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Earlier today, Governor Brown held a press conference on the status of plans for reopening Oregon. You can find guidance from her office at this link or watch the video below by clicking on the image. You can also read OPB's coverage at this link.
 Click on the image to watch the press conference.
Thank you Oregon Nurses Association for recognizing me as your 2019-2020 legislator of the year! I'm honored by this award and deeply appreciate the heroic contributions nurses make to keep all of us safe and healthy. I am so excited to continue to fight with you in Salem to make sure that you are treated with the respect and dignity you deserve.
Yesterday was National Nurses Day and marked the start of Nurses Week - please join me in thanking our nurses for their extraordinary service during this global pandemic!
  Click the image to watch my video thanking Oregon nurses.
This week is also Teacher Appreciation Week and Tuesday was Teacher Appreciation Day. To all of our teachers and support staff working overtime and keeping our kids going with their education, thank you!
 Click the image to watch my video thanking teachers.
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The state is partnering with OHSU to conduct a big statewide study of COVID that is being called “Key to Oregon.” An initial $6 million is being deployed to generate, test, and track 100,000 volunteers around the state, including a representative sample of Oregon’s various ethnic, racial, socio-economic, and geographic communities over the next year. You can read all about it at the Key to Oregon website.
- The Small Business Administration will make loans through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program available to small agricultural businesses (up to $2 million to qualifying businesses that have been impacted by the coronavirus). Applications are available here and eligible businesses are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.
- The Oregon Health Authority is now publishing coronavirus recovery data and case data by zip code. You can review an interactive map published by the Oregonian here.
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The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services issued a new emergency order for health insurance companies during the COVID-19 outbreak. The order requires health insurance companies to:
- Provide at least a 60-day grace period to pay any past due premiums
- Pay claims for any covered services during the first 30 days of the grace period
- Extend all deadlines for reporting claims and other communications, and provide members with communication options that meet physical distancing standards
If you have any questions, please reach out to my office and we will do our best to respond to you quickly. Enjoy the sun and warm weather this weekend, but please continue to keep physical distance for the safety of our communities and essential workers. My colleague Senator Michael Dembrow summed up our progress well earlier this week:
“The relatively low rate of infection so far in Oregon is no accident, not a matter of luck or a function of our extraordinary toughness, nor because the disease isn’t as dangerous or easy to spread as the experts were saying it was. It is dangerous, and it spreads easily. Without the actions we’ve taken, many thousands more Oregonians would have been infected by now, many of them dangerously so, and many more would have died. Avoiding the worst scenarios would not have happened if Oregonians hadn’t stepped up and for the most part abided by the call to be prudent, stay home, stay responsible for themselves and others. I know this is painful, but we actually have a lot to feel proud of.”
We can be cautiously optimistic moving forward, but also must be vigilant so that our efforts to date aren't in vain.
Be well and take care,
 State Senator Rob Wagner
 With another sunny weekend coming up, please enjoy the nice weather safely.
email: Sen.RobWagner@OregonLegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1719
address: 900 Court St NE, S-215, Salem, OR, 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/wagner
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