Oregon House GOP leader asks speaker to pause session due to mass outages

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — In an effort to “preserve public access” to the Oregon Legislature, the House Republican leader is urging the House speaker to pause the virtual 2021 session during mass power outages across the state.

Session activities and meetings were delayed this week due to an icy winter storm during over the weekend. The session is slated to resume Wednesday, but more than 200,000 remained without power in the western Oregon Tuesday afternoon.  

House Republican Leader Christine Drazan said the sessions shouldn't resume until Oregonians have power restored.

“We need to keep our focus on serving constituents and the most vulnerable while we await power to be restored," she said in a statement. “Our work in the Legislature should come back online once the power does.”

House Speaker Tina Kotek said discussions were ongoing about the viability of Wednesday online sessions.