Oregon Senate Republican leader says GOP delay tactics will continue if Democrats insist on pursuing rent, gun control bills

Oregon Senate Leader Tim Knopp said Monday that Republicans will continue to slow-walk voting on bills this session until the majority Democrats cede to some of the minority party’s top demands in what Knopp described as bipartisanship.

That could mean many more weeks of a computer reading the full text of bills.

Refusing to waive the state Constitution’s bill reading requirement is one of the options for Republicans to flex their power, given they hold 12 seats in the 30-member Senate, as they try to change or block parts of Democrats’ agenda this session. The minority party’s toolkit is diminished this year, after voters in November passed a law to punish lawmakers who walk out of the Capitol, something both parties have done historically and which Republicans increasingly employed in recent sessions.

At the top of Knopp’s wish list this year: kill a Democratic proposal to ratchet down the annual increase allowed under Oregon’s statewide rent control law to 8%. That plan, Senate Bill 611, would also triple the amount that a landlord must pay a tenant upon terminating a lease. It has yet to receive a hearing. Oregon’s current rent control law pegs the annual allowed increase to inflation and as a result of high inflation landlords can raise prices by up to 14.6% this year.

Republicans, who are in the minority in both chambers of the Legislature, have expressed support for Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek’s ambitious goal of ramping up home construction to 36,000 units annually. Knopp, who is from Bend, said that increasing rent control would discourage new construction of multifamily housing at a time when the state badly needs it and would “make it impossible for the governor to get to her 36,000-a-year number.”

Oregon is short more than 100,000 housing units, and the state has the fourth worst rate of housing underproduction in the country, according to a recent state report.

Republicans also want to block all, or nearly all, gun control legislation.

“Almost every county that we represent as Republicans rejected Measure 114 and doesn’t want additional infringement upon their ability to defend themselves under the Second Amendment,” Knopp said, referring to the initiative that voters narrowly approved last year that tightens rules for gun purchases and restricts the use of magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Knopp said some Republicans oppose the passage of bills to help implement Measure 114, which has been delayed by legal challenges.

Knopp has also publicly pushed in recent days for Democrats to release specifics on how Oregon has allocated the more than $2.6 billion that the state government received through the 2021 American Rescue Plan, the last pandemic relief program, and whether any of that money remains unspent.

“Being transparent gives you the opportunity to build trust with fellow colleagues and the public,” Knopp said. However, he said that Democrats delivering the federal funds spending information would not on its own be enough to get Republicans to end their insistence upon the full reading of bills before votes in the Senate.

Senate President Rob Wagner, a Democrat from Lake Oswego, was unperturbed Monday by Republicans’ early session zeal for bill reading.

“We had this conversation with some of our members who might not have as long a memory,” Wagner said. “Bill reading is nothing new.” He said that Democrats are planning to hold enough floor sessions to keep up with the workload and don’t believe the tactic will prevent them from voting on all their priority legislation.

Wagner said he meets with Knopp regularly and is optimistic the two caucuses can reach an agreement at some point. As for whether ratcheting down allowed rent increases and additional gun safety regulations are musts for Democrats this session, Wagner said that “it depends who you’re talking to.”

Democrats are focusing early in the session on passing Kotek’s $130 million initial spending plan on homelessness, along with incentives for the semiconductor industry. “We’re just going to stick to our agenda and we’ll keep the door open on it,” Wagner said.

— Hillary Borrud; hborrud@oregonian.com

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