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June 25, 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.
Aside from today’s metrics and graphs, the bulk of today’s newsletter is a report on the second day of the Legislature’s special session. At this point we’re hoping that the Legislature will complete its work on Friday.
But for now, let me just say that I’ve delayed this newsletter long enough to be able to see the Special Session Committee approve all five police accountability bills unanimously, and with our Republican colleagues making strong statements in support of amendments that laid out the need for these bills in very powerful language. It was extremely heartening, and it really speaks to the urgency of these days. I’d like to think that we are seeing evidence of a bipartisan mind-set that will need to persist if we are to do the crucial work on police accountability and justice reform that remains to be done in the coming months.
I’ll comment more on the specifics of the bills passed in the newsletter tomorrow and over the weekend.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA reports today that 109 additional Oregonians have tested positive. The cumulative total for those testing positive is now 7,294.
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Total Tests happy: The cumulative total number tests in Oregon now stands at 216,344. That’s an increase of 2,595 tests.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive results for today is 4.2%. The national percentage is 6.5%. See below for a graph showing Oregon’s daily percentage changes over the last 14 days.
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Deaths: I’m afraid that I have to report 2 additional deaths due to the coronavirus reported today. The total number of deaths in Oregon is now 197.
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Hospitalized: OHA reported 6 new COVID hospitalizations today. The cumulative total of those who’ve been hospitalized for COVID-19 is now 1,012.
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Presumptive Cases: OHA is now including “presumptive COVID-19 cases” in its daily reports, consistent with recently amended guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A presumptive case is someone who does not yet have a positive PCR test result but is showing symptoms and has had close contact with a confirmed case. If they later test positive by PCR, those will be recategorized as confirmed cases. OHA reports 15 additional presumptive positives today. The total number of presumptive cases is 274.
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Other Hospital Information:
- Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 189 (4 more than yesterday). Of those, 95 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 150 (3 more than yesterday).
- Other Available Beds: 682 (82 fewer than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 60 (1 more than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 29 (same as yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 786 (8 more than yesterday).
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Dashboards
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Today’s National Numbers:
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PPE:
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Additional Brief Updates:
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The Governor announced today that she is commuting the sentences of 57 highly medically vulnerable adults in custody. They were considered on a case-by-case basis from a list submitted by the Department of Corrections. As you’ll see in the press release, these AICs will be eligible for release as soon as they have housing and continuity of medical care lined up and has tested negative for COVID. They will then begin post-prison supervision for the remainder of their sentence. I’ll say again that this is a good first step by the Governor but much more is needed if the state is to be responsible custodians of those incarcerated and those who work in our prisons.
- In a presentation to legislators today, we learned that DHS is still working on the statewide plan for universal testing in long-term care facilities. We learned that testing will be mandatory for staff. Residents may choose not to be tested, but if they do, they will need to be quarantined for 14 days. Testing of staff and residents without symptoms will begin in those counties with high infection numbers, beginning with memory-care units.
Special Session Day Two
Day Two of the Special Session has been a long day of hard work by the Special Joint Committee. They took testimony from scores of individuals throughout the day on a large variety of topics. We heard about a number of amendments to the bills. Some of them were the product of work groups bringing together people from different sides of the issues and finding points of consensus. Not surprisingly, those were more likely to win approval, as opposed to proposals that came from individual legislators, lobbyists, or advocacy groups.
I’m happy to report that Republicans and Democrats have agreed on “rules suspension” in the House. This means that the normal timelines required for bills to come to the floor have shortened. As a result, the House was able to schedule final votes on the House bills that came out of committee yesterday. I’m hoping that we’ll see the same level of agreement on the Senate side tomorrow. If so, we should be able to finish up sometime tomorrow.
The Senate floor session begins at 10:00 a.m. on Friday.
You can follow what’s going on in both chambers tomorrow here.
House Passes Five Bills Today
These are the bills that passed the House today:
HB 4210: Repeals driving privilege suspension and eliminates imposition of driving privilege restrictions for failure to pay fine.
HB 4202: Makes technical adjustments to the corporate activity tax.
HB 4206: Authorizes State Department of Agriculture to adopt rules establishing program of state inspection for processing and sale of meat products from amenable species, including but not limited to cattle and sheep but not horses and other equines.
HB 4209: Allows Eastern Oregon Border Economic Development Board to enter into agreement with third-party administrator to operate programs for awarding grants and making loans that enhance and expand workforce development and economic development in Eastern Oregon Border Economic Development Region.
