Republicans require full reading of bills to slow Oregon legislature

Lawmaking in the Oregon Legislature begins and ends with the rap of a gavel.

Rap — a bill is called to the floor of the Oregon Senate or House, debated and voted upon. Rap — and then it's on to the next bill.

The whole process can take a matter of minutes. Yet in the first week of the 2016 legislative session, Republicans were dragging out the process, hoping to delay or even derail some legislation.

The Oregon Constitution requires bills to be read aloud in full before they're voted on. But lawmakers can suspend that part of the constitution by a two-thirds vote, a vote legislators normally take to save time. But Republicans are now demanding bills be read aloud in their entirety. Some bills are dozens of pages.

In response, House Democrats are considering employing a computer to speed-read the bills, its high-pitched tone is dubbed the "chipmunk voice" by legislative staff. In the Senate, Chief Reading Clerk James Goulding will speed read the bills.

"I'm used to reading in a sprint," said Goulding, who usually only reads the one paragraph title of each bill. "This is like reading in a marathon."

Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli said Friday that demanding bills be read aloud is a form of obstructionism, though he prefers the term "creative dissent." But, he added, if obstructionism benefits the people of Oregon it's the right thing to do.

"The best thing for us to do in a short session is play out the clock," he said.

Ferrioli and other Republicans are unhappy that Democrats have brought major issues such as minimum wage, affordable housing, climate change and firearms to the 35-day legislative session. Ferrioli and Minority Leader MIke McLane said short sessions are for dealing with the budget and state emergencies.

McLane said the procedural slow-down is in part a response to what he called an "extremely aggressive agenda" pursued by House Democrats.

"This session has become a platform for the abuse of power and, frankly, I think more and more people are getting appalled at it," McLane told reporters before the session began.

Gov. Kate Brown said she has met with presiding officers and caucus leaders to try and smooth things over.

"I think in every legislative session there are times of Kumbaya moments and there are times of what I would consider productive tension," she said.

Democrats and Republicans have noted that bipartisanship on big issues like minimum wage is unlikely this session. But as long as Democrats maintain their majority, those controversial bills will likely still become law, according to Jim Moore.

"This is just the fun and games of the Capitol," said Moore, a professor of political science at Pacific University.

The Legislature didn't always have 35-day sessions. Until 2010, it met every other year. Then Oregonians adopted Measure 71, which required annual sessions. Mark Henkels, professor of political science at Western Oregon University, said having short sessions is a political experiment.

"I think it's pretty striking how Democrats are taking this full throttle," he said. "I think if you’re from rural Oregon or from a truly Republican district you might see delay as a good idea."

Moore said the economy played a role in forming short session politics. During the recession, state houses across the nation were forced to deal with the downturn, short session or not.

"We have an obligation to take on the tough issues our state is facing," House Speaker Tina Kotek said in an email Friday. Kotek has advised House members to be ready for evening and weekend sessions to vote on bills, regardless of how long it takes to read them.

This isn't the first time legislators have resorted to slowing down the lawmaking process. In the 2000s, some lawmakers absconded from voting duties, called "denying quorum." Myths have it that lawmakers hid in the rotunda dome to avoid voting.

What is fact, is that to compel lawmakers to vote, the Senate President used another procedural tool in the arsenal. They requested the governor order state troopers arrest the truant lawmakers and present them to the Senate.

Procedural tactics aren't unique to the Oregon Legislature, or even American statehouses. Moore said Japanese legislators delay votes by slowly walking to the ballot box, a tactic called the "cow walk." In fact, obstructionism is often euphemistically called "slow walking" in Congress.

Moore said that in Japan, controversial legislation made more contentious by the cow walk has angered lawmakers to the point of fisticuffs.

Ferrioli joked Friday that American politicians usually retain civility — it's been almost 160 years since Sen. Charles Sumner was nearly caned to death by rivals in Congress.

"It's combat," Ferrioli said of politics. "It's the clash of closely held values, and it's the procedural stuff that keeps us from beating each other up, literally."

gfriedman2@statsmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6653, on Twitter @gordonrfriedman or Facebook.com/gordonrfriedman