SALEM — Republicans in the Senate boycotted a floor session Monday morning, putting a stop to the Senate before it could consider a controversial greenhouse gas emissions legislation that has been a political lightning rod.

The Senate requires 20 senators be present to take votes.

Eighteen Democrats and one Republican, Sen. Tim Knopp of Bend, were present for the 11 a.m. session Monday. The remaining 11 Republicans disappeared to protest the legislation, denying the Senate the needed quorum to act. At least two Republicans would be needed on the floor if all Democrats were there.

Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, issued a call of the Senate to get any absent Republicans in the Oregon Capitol building to come to the floor. Before the floor session began, state troopers roamed the legislative halls.

Courtney then adjourned the floor session until 11 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, after an admonishment that policy and budget bills couldn’t get done if senators were absent. Lawmakers are facing a March 8 deadline to close the session.

He “implored” his “fellow senators” to return to the Senate.

The shutdown was triggered by a vote in the legislative budget committee hours earlier that sent Senate Bill 1530 to the full Senate. The committee rejected a Republican plan to refer the matter to voters.

Republican senators were hard to find on the third and fourth floors of the Senate side of the Capitol building late Monday morning, before the floor session was called.

For state Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, that was the last straw.

“I feel very strongly about this,” he said in an interview Monday. “It’s too contentious, it’s too lifechanging, it’s too monumental. It’s going to affect every man, woman and child in Oregon. This is it.”

Hansell recalled how Republicans were able to get a Democrat, Sen. Betsy Johnson of Scappoose, to join them on the otherwise party-line vote, but Courtney’s last-minute decision to add himself to the committee defeated the Republican amendments and pushed the bill through to the floor.

Hansell said Courtney’s move was the first time he’s seen that happen since he joined the Legislature in 2013, although he admitted that the move wasn’t illegal or against Senate rules.

Other issues Hansell cited for walking out included the committee voting down an alternative carbon sequestration proposal from state Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, and the bill’s sponsors adding a fiscal impact statement only minutes before Ways and Means was set to meet.

The walkout threatens to derail the main legislation that Democrats had hoped to pass during a 35-day session: a bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions that threaten the planet.

The latest so-called cap-and-trade bill calls for the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to at least 45% below 1990 emissions levels by 2035 and to at least 80% below by 2050. The bill would force big greenhouse gas emitters to obtain credits for each metric ton of carbon dioxide they emit. Opponents say fossil fuel companies will wind up offloading increased costs to customers.

Republican lawmakers said a matter of this magnitude should be brought before voters. Republican state Sen. Fred Girod said before the committee’s vote that if the measure were referred to voters “we would stick around.”

“Just give them the right to vote,” Girod said.

Democratic Gov. Kate Brown accused the Republican lawmakers of “being against the Democratic process.” The minority Republicans staged two walkouts last year, leading Senate President Peter Courtney to request Brown to order the state police to bring the missing lawmakers back. This time, though, Courtney said he won’t involve the state police.

A few large trucks supporting the Republicans drove around the Oregon Capitol, blowing their horns. After Courtney announced on the Senate floor that not enough senators were present to convene Monday’s session, several people in an upper gallery clapped. Courtney said he would order police to expel them if they persisted.

A visibly angry Brown denounced the boycott as undemocratic.

“If they don’t like a bill, then they need to show up and change it or show up and vote no. They should make their voices heard rather than shut down state government,” she said at a news conference.

Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, also condemned the walkout.

“Legislators shutting down the government by walking off the job is a crisis for our democracy,” she said. “This is not a game. Voters elected us to do our job. The members who refuse to show up and do their jobs are saying to a large majority of Oregonians — your vote doesn’t matter.”

Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, has been excused for the next couple of days due to a family medical issue.

Workers in the office of Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, said Findley was “not here” and that “he’s not coming back.”

In a statement shortly before the floor session, Findley said that “if my colleagues will not allow for a fair process in the building, then I will represent my constituents from outside the building.”

Staff for Sen. Denyc Boles, R-Salem, referred questions to communications.

Kate Gillem, Senate Republican spokeswoman, said that all have walked out except for a “senator from Bend.”

Gillem said they would stay away for the rest of the session. She said they could maybe be drawn back if the bill could be referred to voters.

She didn’t say where they went.

“I don’t know,” she said. “They’ve been super tight-lipped. Even with staff.”

Although he’s staying outside Salem, Hansell said he remains in-state, although that could change if Brown and Courtney order Oregon State Police to bring back the absent senators.

He also anticipated that more legislators could leave Salem in the future.

“The House is in lockstep with us and there’s the possibility that they will walk out as well,” he said.

In the wake of the mass walkout, Blue Mountain Community College canceled its Tuesday videoconference on the short session with Hansell and state Rep. Greg Barreto, R-Cove, and was unable to confirm whether the weekly event would resume on March 3.

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EO reporters Antonio Sierra and Jessica Pollard and The Associated Press contributed to this report.