Oregon House to begin Saturday sessions

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The Oregon House of Representatives will begin holding Saturday floor sessions next week.

Speaker Tina Kotek made that announcement Wednesday in the latest sign lawmakers are ramping up with an eye toward the constitutional session deadline five weeks away.

The Statesman Journal reports that while legislative leadership hopes to end session by June 21, nine days ahead of their constitutional deadline, the House is grappling with a massive backlog of bills ready to receive a vote.

It’s the byproduct of a slowdown tactic deployed by House Republicans for more than three weeks. Democrats control both the House and Senate.

House Republican Leader Carl Wilson said Wednesday that Republicans will continue their tactic of requiring bills to be read in full. This was popularized during the 2016 session and slows down the legislative process considerably, particularly when lengthy bills come to the floor.