Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the Oregon House reached a deal late Wednesday that will significantly speed up the pace of the 2021 legislative session. The agreement also means Republicans will have more to say about how the state’s political boundaries will look for the next decade.
In recent weeks, Democrats had been openly frustrated with the GOP insistence that most bills be read aloud in their entirety before receiving a vote. Reading a single bill took hours and even entire days in some cases, and the backlog of bills awaiting a vote had reached more than 60.
The requirement to read bills aloud on the House floor is part of the Oregon Constitution, but that provision can be waived with a vote of at least two-thirds of the lawmakers. In the past, lawmakers from both parties routinely voted to speed up sessions in this way. But in recent sessions, Republicans, who serve in the minority, have been more selective about agreeing to it.
House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, had scheduled all-day floor sessions over the coming week to tackle the backlog. But on Wednesday evening, more than an hour after the House was due to reconvene, lawmakers emerged with a deal.
House Republicans made an unexpected motion to waive the read aloud requirement for the remainder of the 2021 session. It was quickly approved on a voice vote.
Next, Kotek made an announcement: Republicans would be granted an additional seat on the House’s committee on redistricting, giving them an equal number of members as Democrats. Additionally, one of the Republicans on the committee would be elevated to co-chair status.
That effectively gives the Republicans veto power over any redistricting plan, since approval by a greater than 50% majority of a committee is required for the proposal to reach the full House for a vote.
It was not immediately clear Thursday whether Senate Democrats would give Republicans in their chamber similar status on the counterpart committee.
While the GOP will have more say in how legislative districts will be carved up, if a majority of lawmakers in both chambers don’t agree on a plan, it would fall to Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, a Democrat, to create the maps.
While Oregon lawmakers in the past have frequently come to a stalemate on redistricting, in 2011, when the House was evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, lawmakers approved a plan on a bipartisan basis.
“The delay tactics employed this session were preventing the legislature from doing the people’s work,” said Kotek’s chief of staff, Lindsey O’Brien. “Now that there is a break in the logjam, the Speaker is focused on passing policies and budgets that will combat the pandemic, advance racial justice and equity, support workers, address Oregon’s housing crisis, and create clean energy opportunities.”
The redistricting changes appear to be the only concession from Democrats.
But there is another potential win for Republicans of allowing business to continue: the top Democrats in the House and Senate asked lawmakers to submit their ideas on how to spend $780 million in federal funds that are coming to Oregon as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. The pitch for ideas could result in a budget bill stuffed with cash to pay for pet projects in lawmakers’ home districts.
With more than two months left in the legislative session, Republicans and Democrats have plenty of other priorities that will undoubtedly continue to be negotiated and could impact the pace of business. A gun storage proposal supported by Democrats and opposed by Republicans, for instance, is among the potential high-profile points of contention, and the House delayed a vote on it on April 12, so it’s currently scheduled for a vote Monday.
On the topic of redistricting, House Republicans have introduced a proposal to refer a proposal to voters that would hand the job of redistricting to an independent commission.
It resembles a planned 2020 initiative that fell short of signatures necessary to qualify it for the ballot last summer after the pandemic undercut signature-gathering. Majority Democrats have ensured House Joint Resolution 7, sponsored by seven Republicans, stayed alive past critical bill deadlines, so it’s possible Republicans could push Democrats to pass the proposal. Nationally, Democrats have supported similar redistricting commission systems, particularly in states with Republican-controlled legislatures. California also adopted the model.
Republicans and Democrats both have a clearer view of what they will be working on for the remainder of the legislative session, after many bills died earlier this week after failing to receive a committee vote by a key deadline.
Reporter Hillary Borrud contributed to this report.
Chris Lehman clehman@oregonian.com
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