Republican minorities in Oregon statehouse exploit 2/3 quorum rule to block bills their mostly rural voters dislike

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Republican lawmakers in Oregon, who mostly represent rural areas and are a minority on both sides of the statehouse, are refusing to show up to work in order to prevent a bill from passing. It's the fifth time they've done that since May 2019.

The state constitution requires two-thirds of lawmakers in a chamber to be present for a quorum to take action. Democrats have supermajorities in both chambers, but Republicans have been able to stop bills from passing by simply not showing up. 

Last year wasn't the first time Oregon lawmakers used the constitutional loophole to block changes in state law. Democrats and Republicans have both used the tactic a handful of times since 1971, Tracy Loew reports for the Statesman Journal in Salem.

Republicans' first walkout last year was to stop a tax package that contained provisions for gun control and would have revoked religious exemptions for vaccination. They came back after Democrats agreed to drop those measures. The second walkout, in late June, garnered nationwide attention after the Capitol was shut down over threats from militia groups. Many GOP lawmakers fled the state, and when Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, told state troopers to bring them back, one lawmaker told police to "send bachelors and come heavily armed." The Democrats caved again.

This time, the measure at issue would implement a cap-and-trade program in which companies that emit a lot of greenhouse gases would obtain credits for each ton of gas they emit. The bill would also set a cap on emissions in the state, Dirk VaderHart reports for Oregon Public Broadcasting.

House Democrats voted Thursday to subpoena the missing Republicans in an attempt to compel them to come to work, Hillary Borrud reports for The Oregonian. The subpoenas would require them to testify before the House Rules Committee about the reasons for their boycott. 

It's unclear whether the legal maneuver will work. "A lobbyist for Oregon Manufacturers and Commerce, a group staunchly opposed to the greenhouse gas cap-and-trade bill, issued a press release after the committee vote pointing out Oregon’s Constitution protects lawmakers from 'any civil process' as long as the Legislature is in session," Borrud reports.

The walkout means other bills could go unaddressed, including one that would cap insulin costs. It effectively cancels "all progress on all budget and policy bills, raising the specter that lawmakers will end the session next weekend without making fixes to a business tax requested by businesses, allocating millions for homelessness, mental health and foster children or acting on a host of other bipartisan plans," Borrud reports.

Republicans are acting "on behalf of an almost entirely white, rural minority," David Roberts writes in an opinion piece for Vox. "It ought to be getting more national attention, if for no other reason than it perfectly encapsulates larger national political trends."