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April 3, 2020
Dear Neighbors and Friends:
I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well, staying healthy, and looking out for your neighbors and friends.
This morning I was able to be part of a Zoom meeting with many of my legislative counterparts about ways in which legislators could continue to do their work under the constraints of social distancing and under the intense pressures that we’re all feeling in the wake of the pandemic. Although no two states are the same, it’s clear that we’re all facing the same set of challenges right now: We need to make sure that the most urgent medical needs are being met. Meanwhile, our budgets are in free fall as a result of plummeting state revenues, and unlike the federal government, our budgets must balance. Our current budgets will need to be cut, which means that we need to be thinking about which of our current programs will need to shrink or be cut entirely. We need to make sure that emergency measures being taken by our governors are effective and helping those most in need. We need to provide proper oversight to make sure that agency actions are fair, efficient, and ethical. We need to work with our local cities and counties and make sure that our federal delegations understand local need. It’s going to be difficult, especially at a time when face-to-face interactions cannot happen.
Another thing that many states—fortunately, not Oregon—are also wrestling with is how to conduct their next round of elections. In many cases, perhaps in all cases, they will need to go entirely to mail ballots. The prospect of an all-mail election remains a foreign concept for many of my counterparts in many other states. While they recognize its necessity at this time, they still have many questions about how it would be run and how their own campaigns might need to change in response. The silver lining, though, is that this temporary change that may be required the pandemic could lead other states to follow our lead and make voting in their states easier on a permanent basis. That would be a good thing.
Today's Constituent Coffee: Digital, with Special Guests
Please join for my first online constituent meeting today (Saturday 4/4) at 9am (I'm afraid you'll be responsible for brewing your own coffee this time around).
The Zoom platform restricts us to 100 participants for this meeting, but we will record the video and make it available for anyone to watch. If you'd like to be a part of this meeting, please pre-register using this link. You will receive details and a link to join the meeting at 9am on Saturday. You can also use the registration form to submit questions and topics for us to cover. Let me know if you have any issues with the registration form.
Zoom Constituent Coffee
Saturday, April 4th from 9am to 10:30am
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA has reported that 73 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 899.
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Total Tests: Today’s reported testing numbers reflect an increase of 1,349 test results from yesterday, bringing the total test results so far to 17,434.
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Ratio: Though the overall numbers are increasing, our ratio of positive results remains around 5%. That’s much lower than the national average (currently around 18%).
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report that another Oregonian died from the disease yesterday, bringing the total number of deaths in Oregon to 22.
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Hospitalized: The number of Oregonians who have been hospitalized with symptoms is now at 204, an increase of 16 from yesterday.
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Other Hospital Information: Unfortunately, the glitch in the hospital bed reporting system hasn’t been resolved yet, and the OHA still doesn’t have confidence in the numbers that they received. So I’ll have to leave these fields blank again today. We’re promised corrected numbers soon.
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Today’s National Numbers:
News on the Testing Front
Here are several updates on testing turnaround:
- You may have heard via national media that the FDA has approved the new Abbott ID NOW rapid test for COVID-19 this week. The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services is shipping a limited number of these devices and test cartridges to states. We don’t have a date yet for when we’ll receive our first rapid tests and cartridges. When we do, they’ll be distributed first to areas of the state that currently lack testing capacity.
- Other kinds of tests (serum tests, Cepheid cartridge tests) are also in the process of being validated and should be arriving soon.
- Quest Diagnostics, one of the major commercial labs in the country, and one that is used by many primary care providers here in Oregon, has begun a new program to prioritize and speed up tests for those deemed by the CDC to be high priority (e.g., medical professionals and those living in congregate care environments). Turnaround times for those high-priority categories will be 2-3 days, as opposed to the standard 4-5 days. You can read about their new program here.
Meeting the Needs of Our Immigrant and Refugee Neighbors
These are difficult, frightening times for many people in this state, but none more so than our immigrant and refugee neighbors. Stressful times are always more stressful for those who are new to a place, who speak another language, who aren’t entirely sure of their rights, who aren’t entirely sure what services they are entitled to. The stress becomes accentuated further if the immigrants are undocumented.
It’s important that those who are here with documentation know that they are entitled to all the provisions of the federal CARES Act and that receiving these benefits doesn’t harm their immigration status. And it’s important that those who are working without documentation know that there are still many services, including Coronavirus testing and emergency care, that remains open to them.
To help immigrant and refugee Oregonians understand these rights and services, along with information about the virus and its spread, the Governor’s Office has put together an excellent set of resource pages just for them. It clearly explains their rights and the services they can access. I’m pleased to see that these pages are available in 11 languages: English, Spanish, Arabic, Hmong, Korean, Marshallese, Russian, Somali, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Vietnamese.
As I mentioned above, people who have been working without documentation don’t qualify for the employment benefits or other relief in the federal CARES act. They are therefore going to find themselves in a particularly desperate situation. As we are looking at our limited budget for ways in which we can fill in the gaps left by the CARES Act, I believe that it is crucial that we pay attention to their needs. Here is a request that I sent earlier this week to my caucus and the Governor to address those special needs:
I want to put on the radar the problem of securing support for those who will fall through the cracks of the federal aid because of their immigration/documentation status. They are our neighbors, as are their children, and valued contributors to our economy. I hope that we can get money into the Emergency Fund to provide funding for the non-profits that are working with these communities.
Support for Farmers in These Difficult Times
When you think of industries directly affected by the pandemic, you might not immediately think of farmers or those in non-restaurant food businesses. But many are already feeling the effects of loss of workers or of business, just like many other small businesses. A constituent who also runs a farm (she lives in Portland, but her farm is in rural Washington County) just sent me a link this new online pamphlet, the Farm and Food Business Owner's Guide to the CARES Act. I downloaded it (it’s free), and find it nice and friendly in tone and useful in its information. You might find it useful even if you’re not a farmer!
Small Business Loans Getting Approval Already
The new Paycheck Protection Loan program, which is designed to allow small businesses to keep operating and keep their workers working with the help of very low-interest, partly forgivable loans, was scheduled to begin at 12:01 a.m. this morning. As of late this morning, I’m told that $875 million in Paycheck Protection loans had already been approved by banks and credit unions. That’s pretty remarkable, considering that the official information from the Small Business Administration didn’t come out till late yesterday.
That’s not to say there haven’t been difficulties. Some financial institutions (including Wells Fargo) have decided they weren’t ready to begin setting up the loans today and have asked their customers to wait till next week.
For those who are interested in seeking a Paycheck Protect loan from your local credit union, I’ve just received this Q&A from the NW Credit Union Association.
Advice for Workers and Families
The good people at SEIU have put together their own one-stop resource for workers and their families, called Get Help COVID Oregon. It’s very practical and easy to use. You can find help in the following categories:
- Lost Income
- Food
- Health Care
- Housing
- Child Care
AND FINALLY,
Here again are some resources that you will find useful:
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.
Best,
 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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