Helt only Oregon House GOP member to appear for night session

(Update: Redmond Rep. Jack Zika, not in attendance, provides statement)

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Most Republican lawmakers refused to attend a Tuesday night session of the Oregon House of Representatives amid a slowdown over anger at a sweeping bill on climate change. But Bend Rep. Cheri Helt did attend.

Earlier, Republican lawmakers, who are a minority in the House, insisted that bills coming to the floor be read in their entirety, instead of being summarized, which slowed things down substantially.

The 2020 session of the Legislature lasts only 35 days, being an even-year short session.

House Republican leader Christine Drazan told reporters the Republicans were not attempting to deny a quorum but wanted to address pacing of the legislative session.

Rep. Bill Post, a Republican from Keizer, said in a tweet Tuesday that instead of dealing with the so-called cap and trade bill on climate change, the Legislature should refer it to voters for the November election.

House Speaker Tina Kotek, a Democrat from Portland, said she was informed by Drazan that Republicans would not attend the Tuesday night session that is necessary in order to meet deadlines because the readings of bills in full delays progress.

“To this point, I have respected the House Republicans’ desire to read bills in full. Doing so requires more floor time in order to meet the session’s deadlines and move bills over to the Senate,” Kotek said in a statement. At 6 p.m., she called for a roll call.

Only one Republican lawmaker was present - Bend state Rep. Cheri Helt.

Rep. Jack Zika, a Republican from Redmond, shared the following statement with NewsChannel 21 on Wednesday.

“We decided to deny them quorum because House Democrat leaders are doing everything in their power to ram through a massive cap and trade bill that would siphon billions of dollars away from working Oregonians and into the hands of unelected bureaucrats," Zika said in the statement.

He also added the process "needs to slow down" and said the cap and trade bill should be referred to the voters.

"Unlike my Democrat colleagues, I believe Oregonians are smart enough to understand this issue and weigh in on it," Zika said.

Regarding Helt's decision to stay present at the session, Zika said, "Each representative has to do what he or she thinks is right. I work very closely with Cheri and she's doing a very good job for her district."

OPB noted Helt represents a Central Oregon district where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans. She declined to discuss her presence with reporters afterward, but did issue a statement.

“My attendance tonight was my way of protesting the failure of the majority party to respect the legitimate concerns of my Republican colleagues,” Helt said.

“I hope tomorrow we will work together with greater respect for the legislative process and respecting opposing points of view,” she concluded.

In 2019, Republicans in the state Senate staged two walkouts to deny Democrats a quorum.

Republican lawmakers have argued that short sessions were not meant to handle complicated issues, like Senate Bill 1530, the bill introduced by Democrats for this year’s session that aims to curtail greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming. A different version of the bill died last year during the Republican boycott.

Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, says addressing climate change is a priority.