Tensions rise as Oregon Legislature faces Republican-led walkout.
Negotiations to end the Republican-led walkout in the Oregon Senate have intensified, with talks centering around whether Democrats would scrap the controversial reproductive health care bill that has been central to the Republicans’ boycott. The Legislature has been at a stalemate for six weeks now, the longest walkout in the state’s history, after GOP senators launched a quorum-denying boycott over the reproductive and gender-affirming care legislation. Bills that are at risk of dying include those to reform and shore up the state’s crumbling public defender system, protect against the looming wildfire season and address the longstanding drought in eastern Oregon.