Unconventional stalling techniques exposed in Oregon Senate walkout

Republican lawmakers in Oregon have caused the Oregon Senate to come to a standstill by not showing up to work on a Democratic agenda, which includes new gun controls and greater access to abortion. This isn’t the first time Republicans have walked out of the Capitol in Oregon; it happened also in 2021, 2020, and 2019. They do this in an attempt to prevent the majority party from passing legislation, exploiting Oregon’s unusual requirement for a two-thirds quorum to conduct legislative business. A few other states have the same requirement, including Texas, where Democrats staged a walkout a couple years ago. The walkout was aimed at blocking Republican-led Legislature from considering election legislation. In Wisconsin and Indiana, Democratic lawmakers skipped legislative sessions over a decade ago to block Republican bills limiting union powers. However, the majority parties eventually prevailed in those states. While walkouts may bring attention to Republicans in Oregon, it does not stop Democratic legislation, according to Jim Moore, a politics professor at Pacific University. Other tactics utilized by the minority party in most states include stalling by filibusters, offering numerous amendments to bills, sending bills back to committees, or asking clerks to read aloud the entire text of measures to eat up session time.