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Dear friends,
The Legislature's Emergency Board is scheduled to meet remotely this Thursday morning at 10 a.m. to approve around $32 million in funding for Oregon's response to COVID-19 and its economic fallout. You can watch the meeting and view materials once posted at: https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2019I1/Committees/EB/2020-04-23-10-00/Agenda.
Here is an outline of the proposed COVID-19 response distributions from the state's emergency fund:
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$5 million for small business stabilization. Payments to small businesses who aren't being assisted by federal funds. This will be matched by $5 million in existing Business Oregon funds, for a total of $10 million.
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$10 million in worker gap funding. These will be payments to workers who are excluded from federal assistance via the Oregon Worker Relief Fund.
- $12 million for housing assistance. Includes hotel vouchers for farmworker quarantine housing and hotel vouchers for the homeless (requested by community action agencies). Rent relief payments directly to landlords through housing agencies.
- $2 million in domestic violence funding. This will be allocated via the Department of Justice directly to non-profit providers of domestic violence services.
- $120,000 for a pandemic human resource position to coordinate pandemic response at the Bureau of Labor and Industries.
- $3.35 million for COVID-19 testing and training of workers in long-term care and other congregate-care settings. (This may not be needed if we can use federal funds for this purpose.)
These expenditures will leave a little over $18 million in the state's Emergency Fund.
Authorization for Spending Federal COVID-19 Relief Funds
In addition to the above-outlined direct allocations from the the Legislature's emergency fund, the Emergency Board will also be granting approval for spending of federal dollars and other fee-based dollars coming to the state. (This authorization is necessary to distribute the incoming federal COVID-19 aid.) These include $300 million in general federal COVID-19 Relief Funds and $50 million in loans to rural hospitals. The Emergency Board will also authorize the release of previously scheduled state funds related to firefighting ($6 million), Public Defense ($3.875 million), and $20 million in scheduled compensation increases for Department of Human Services / Oregon Health Authority direct care workers.
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