our view

We’ve reached the point in the current session of the Oregon Legislature when the sausage-making becomes particularly hard to stomach.

A little less than two months remains before the June 25 mandatory adjournment, and the grinding of Salem’s political machinery — despite some big-issue bipartisan successes early on — has ground pretty much to a halt.

In what will come as a shock to, well, nobody, legislators from both sides of the aisle know exactly who’s at fault for the systemic slowdown.

The other guys.

For the uninitiated — or, at least, those of us who have spent the three months since the session opened obliviously waiting for the weather to change — the legislative legerdemain in the Capitol seems impossible to figure out.

Some things, however, have become clear.

For instance, nearly 2,000 proposed measures were stopped in their tracks by failing to meet the “First Chamber Deadline,” which requires a bill to receive a vote in a committee by a certain date, April 5 in this case, or be left by the side of the road.

Those that didn’t advance ranged from the practical (restoration of liability waivers to protect those who rent or supply equipment for outdoor activities) to the far-fetched (yes, we’re looking at you, Greater Idaho).

Wait, you might be asking yourself, if nearly 2,000 proposals died on the vine, what could the Legislature possibly have left to dicker over?

Well, the other 1,000 or so measures that either found their way out of committee or others — such as the proposals to lower the voting age to 16 — that were not subject to the First Chamber Deadline.

There won’t be time, of course, for all the still-breathing measures to make their way to Gov. Tina Kotek’s desk. Though the Senate managed to pass 22 bills on Monday, the Legislature would have to complete action on about 17 a day from here on out to make the math work — not that anyone expected Kotek to put her John Hancock on 1,000 bills in the first place.

Meanwhile, the political gamesmanship that is as much a tradition as blaming those on the other side of the aisle added to the turtling of the treadmill.

Republicans this year insisted on the complete reading of nearly every bill before a vote would be taken. Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that, in one such case, a 47-page proposal took nearly three hours to be read by a computerized voice.

Not to be outdone, Democrats — who hold Senate and House majorities — recently scrapped a week of committee hearings that, theoretically, could push bills forward.

There are, naturally, other frustrating bits of business taking place. Democrats have had to listen as multiple Republicans slowed the process by offering multiple commentaries on each bill. Republicans, meanwhile, voiced frustration that Democrats were fast-tracking some pieces of legislation thanks to a rule that allows those to bypass policy committees.

We don’t ask much of our legislators — basically, we want them to play nice and not screw things up — and, goodness knows, that if we were to “throw the bums out” or “drain the swamp,” all we’d get would be a new Legislature that would find equally unappetizing ways to grind out the sausage.

But it’s times like this that can leave us wondering if they realize what this process looks like to the folks back home — even those of us contemplating the change in the weather.