House GOP uses
parliamentary maneuvers to kill Oregon civil unions bill

Partisan tensions reached a boiling point Tuesday night when Republicans, the majority party in the Oregon house of representatives, pushed through a rules change that Democrats charged was aimed at blocking any attempt to resurrect a civil unions bill for same-sex couples. A civil unions measure to open up to same-sex couples hundreds of benefits available only to married couples has passed in the Democrat-run senate but has been stymied in the house by opposition from house speaker Karen Minnis and other GOP leaders. Backers of the Oregon civil unions bill hadn't given up hope of using a procedural move to force a house debate on the issue, but that possibility was foreclosed when house GOP leaders won adoption of a change in the chamber's operating rules. After a tense exchange between Minnis and house Democratic leader Jeff Merkley, the house voted along party lines to jettison a long-standing rule that allows individual lawmakers to try to pull stalled legislation out of committee and to the house floor for debate. Minnis disputed the Democrats' assertion that the rule change was aimed at blocking civil unions. She said the change was needed to help bring the 2005 session to a close and to prevent Democrats from further "abusing" house rules for their own political gain. She noted that Democratic lawmakers earlier in the day had used that tactic to try to force a debate on four different bills pending in committee, including one senate-passed bill to clamp a limit on interest rates charged by payday loan shops around the state. Democrats have used that parliamentary move nearly a dozen times so far this session--all without success--to try to score political points with voters by highlighting bills that have no chance of winning passage in the house, Minnis said. "It was their behavior that prompted the change," the Wood Village Republican said. But Merkley argued that house Republicans were engaging in heavy-handed tactics to kill the civil unions legislation. "This change is before us for one reason--it's about preventing members of this body from debating civil unions," Merkley said. When Merkley persisted with that line of argument during Tuesday night's debate, Minnis interrupted him several times, finally ruling him out of order. She then asked Merkley to meet with her in her office to discuss the dispute. A few minutes later Merkley returned to the house floor, and in his closing remarks he urged the house to reject what he called a "petty rule change." "It is the wrong note on which to end this session," Merkley said, referring to efforts by house and senate leaders to try to bring the 2005 legislature to a close within the next few days. Basic Rights Oregon, the state's leading gay rights group, called the rule change an "outrageous" move by Minnis and house GOP leaders to bottle up civil unions legislation. The group noted that the senate's civil unions bill already had been "gutted" by a house committee and that Tuesday's rules change was aimed at making sure supporters didn't have an opportunity to pull to the house floor another civil unions bill that was filed last week. (AP)