A4 The BulleTin • Wednesday, June 23, 2021
GOP filibuster blocks Democrats’ voting rights bill
BY BRIAN SLODYSKO, CHRISTINA
A. CASSIDY AND LISA MASCARO
The Associated Press
The Democrats’ sweeping
attempt to rewrite U.S. election
and voting law suffered a ma-
jor setback Tuesday in the Sen-
ate, blocked by a filibuster wall
of Republican opposition to
what would be the largest over-
haul of the electoral system in a
generation.
The vote leaves the Dem-
ocrats with no clear path for-
ward, though President Joe
Biden declared, “This fight is
far from over.”
The bill, known as the For
the People Act, would touch on
virtually every aspect of how
elections are conducted, strik-
ing down hurdles to voting
that advocates view as the Civil
Rights fight of the era, while
also curbing the influence of
money in politics and limit-
ing partisan influence over the
drawing of congressional dis-
tricts.
But many in the GOP say
the measure represents instead
a breathtaking federal infringe-
ment on states’ authority to
conduct their own elections
without fraud — and is meant
to ultimately benefit Demo-
crats.
It failed on a 50-50 vote after
Republicans, some of whom
derided the bill as the “Screw
the People Act,” denied Demo-
crats the 60 votes needed to be-
gin debate under Senate rules.
The rejection forces Dem-
ocrats to reckon with what
comes next for their top leg-
islative priority in a narrowly
divided Senate. They’ve touted
the measure as a powerful
counterweight to scores of pro-
posals advancing in GOP-con-
trolled statehouses making it
more difficult to vote.
Whatever Democrats de-
cide, they will likely be con-
fronted with the same chal-
lenge they faced Tuesday when
minority Republicans used the
filibuster — the same tool that
Democrats employed during
Donald Trump’s presidency
— to block consideration of
the bill.
Republicans showed no sign
of yielding.
Republican leader Mitch
McConnell called the bill a
“solution looking for a prob-
lem” and vowed to “put an end
to it.” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz dis-
missed it as “partisan legisla-
tion, written by elected Demo-
crats, designed to keep elected
Democrats in office.”
Pressure has been mounting
on Democrats to change Sen-
ate rules or watch their priori-
ties languish. A group of mod-
erate Democratic senators,
however, including Sens. Joe
Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema,
have ruled that out, denying
the votes needed to make a fili-
buster change.
Biden has vowed what the
White House calls the “fight of
his presidency” over ensuring
Americans’ access to voting.
But without changes to Senate
rules, key planks of his agenda,
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., talks with reporters be-
fore a key test vote Tuesday on the For the People Act, a sweeping bill
that would overhaul the election system and voting rights.
including the voting bill, ap-
pear stalled.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, a
Georgia Democrat and senior
pastor at the Atlanta church
Martin Luther King Jr. once
led, called minority Republi-
cans’ willingness to prevent de-
bate on the voting bill a “dere-
liction” of duty.
“What could be more hypo-
critical and cynical than invok-
ing minority rights in the Sen-
ate as a pretext for preventing
debate about how to preserve
minority rights in the society,”
Warnock said during a floor
speech Tuesday.
OREGON
Brothers
Lawmakers pass amendment to ‘pause’ evictions
Continued from A1
BY SARA CLINE
The- Associated Press/Report for
America
With the state and federal
eviction moratorium set to
expire at the end of June, Or-
egon lawmakers passed an
added safety net for struggling
tenants on Tuesday that will
“pause” some evictions.
Under the “Safe Harbor”
amendment on Senate Bill
278 tenants who are unable
to pay their July or August
rent would not be evicted for
60 days if they provide proof
to their landlord that they’ve
applied for rental assistance
through Oregon Housing and
Community Services.
The amended bill, which
passed in the House 56-2 and
in the Senate 26-3, will head
to Gov. Kate Brown’s desk next
to be signed.
An eviction moratorium
has been in place in Oregon
since April 2020. In addition,
last month Oregon lawmakers
voted to extend the grace pe-
riod for past due rent during
Irrigation
Continued from A1
Britton said the water situa-
tion soured over the course of
the exceptionally dry spring.
Water allotments for North
Unit users — 1 acre-foot for
the Deschutes River and half
an acre-foot for the Crooked
River — were set in March
when the snowpack was over
100% of normal and precipita-
tion around 85% of normal.
“It felt pretty good going into
the irrigation season with our
allotment,” said Britton. “But
the melted snow didn’t make
it down the reservoirs and
streams (and) we got no other
significant precipitation since
early March or April, so that re-
ally hurt us with our water sup-
ply, which shows in Wickiup.”
