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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
A legislative committee will meet this Thursday, April 23, at 10 a.m. to allocate emergency funds to support and protect Oregonians impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Senate President Peter Courtney and I have been working over the last few weeks to craft a plan to help fill some gaps not covered by federal assistance. Oregon Public Broadcasting wrote about our progress last week, which you can read here.
The legislative Joint Emergency Board’s agenda can be found here and the supporting materials here. Back in March, the same committee met and dedicated some money to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, but this is the first opportunity since Stay Home, Save Lives went into effect for legislators to meet to take budget actions. The meeting will be held remotely, and you can stream the meeting by going to the committee’s page.
Here are the highlights of the budget actions that will be considered:
- Housing – safe shelter and rental assistance - $12 million
- Small Business Assistance - $10 million
- Domestic and Sexual Violence Resources - $2 million
- Oregon Worker Relief Fund - $10 million
- Long Term Care Worker Testing and Training - $3.35 million
- Rural Hospital Stabilization Loans - $50 million federal funds authorization
- Coronavirus Relief Fund - $300 million federal funds authorization
- Release of funds for fire season, public defense and care workers.
While the funds available to the Emergency Board are limited, these action items are a good first step to help Oregonians and complement the federal relief assistance coming to Oregon.
The Oregon Health Authority announced new guidelines that expand recommendations of who should be tested for coronavirus. This includes:
- People living or working in congregate care or group living facilities;
- Underserved or marginalized populations, including racial and ethnic minority groups; and
- Essential frontline workers, including those providing health care services and those serving the public, such as grocery store workers.
In addition, if supplies allow, people without symptoms who live or work within a congregate care or group setting can be considered for testing. The guidelines continue to allow health care providers to make clinical decisions about their patients
The full revised guidance is available here.
- The U.S. Senate passed a bill to add money to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was part of the CARES Act and ran out of money last week. Oregon businesses were approved for 18,732 loans through the small business loan program, totaling $3.8 billion. But, I know many small businesses are still hurting and am glad the program will get a $310 billion boost, along with provisions to help minority-owned businesses and those in underserved areas. Today’s $484 billion bill will also fund a small business emergency grant and loan program ($60 billion), increase hospital support ($75 billion) and increase nationwide coronavirus testing capacity ($25 billion). The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the bill later this week.
- The City of Portland is set to receive $114 million from the CARES Act, although there still remain questions on how this money can be spent. Willamette Week has more details here.
- The OHA announced 46 more diagnosed cases of coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 2,002. Three more people sadly passed away, meaning 78 individuals in Oregon have now died from coronavirus. Every death is tragic and should be treated as such. But it’s encouraging to see data collected by The New York Times show that our rate of growth for coronavirus deaths is among the lowest of any state in the country. However, I’m not pleased to see the disproportionate impact of the pandemic growing, with the percentage of Oregonians in the Latinx community who have the virus rising to 26% of positive tests.
More and more people have been getting their federal relief payments, which is a lifesaver right now for many. As a reminder, if you are having an issue getting your payment, you can check the status of your payment with the Internal Revenue Service here.
I was disturbed by an article today in The Los Angeles Times that notes there are Americans who have been barred from receiving these payments because they file taxes jointly and are married to immigrants who don’t have Social Security numbers. This is unfair and a bad idea when we want people to be financially stable in a public health emergency.
Please continue to reach out to my office if you’ve experienced issues receiving your relief payment. And, please note that you can fill out this form if you have little to no income and don’t pay taxes but are still eligible to receive a relief payment.
If you get your health care through the Oregon Health Plan, you can get access to care without having to leave your home. You can make telehealth appointments for medical, mental health, addictions treatment, and dental care. Talk to your health care provider about your options or get more information by going to ohp.oregon.gov or calling 211.
The Oregonian had a great story over the weekend about the town of Sublimity, a community of about 3,000 people in the Willamette Valley that is working to make masks for every resident and deliver them to door-to-door. You can read the story about the Masks for Neighbors project here. Additionally, Oregon Public Broadcasting has a story about 3-D print makers in Portland who are using their machines to create personal protective equipment (PPE). You can read that piece here.
It’s always inspiring to see the caring work people around the state are doing to help their fellow Oregonians. The latter story is also a reminder of the nationwide PPE shortage that is hurting our frontline health care workers and making it more difficult to start reopening our economy. Please continue to make and buy masks for when you go outside and remember that you can go here to donate PPE for our medical professionals.
To read past newsletters, you can go to this link. For up to date information, please check this link to the Oregon Health Authority where regular updates are posted: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ERD/Pages/News-Releases.aspx
Please email me at Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov if you have specific concerns that have not been addressed by the OHA. Our office will do all we can to help and protect all Oregonians.
Thank you for reading! We will get through this together.
Best,
Tina Kotek
State Representative
House District 44
Speaker of the House
email: Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1200
address: 900 Court St NE, H-269, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kotek
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