Minority reports throw sand in legislative wheels

The Oregon Capitol is full of dissenting opinions. Such is the nature of democracy. Sometimes, those opinions are expressed through more than just "no" votes.

Parliamentary tactics, such as denying a quorum or filing a minority report, are ways that legislators can gum up the works of a legislative session.

Senate Republicans did not attend the afternoon floor session Wednesday, Feb. 18, denying a quorum and preventing a vote on Senate Bill 1599 A. The bill would move the referendum vote on last summer's special-session transportation package from the November 2026 election to May 2026.

The tactic delayed the vote at least two days. To meet all election deadlines, that bill must be signed by the governor by Feb. 25.

Despite multiple walkouts (of just a few days to six weeks) since 2019, they are not a tactic that has been typical throughout Oregon's history. A far more common tactic is to file a minority report on a bill.

When a bill is voted out of committee, a report is issued with the committee's recommendation for passage. Those in disagreement - generally, but not necessarily exclusively, the minority party - can issue a competing recommendation in the form of a minority report.

The rules vary a bit between the Senate and House. In the Senate, during the 2026 short legislative session, committee members must issue notice of their intent to file a minority report by the end of the meeting in which the vote on the bill took place. They then have one hour to let the attorneys in legislative counsel know what they'd like the alternative version of the bill to look like.

In the House, committee members have up to two hours after the adjournment of the committee meeting to give notice. But their minority reports may include only issues addressed in amendments that were available to the committee when the vote took place.

In both chambers, there are deadlines for committee and minority reports to be filed with the parliamentarian's office.

Before voting in a chamber on the bill, legislators must vote on whether to substitute the minority report for the committee report, essentially deciding whether to vote on an alternative bill version.

This can add hours to the proceedings. In both chambers, the member designated with "carrying" a bill is granted up to 10 minutes at both the opening and closing of debate, and all other members are allowed to speak for up to five minutes during the debate. When there is consideration of a minority report, the same rules apply. That means, for example, in the House, consideration of a minority report alone could take up to five hours if every single member spoke on the issue, plus just as much time for the vote on the bill itself.

It is rare that every member opts to speak on an issue and even more rare to do so for the full allotted five minutes. But it is not uncommon for the minority party to take the better part of a morning or afternoon floor session debating a minority report and single bill.

In a 35-day session where deadlines come fast and every moment counts, this can be enough to create barriers to getting through all the bills that have been voted out of committee.

Here are some of the bills that have had minority reports issued this session:

• SB 1507 A - the bill to disconnect from select portions of the federal tax code included in HR 1.
  
• HB 4079 A - the bill to require school districts to inform students, families and certain community
  organizations if there is federal immigration enforcement present on school grounds.
  
• HB 4116 - deals with banking regulations and consumer finance loans.
  
• HB 4098 - would add trade practices prohibited by Oregon's insurance statutes as basis for consumers to bring civil actions and prosecuting attorneys to bring enforcement actions under Oregon's Unlawful Trade Practices Act.
  
• HB 4114 - would create a cause of action against any person who, under color of law, enters property without a judicial warrant or judicially recognized exception to the warrant requirement.
  
  Each of these bills cleared its initial chamber, but the added time means it or another bill has less opportunity to get all the way through before the clock runs out.
  
  - Stacy Michaelson
  OSBA Government Relations and Communications director