Usage slow down
While Wickiup has never
been this low so early in the
irrigation season, Britton said
the rapid draining of the res-
ervoir could slow down in the
coming weeks as some farmers
run out of their water allot-
ment. While all patrons start
with the same allotment, water
is used differently, and patrons
will run out at different times.
“People are going to be run-
ning out of water if they ha-
ven’t already, which means
there will be less demand on
Wickiup in the system,” said
Britton. “Some people will
fallow fields and move wa-
ter around, which gives them
flexibility. For those who can’t
do that, they are done for the
season.”
Farmers who use their wa-
ter sparingly should have some
water until early October, the
end of the irrigation season,
said Britton.
Britton added that a few
good thunderstorms could
help, too. When rain falls,
farmers shut down their irri-
gation systems, allowing them
“We know now that rent assistance dollars cannot be
processed quickly enough to prevent evictions after the
expiration of the moratorium.”
— Sybil Hebb, Oregon Law Center director of legislative advocacy
the moratorium, allowing
tenants to have until Feb. 28,
2022 to pay back rent.
While the governor an-
nounced earlier this month
that she was extending the
state’s mortgage foreclosure
moratorium through Septem-
ber, she said that she did not
have the authority to extend
the eviction moratorium.
“That means, by law, Or-
egon’s eviction moratorium
will expire on June 30,” Brown
said.
Officials have warned that
as the moratorium expires the
state would likely see a mass
wave of evictions.
In May, 53% of Oregon
renters who responded to
a survey — or more than
to spread out their water allot-
ment.
Kyle Gorman, district man-
ager for the Oregon Water
Resources Department, said
Wickiup will also get a little
boost of water in July when
10,000 to 15,000 acre-feet of
water are released from Crane
Prairie Reservoir, upstream
from Wickiup.
Gorman added that the ex-
tremely low levels of water do
not necessarily mean Wickiup
will go completely dry as it did
a year ago. That’s because irri-
gation districts are considering
an option to leave some water
in the bottom of Wickiup. The
proposal would leave around
2,500 acre-feet in the reservoir
to prevent the silty water that
occurred after Wickiup ran out
of water last year.
In September, brackish wa-
ter ran out of Wickiup when
the Deschutes River picked
up silt from the bottom of the
reservoir. Gorman expects the
reservoir to reach its lowest
level by mid-August.
Other irrigation districts are
also watching the reservoir lev-
27,000 renters — said that it
was “very likely” or “some-
what likely” that they would
be evicted from their home,
according to the U.S. Census
Bureau’s most recent House-
hold Pulse Survey.
For weeks, state leaders
have urged struggling tenants
to apply to the state’s rental as-
sistance fund, which has $200
million in federal aid.
Based on data from Ore-
gon Housing and Community
Services, as of Tuesday 10,830
households have completed
applications for rent assistance
with the average request being
$6,921.
While Oregon has hun-
dreds of millions of dollars
available to pay past due, and
els but aren’t necessarily depen-
dent on them. Some districts
rely on “live flow” from this
area’s waterways, including the
Deschutes and Crooked rivers,
Tumalo Creek and Whychus
Creek.
Water rotation
Tumalo Irrigation District,
which takes water out of Tum-
alo Creek, will be implement-
ing a seven-day-on and seven-
day-off rotation for its patrons.
By doing so, it expects to have
water until the end of the ir-
rigation season, said Chris
Schull, the district’s interim
manager.
Colin Wills, head of the Ar-
nold Irrigation District, said
his patrons are also in conser-
vation mode and getting water
on a rotating basis. Typically
90 cubic feet of water per sec-
ond flows through the district’s
canal. Currently, that number
is just 55 cubic feet per second.
In the Swalley Irrigation
district, farmers have left 200
acres of farmland fallow and
out of production this year
to conserve water, said Dis-
OBITUARY
Michael Turner
August 25, 1955 - March 18, 2020
Celebrati on of Life
Saturday, June 26th,
1pm-4pm
Bend Elks Lodge
#1371 at
63120 Boyd Acres Rd.
Bend, OR 97701
The obituary may be viewed online at
htt ps://everloved.com/life-of/michael-turner/
up to three months current
rent for qualified tenants,
high demand has created
a backlog that will not be
cleared before the eviction
moratorium ends next week.
“The Legislature’s great
work on the (eviction mora-
torium) was designed based
on the reasonable assump-
tion that federal rent assis-
tance dollars would be in
distribution in communities
across the state by now, but
that hasn’t happened,” Sybil
Hebb, the director of legisla-
tive advocacy at the Oregon
Law Center, said during a
hearing on the amendment.
