Oregon State Senate

Oregon State Senate
The Oregon State Senate is the upper house of the statewide legislature for the US state of Oregon. Along with the lower chamber Oregon House of Representatives it makes up the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 30 members of the state Senate, representing 30 districts across the state, each with a population of 127,700. The state Senate meets in the east wing of the Oregon State Capitol in Salem.
Oregon, along with Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, and Wyoming, is one of the five U.S. states to not have the office of the lieutenant governor, a position which for most upper houses of state legislatures and for the United States Congress (with the vice president) is the head of the legislative body and holder of the casting vote in the event of a tie. Instead, a separate position of Senate president is in place, removed from the state executive branch. If the chamber is tied, legislators must devise their own methods of resolving the impasse. In the 72nd Oregon Legislative Assembly in 2003, for example, Oregon's state senators entered into a power sharing contract whereby Democratic senators nominated the Senate President while Republican senators chaired key committees.
Like certain other upper houses of state and territorial legislatures and the United States Senate, the state Senate can confirm or reject the governor's appointments to state departments, commissions, boards, and other state governmental agencies.
The current Senate president is Rob Wagner of Lake Oswego.
Membership and qualifications
Oregon state senators serve four-year terms without term limits. In 2002, the Oregon Supreme Court struck down the decade-old Oregon Ballot Measure 3, that had restricted state senators to two terms (eight years) on procedural grounds.
According to the Oregon Constitution, two-thirds of senators are required to form a quorum. Republican senators have used this rule to block legislation by absenting themselves. In response to this practice, Oregon Ballot Measure 113 was passed in 2022 to disqualify members with ten unexcused absences from serving in the legislature following their current term. However, a Republican walkout went for six weeks during the 82nd Assembly in May and June 2023, the longest ever.
Milestones
Kathryn Clarke was the first woman to serve in Oregon's Senate. Women became eligible to run for the Oregon state legislature in 1914 and later that year Clarke was appointed to fill a vacant seat in Douglas county by her cousin, governor Oswald West. Following some controversy concerning whether West had the authority to appoint someone to fill the vacancy, Clarke campaigned and was elected by voters in 1915. She took office five years before Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution protected the right of all American women to vote.
In 1982, Mae Yih became the first Chinese-American elected to a state senate in the United States.
Composition
82nd Senate
The 82nd Oregon Legislative Assembly, which holds its regular session from 2023 to 2025, has the following leadership:
Senate President: Rob Wagner (D-19 Lake Oswego)
President Pro Tempore: James Manning Jr. (D–7 Eugene)
Majority Leader: Kate Lieber (D-14 Beaverton)
Minority Leader: Tim Knopp (R-27 Bend)
82nd Senate Committee Assignments
Senators are each assigned to one or more committees.
Conduct
Dick Anderson - Co-Chair
Floyd Prozanski – Co-Chair
Suzanne Weber
Aaron Woods
Michael Dembrow
Lynn Findley
Jeff Golden
Bill Hansell
Tim Knopp
Deb Patterson
Education
Michael Dembrow – Chair
Suzanne Weber – Vice-Chair
Dick Anderson
Lew Frederick
Sara Gelser Blouin
Art Robinson
Rob Wagner
Energy and Environment
Janeen Sollman – Chair
Lynn Findley – Vice-Chair
Jeff Golden
Cedric Hayden
Kate Lieber
Finance and Revenue
Mark Meek – Chair
Brian Boquist – Vice-Chair
Lynn Findley
Jeff Golden
Kayse Jama
Health Care
Deb Patterson – Chair
Cedric Hayden – Vice-Chair
Daniel Bonham
Wlnsvey Campos
Chris Gorsek
Housing and Development
Kayse Jama – Chair
Dick Anderson – Vice-Chair
Tim Knopp
Deb Patterson
Janeen Sollman
Human Services
Sara Gelser Blouin – Chair
Art Robinson – Vice-Chair
James Manning Jr.
Floyd Prozanski
Suzanne Weber
Judiciary
Floyd Prozanski – Chair
Kim Thatcher – Vice-Chair
Michael Dembrow
Sara Gelser Blouin
Dennis Linthicum
James Manning Jr.
Labor and Business
Kathleen Taylor – Chair
Daniel Bonham – Vice-Chair
Bill Hansell
Kayse Jama
Deb Patterson
Natural Resources
Jeff Golden – Chair
Fred Girod – Vice-Chair
Floyd Prozanski
David Brock Smith
Kathleen Taylor
Rules
Kate Lieber – Chair
Tim Knopp – Vice-Chair
Bill Hansell
James Manning Jr.
Elizabeth Steiner
Veterans, Emergency Management, Federal and World Affairs
James Manning Jr. - Chair
Kim Thatcher – Vice-Chair
Chris Gorsek
Art Robinson
Aaron Woods
Past composition of the Senate
See also
2022 Oregon State Senate election
Notes
References
External links
Oregon state Senate
Map of state Senate Districts
Oregon Senate Democrats homepage
Senate
State upper houses in the United States
1859 establishments in Oregon