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March 13, 2020
Dear Neighbors and Friends:
Hard to believe that it has been barely a week since the 2020 legislative session was adjourned. I feel as if we’re still in the short session—each day is a trial and a challenge, mainly as a result of the novel coronavirus. In addition, in the last week I’ve had a constituent coffee and a town hall, watched the Emergency Board allocate funding for several pressing needs, fulfilled my post-session ritual of donating platelets and plasma at the Red Cross, and joined the filing-deadline festivities at the Capitol on Tuesday (watching the big board in the House Chamber as last-minute filing and unfiling decisions were reported up to the 5 pm deadline). And of course also on Tuesday the Governor issued her historic executive order that uses her executive authority to push Oregon to the forefront of climate action.
In this first newsletter of the interim, I’d like to catch you up on that executive order and the E-Board investments, and give you the latest on coronavirus.
As you know, we were compelled to end the 2020 session without being able to take action on SB 1530, which was poised to pass comfortably in both chambers. It was a bill that was long in the making, the result of a record amount of research, discussion, and debate, a balance of statewide needs and interests, with significant input from both parties, exactly what you look for in our representative democracy. But a small minority of our legislature was again able to manipulate a constitutional loophole to their advantage, head to Reno and Lake Tahoe, and prevent that bill and nearly every other bill from moving forward.
By essentially vetoing a legislative path forward on climate, after we acted in good faith and made a number of compromises to address their concerns, Republicans have effectively compelled us, at least for the near term, to seek another path, the path of executive action. The alternative would be to wait for 2021 to take action. However, to again delay action to fight this climate crisis is not an option. We needed the Governor to step up and fulfill her pledge that serious climate action would begin this year one way or the other, and she did, with this executive order issued on Tuesday, March 10.
I obviously would have preferred that we had been able to complete the mandate for this climate action legislatively. The Governor’s ability to create the “invest” part of “cap and invest” is limited, and as a result so is the ability to invest in projects that would make rural Oregon more resilient to the ongoing effects of climate change. But there are many upsides to this order. Fortunately, our agencies do have a great deal of existing authority to regulate greenhouse gas pollution and the ability to build on existing programs created by the Legislature. This order will help them to prioritize and coordinate a comprehensive suite of needed actions. The order also has the potential to be a model for other states to follow, depending on their circumstances.
Here are key things you need to know about the order.
- Builds off of ideas generated in the extensive public process (work groups, public hearings, research, written testimony) around HB 2020 and SB 1530.
- Builds off of Governor’s existing authorities and existing programs created by the Legislature.
- Most dramatic changes include a big ramp-up in Oregon’s Clean Fuels Standard and a hard cap-and-reduce requirement for manufacturers.
- No ability to pursue direct emissions-pricing or linkage with the Western Climate Initiative at this time. That would require legislative action.
- Real focus on aligning all state agencies for the common goal of addressing climate change.
- Program development and public rule-making will begin immediately, with the goal of adhering to the January 2022 start date in SB 1530.
- Funding for these initiatives secured through June 2021. Legislature will likely need to allocate subsequent funding during the 2021 session.
- Future legislative action could replace, augment, or supersede elements of the Executive Order.
Here is a summary of the key provisions in the order.
Not surprisingly, Republican legislative leadership and a consortium of big carbon polluters have already reacted with the threat of legal action against the “cap-and-reduce” part of the order in an effort to delay its implementation. Oregon DOJ believes that this effort will ultimately not be successful. I haven’t yet received their written advice on the matter but will share it as soon as I do.
If you have any further questions about the rationale behind the order, I recommend that you look at the extensive “Whereases” in the first four pages of the document. They really capture the nature of the problem and the spirit of why we as a state must take action immediately.
When we are between sessions, the members of the Legislature’s Emergency Board is empowered to make interim spending decisions from the allocated “Emergency Fund.” Under normal circumstances, the Legislature would have concluded the short session with an additional appropriation to the E-Board to carry it through the period leading up to the start of the next session in February 2021. That could not happen this time, given the way the session ended, so the E-Board currently has just $75 million to get through the remainder of the biennium.
The Emergency Board was convened this past Monday morning, the day after the constitutional end-date of the 2020 session, in order to address four pressing items: flood relief for Eastern Oregon, the coronavirus pandemic, other emergency preparedness needs, and funding needed to implement the first year of the Governor’s executive order on climate action.
You can find details here.
Let me know if you have any questions about any of the items that were approved.
By the way, you may wonder why the E-Board was able to meet on Monday and not have to worry about a potential lack of quorum. That’s because the E-Board, like all of our committees (but unlike legislative floor sessions), only requires a simple majority to do business.
So much has already changed since I last wrote about the state’s response to the spread of the new disease (now officially a pandemic). Fortunately, the Oregon Health Authority has continued to hold daily briefings for legislators, allowing us to raise questions and concerns that have been conveyed to us from constituents.