“We know now that rent as-
sistance dollars cannot be
processed quickly enough to
prevent evictions after the ex-
piration of the moratorium.”
With the “Safe Harbor”
amendment, lawmakers say
not only will it give the state
more time to distribute rental
assistance, but that it would
also keep tenants housed as
they wait for the funds.
trict Manager Jeremiah “Jer”
Camarata. Piping projects
have helped to save water, he
said.
“As a result, I don’t expect us
to use our full water rights this
year, nor run into any short-
ages,” said Camarata.
He added that the conser-
vation measures may even
allow the district to have a
surplus of water, which can
be transferred to junior water
rights holders or can be left in-
stream to improve fish habitat.
“The piping modernization
projects are already paying
off,” he said.
Shifting water
Another district that is bet-
ter positioned to handle the
drought, due to its status as
The victim was the person
who had introduced him to
heroin, Spear told the court.
Inside the motel room, the
Halls punched and kicked the
victim repeatedly, demanding
money and heroin, Nelson told
the court. The victim told po-
lice he was hit in the head with
a hammer.
To defend himself, the vic-
tim said he grabbed a hatchet
from his nightstand, but the
Halls took it from him, causing
a cut to the victim’s arm in the
process.
The victim screamed for
help. Police were called and of-
ficers arrived to find the victim
bleeding heavily with wounds
to his head, Nelson told the
court.
The brothers had taken
one of the victim’s suitcases.
Police located and arrested
Damon Hall two days later
in Prineville, and Levi Hall,
two days after that and also in
Prineville.
Damon Hall and Levi Hall
both pleaded guilty to sec-
ond-degree theft, third-degree
assault and third-degree rob-
bery.
a senior water rights holder,
is Central Oregon Irrigation
District. Craig Horrell, head
of the district, does not antic-
ipate an early shut-off and has
even started a water-sharing
program with junior rights
holders. The program will
shift 100 cubic feet per second
away from the Central Or-
egon district to North Unit,
Arnold and Lone Pine dis-
tricts.
“As a senior water right
holder, we have the unique
ability to increase water re-
liability for our neighboring
irrigation districts and their
irrigation users, while con-
tinuing to deliver water to our
patrons,” said Horrell.
Some Central Oregon Ir-
rigation District patrons are
The changes being enacted
in many Republican states are
decried by voting rights ad-
vocates who argue the restric-
tions will make it more diffi-
cult for people to cast ballots,
particularly minority residents
who tend to support Demo-
crats. Republicans, cheered on
by Trump, talk instead about
fighting potential voting fraud
and say the Democrats’ con-
cerns are wildly overblown.
Months in the making, Tues-
day’s showdown had taken on
fresh urgency as Trump con-
tinues to challenge the out-
come of the 2020 election and
new limits move ahead in Re-
publican-led states.
State officials who certified
the results of the 2020 election
have dismissed Trump’s claims
of voter fraud, and judges across
the country have thrown out
multiple lawsuits filed by Trump
and his allies. Trump’s own at-
torney general said there was no
evidence of widespread fraud
that would change the outcome.
Damon Cole
Hall
Levi Austin
Hall
In exchange for their pleas,
they were given 30 months
in prison and two years post-
prison supervision.
Damon Hall opted to ad-
dress the court, though his
brother did not.
“I’m ready to look forward
and hopefully get through this,
to continue to share my sobri-
ety and hopefully get back with
my family and move on with
my life,” Damon Hall said.
Spear said his client, Levi
Hall, maintains a weapon was
not used in the attack.
“This is a classic situation
where he has decided, based
on risk assessment, to accept
the offer tendered by the state,”
Spear said. “Four months ago,
(Levi) Hall was introduced
to heroin. He rode that roller
coaster and is now fully aware
of the evils of heroin.”
e
Reporter: 541-383-0325,
gandrews@bendbulletin.com
reaching out to offer their wa-
ter to farmers in need. Shon
Rae, deputy managing direc-
tor for the district, said 10 pa-
trons with a total of 64 acres
have offered to share their
water.
One thorny question re-
mains: What is the quick-
est way to get Wickiup filled
again? Gorman believes that
the current plan to pipe the
canals and implement conser-
vation projects is still the best
option.
“We wish we had it done
now for this type of year,” said
Gorman. “But we will just
have to carry on through and
do the best we can this year
and keep working at it.”
e
Reporter: 541-617-7818,
mkohn@bendbulletin.com