading of HB 2111, a 170-page bill renaming the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. A full reading of this concept would have taken hours, but despite efforts to compromise, the motion to suspend the reading requirement rules failed. If the tactic continues, legislative leaders may start viewing other lengthy bills as detrimental to the process.
The 2021 legislative session, which is being conducted virtually except for in-person floor votes, has had a rocky start, beginning with a delayed start in January due to a continuing high incidence of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state. Legislative work on redistricting congressional and legislative lines has been held up because of delayed US Census data, which led to legislative leaders petitioning the Oregon Supreme Court for more time to complete the task that has a constitutional deadline of July 1.
Democrats hold supermajorities in the House and Senate, which enable them to pass measures, including revenue bills, without any Republican votes. House Republican Leader Christine Drazan has tried to create political traction by bogging down House floor action by refusing to waive full reading of each bill coming to the House floor.
In a letter responding to Kotek this week, Drazan wrote, “As long as the building is closed to the public and deeply controversial legislation continues to be fast-tracked in committees, we will continue to depend on the Constitution to remind the supermajority we should not operate like it’s business as usual while the public is shut out.” Kotek, who refers to the bill-reading slowdown as a “pseudo-walkout”, admits her frustration with a tactic she worries will become normalized, hamstringing the majority.
Democrats hold supermajorities in the House and Senate, which enable them to pass measures, including revenue bills, without any Republican votes. House Republican Leader Christine Drazan has tried to create political traction by bogging down House floor action by refusing to waive full reading of each bill coming to the House floor.
Drazan’s proposed resolving the standoff by only bringing bills to the House floor with bipartisan support, avoiding lengthy floor sessions and granting opponents more committee time to testify. She also said in her letter to Kotek, “It is not a time for deeply divisive, partisan legislation while the public is locked out of the building”.
Some Democrats share Drazan’s concern for lengthy floor sessions, citing the public health risk of extended exposure in an enclosed space. Rep. Maxine Dexter, a Portland Democrat and a doctor, expressed concern about a potential fourth surge in virus transmission and called lengthy floor sessions simply to read bills in their entirety as “reckless”.
Some lawmakers, including ones with underlying health issues, aren’t eligible under Oregon Health Authority guidelines to receive the coronavirus vaccine. Bipartisan fretting over COVID-19 exposure was amplified after the Idaho legislature closed down for two weeks because of an outbreak of COVID-19 cases.
Here’s how OPB Capitol reporters Dirk VanderHart and Lauren Dake reported the response to Kotek’s proposal when the House convened on Monday:
“A further sign no deal had been reached came Monday morning, as the House reading clerk, Lacy Ramirez Gruss, once again began the laborious process of reading bills aloud line by line prior to a final vote. At one point, Kotek attempted to ease some of Ramirez Gruss’ burden, asking House member assent to kill a 170-page bill that would change the name of a state agency, but potentially require more than eight hours to read in full. The motion required 40 votes to pass. It failed in a party-line vote.”