The following bullet points reflect things I heard over the last few calls and subsequent updates:
OK, I wrote the above last night with the intention of completing it this morning and incorporating today’s briefings. As I’m sure you can imagine, much of what I had intended to include on this issue is now outdated! Especially with respect to school closures. What is included below is what I know as of 2 pm today.
Let me first say that the school closure issue was one that people at OHA and the Governor herself (along with many of us) have really been wrestling with. On the one hand, keeping kids away from one another in confined spaces is an important way to prevent the spread of the virus. Although they are not themselves especially susceptible to severe reactions (unless they have serious underlying health conditions), kids do pick up, carry, and transmit the disease quite readily. Keeping them at home and away from other kids can be helpful.
On the other hand, for many families, keeping them at home is a difficult option. School may be the safest place for children (and the alternative in many cases would be their having to be cared for by elderly grandparents who may be vulnerable). It’s also where many children get necessary services like food and access to health care. For that reason, as of yesterday morning the OHA and the Governor were recommending that schools not be canceled absent known cases in the school.
But by the end of yesterday, the balance had swung towards canceling schools throughout the state, and the Governor announced the decision to do so late last night. Some districts were already seeing large numbers of staff medical absences and were deciding to cancel on their own. Many others were starting to consider taking this step. We’re seeing a growing movement in this direction throughout the country. Given that spring break is coming up soon, canceling school till the beginning of April would allow us to piggy-back on that planned week’s break and hopefully slow down the spread of the virus for the next two weeks.
Obviously, there will be many challenges for families in dealing with these closures, and I know that the Department of Education and local districts are working to come up with plans to guarantee access to food and care for those who need it. I’ll let you know when I know more.
Here are some other points of information:
- As of today, the number of confirmed cases (i.e., confirmed by tests) in Oregon stands at 30. We know that the number of actual cases in the state is much higher.
- Availability of tests from the national CDC has been a real problem nation-wide. As a result of the limitation, severe restrictions have been placed on who could be tested.
- In principle, those restrictions are now becoming relaxed because private labs and starting next week hospital labs are now able to offer the test. Those sideboards should no longer be necessary.
- The decision of whether or not to order a test will be a clinical one, left up to individual medical providers and hospitals.
- However, the ability of the commercial labs and hospitals to ramp up and get the tests done is happening much more slowly than was first hoped. It’s safe to say that there remains a lack of tests and this will continue to be a problem for the next few days at least.
- Those who are experiencing symptoms (fever, dry cough, other flu-like symptoms) are encouraged to stay home and assume they have the virus.
- In most cases (around 80% of the cases), the symptoms will be mild if not barely perceptible. The danger is one of infecting individuals with compromised medical conditions, for whom the disease can truly be deadly.
- That’s why people are being encouraged to keep their distance, cancel large gatherings, and prevent the potential sharing of droplets from sneezes and coughs.
- We are already facing a shortfall of hand sanitizers and masks. The ingredients used to create sanitizers are also becoming in short supply. In any case, soap and water is considered a better preventative.
- State and national health entities have about a 2-3 week stock of personal protective gear and supplies, but they will be prioritizing medical professionals and people in confined living situations.
- In general, the focus will be on the elderly, those in compromised medical conditions, and those living in confined living situations (aka “congregant care settings”), e.g., long-term care, group homes, jails and prisons. That’s where the greatest danger of transmission has occurred.
- Guidelines have been released for those living in long-term care facilities. Here they are.
- Economic effects are something to consider as well. We are facing the spiraling effects of workers losing pay and potentially of being laid off. A stimulus package is being negotiated in Congress, but its future is still not certain.
- The Legislature will likely also need to act to provide economic stimulus and protect workers from hardship.
- To that end, the Legislature has just created a new Joint House/Senate Task Force on Coronavirus, which will be holding public meetings related to strategies to address the pandemic.
- Multnomah County Public Health has been serving as the lead county agency mobilizing and coordinating resources to address the disease. It is also focused on supporting nonprofits in their frontline work. The decision has been made to keep winter homeless shelters open in anticipation that services will be needed to help the unsheltered cope with the disease.
- Workers whose hours are reduced may be eligible for unemployment insurance compensation through the Work Share program. Here is information about that program.
- Steps are also being taken to protect families whose incomes may be reduced over the next couple of months from loss of needed services. The City of Portland has announced that no one will have their water shut off due to inability to pay. The Governor has announced a similar promise by Portland General Electric, Pacific Power, and Northwest Natural. These are important and necessary steps.
Here are some resources that you will find useful:
Finally, if the above links are not providing you with answers to your questions or directing you to the help that you need, please consider me and my office to be a resource. We’ll do our best to assist you or steer you in the right direction.
These are times that will be testing our patience and ability to support and be resources for one another. Time for us all to step up and act, and resolve to take steps to make sure we’re better prepared for this kind of public health emergency in the future.
Best to you and your loved ones,
 Senator Michael Dembrow
District 23
email: Sen.MichaelDembrow@oregonlegislature.gov
web: www.senatordembrow.com
phone: 503-986-1723
mail: 900 Court St NE, S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
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