OREGON
A8 — THE OBSERVER
THuRSday, FEBRuaRy 17, 2022
Republicans face uphill battle in session
Oregon GOP legislators
serving large portions of
Oregon have tough time
advancing their agenda
Knopp
By JULIA SHUMWAY
and ALEX BAUMHARDT
Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — Two weeks into
Oregon’s legislative session, Dem-
ocrats are moving forward with
plans to pay overtime to farm-
workers, create job training pro-
grams targeted at people of color
and protect school officials from
being fired for following govern-
ment mandates.
If Republicans instead con-
trolled the Legislature, the past
two weeks would instead have
been dominated by talk of tax
cuts, clipping Gov. Kate Brown’s
power and giving parents more
control over which school their
children attend and what they
learn.
Republicans have made the
case that they represent large
swaths of Oregon, and the
inability to advance some leg-
islation means people in those
areas can be left out of legislative
action. They remain a minority
in the Legislature — and in voter
registrations. Despite that, Repub-
licans each session introduce leg-
islation representing often rural
and more conservative interests.
They hold 23 seats in the
60-person House and 11 in the
30-person Senate. They chair no
committees but do serve as vice
chairs of most.
“I think you’d see school
choice options,” said Sen. Tim
Knopp, R-Bend and leader of
the Senate GOP caucus. “I think
you’d see our interest in making
sure that schools stay open. I
think you would see support for
law enforcement as opposed to the
soft-on-crime agenda that Gov-
ernor Brown and the Democrats
are pursuing.”
Most proposals that make it out
of the Legislature are bipartisan,
noncontroversial and relatively
boring. So far this year, the House
and Senate have voted to confirm
amanda Loman/Oregon Capital Chronicle, File
A sign for the House Republican caucus room at the Oregon State Capitol on
Monday, Sept. 20, 2021, gives instructions in this file photo.
that the state follows the same
definition of “taxable income”
as the federal government and
extend a deadline for a report on
the effect local government fees
have on housing costs.
Shorter legislative sessions in
even-numbered years also mean
less debates over policy, because
legislators have just 35 days in
Salem. Many proposals that
legislators and lobbyists spent
months or years working died
Monday because they hadn’t been
advancing at a pace to meet legis-
lative deadlines.
That includes nearly all of the
nine bills Senate Republicans
listed as their top legislative prior-
ities, though Knopp said he isn’t
worried. Republicans can still
have their concerns addressed in
the budget process, which isn’t
subject to Monday’s deadline.
“Most of our agenda is the
budget items that are important
to our constituents and our com-
munities,” Knopp said. “And
so whether that’s law enforce-
ment dollars or that’s dollars to
thin (forests), that can all be done
through the ways and means pro-
cess, so, we’re not concerned at
this point.”
And, he added, there are still
ways to bring other proposals to
the full Senate. Republicans can
use procedural moves to force
senators to vote on bringing their
legislation up for debate. It rarely
works, but it can bring attention to
a proposal and create a campaign
talking point.
GOP still has recourse
Senate Republicans are seeking
$60 million for Oregon State
Police to investigate illegal mar-
ijuana farms and $50 million to
pay for forest thinning. Knopp
said he’s hopeful after Republicans
succeeded in securing millions
for drought relief and marijauna
enforcement during a one-day spe-
cial session in December, but he
expects negotiations over the $1.5
billion the Legislature has to spend
to continue for another two weeks.
If all else fails, he said, Repub-
licans still have recourse — they
can walk out, as they have at var-
ious points in each of the past three
years, and bring the legislative ses-
sion to a temporary or permanent
halt.
“I’ve been very clear with the
Democrat majority that our goal
is to make sure that all Oregon
voices are heard, and respected
and included,” Knopp said. “And
if they’re not, I feel no constitu-
tional obligations to stand around
and allow Democrats to pass their
liberal progressive agenda that our
constituents don’t want.”
House Republican leader Vikki
Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, has
said her caucus will focus on bud-
getary issues and fixing existing
laws, but has remained vague on
what legislation party represen-
tatives hope to pass. She did not
answer multiple calls or emails
from the Capital Chronicle.
House GOP spokesperson
Andrew Fromm referred to a brief
statement Breese-Iverson issued on
Owens
Findley
Feb. 1, in which she wrote that her
caucus would focus on “restoring
education standards, holding state
government accountable and
enabling our law enforcement to
do its job.
“We will push to remove road-
blocks to health care access and
preserve Oregon’s natural envi-
ronment while protecting the way
of life of communities relying on
these resources,” it continued. “We
will give Oregonians the freedom
to recover financially from gov-
ernment-mandated shutdowns by
fighting the state’s regulatory bur-
dens and mandates.”
Her office didn’t answer
whether legislation was introduced
to accomplish those goals.
Top-down approach
So far, House Republicans
have maintained a united front
against a plan to require farms to
pay employees time-and-a-half
after more than 40 hours of work
in a week. Each day, at least one
House Republican has spoken on
the floor of the House about their
belief that House Bill 4002 would
create too great a financial burden
on farmers and drive some out of
business.
House Republicans have also
insisted on reading many pieces of
legislation aloud in their entirety,
creating lengthy delays as a com-
puter reads to a mostly empty
chamber.
Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, is
a farmer and represents a heavily
agricultural area that includes
Baker, Grant, Harney and Malheur
counties. Along with opposing the
agricultural overtime proposal,
he’s pushing a $1 million increase
for a state fund that reimburses
farmers and ranchers for livestock
lost to wolves. His House Bill 4127
received a public hearing, and the
money could be added to the state
budget.
Owens, who also serves on
the Crane School Board, said he’s
scrutinizing education
measures, including
one that would direct
the state Educa-
tion Department to
mandate and pro-
vide training for new
Breese-
school board mem-
Iverson
bers. He said school
board members need to under-
stand public meetings laws and
their responsibilities, but the
state shouldn’t prescribe specific
training.
“The bill as written is not palat-
able for myself or for my commu-
nities,” Owens said. “Once again,
it looks like a top-down approach,
in order to mandate what type
of educational requirements are
needed. I support school boards
getting mandatory training, but
allow them to have a choice in
how that training is going to
occur.”
Short on timeSen. Lynn
Findley, R-Vale, initially pro-
posed a broader exemption that
would also apply to diapers, baby
formula and feminine hygiene
products. He narrowed the focus
to only prescription drugs after
learning that it would take a lot
of work to identify every eli-
gible item, but he said he hopes to
return in 2023 with more exemp-
tions for personal care products.
Findley said Democrats in the
House and the Senate were skep-
tical of the impact his proposal
could have on funding for educa-
tion, but he remains hopeful that
they’ll adopt his proposal. Tax
measures aren’t subject to the same
deadline as other bills, and Find-
ley’s was among the few Repub-
lican bills that received a hearing.
It’s harder to pass legislation
from the minority party, he said,
but he’s managed to do so each
year. Findley said he doesn’t waste
time thinking about what he would
do if Republicans controlled the
Legislature, but instead looks for
good ideas and people who will
work with him.
“It’s a waste of time to just sit
around and daydream,” he said.
“I don’t do that. If there’s a good
piece of legislation, I’m gonna
make a hard effort to try to pass it,
and sometimes you make it and
sometimes you don’t.”
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