HB 4211: A technical fix that clarifies timing of when the Department of Education is required to make transfers from Fund for Student Success.
Joint Committee Holds Work Session to Approve Further Bills
The Joint Committee is in the middle of its “Work Sessions” as I’m finishing up this newsletter. Work sessions occur after the public testimony has been completed and when voting happens. This is when amendments are presented, debated, considered, and voted on, followed by debate and vote on the now-amended bill.
Many of these bills have been or are on track to be amended. Those amendments will be incorporated into the bills before they’re voted on tomorrow. In the meantime, to see which amendments were adopted, click on the bill link, then click on Amendments, and look to the amendments that were Adopted. (You’ll see many that were proposed, but only those Adopted won majority support from the committee members of each chamber.)
Here are the bills that have been approved by the committee:
SB 1601: Upon passage, allows Statewide Transportation Improvement Fund moneys to be used to maintain existing public transportation services.
SB 1604: Restricts arbitration award from ordering disciplinary action that differs from disciplinary action imposed by law enforcement agency if arbitrator makes finding that misconduct occurred consistent with agency's finding of misconduct, and disciplinary action imposed by agency is consistent with provisions of discipline guide or discipline matrix adopted by agency as result of collective bargaining and incorporated into agency's disciplinary policies.
SB 1605: Modifies Oregon Promise program to extend eligibility to certain Oregon foster children who attain their highest level of education while in out-of-state placements.
SB 1606: Sets out requirements to insure that people with disabilities are not subject to discrimination in the care that they receive and that they have access to the support person(s) who can help them interact with the medical system. It passed with the -8 amendments.
SB 5711: This is the bill that appropriates any of the dollars needed to fund the various decisions made during the special session. Its House version (HB 5211) is not needed, so does not move forward.
HB 4201: Creates a legislative task force to create the details of a process that will require a law enforcement agency to notify the Attorney General when a police officer uses physical force resulting in death or qualifying physical injury.
HB 4203: Provides that peace officer may not use force that limits ability of person to breathe, including but not limited to choke holds.
HB 4204: Establishes temporary limitations on lenders being able to enforce default remedies on obligations secured by mortgages, trust deeds, land sale contracts or other instruments, also known as the Foreclosure Bill. The foreclosure bill passed with the -4 amendments.
HB 4205: Directs Department of Public Safety Standards and Training to adopt rules requiring police officer to intervene to stop another police officer from engaging in act that is unethical or that violates law, rules or policy.
HB 4207: Directs Department of Public Safety Standards and Training to establish statewide database of police officer discipline records.
HB 4208: Prohibits law enforcement agencies from using tear gas or from using long range acoustic devices or sound cannons.
HB 4212: This is the omnibus coronavirus response bill. It included a number of amendments.
HB 4213: Prohibits residential and commercial evictions of renters under specified conditions during emergency period. (Passed with the -14 amendments.)
HB 4214: Declares Oregon policy regarding Indian children. Brings Oregon into compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act.
HCR 212: This is a technical bill that establishes deadlines for presession-filed legislative measures for 2021 regular session of Eighty-first Legislative Assembly.
SCR 211: This is the bill that will allow us to adjourns sine die the 2020 special session of Eightieth Legislative Assembly.
Where Are Today’s New Cases?
If we put together the positive test results and new “presumptive” cases reported today, the overall number of new cases is 124. Here is the breakdown by county for today:
Benton (6)
Clackamas (8)
Clatsop (1)
Coos (2)
Deschutes (2)
Jackson (2)
Klamath (13)
Lake (3)
Lane (5)
Linn (2)
Malheur (2)
Marion (4)
Morrow (1)
Multnomah (29)
Polk (2)
Umatilla (8)
Union (10)
Wasco (1)
Washington (24)
Yamhill (1)
And the Deaths:
Oregon’s 196th COVID-19 death is an 83-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on June 18 and died June 24, in her residence. She had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 197th COVID-19 death is an 83-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on June 18 and died June 23, in his residence. He had underlying conditions.
Additional Graphs:
Want to See Past Newsletters?
If there was COVID-related information in a past newsletter that you want to go back to, but find you’ve deleted it, you can always go to my legislative website (www.senatordembrow.com), click on “News and Information,” and you’ll find them all there. Also, if someone forwarded you this newsletter and you’d like to get it directly, you can sign up for it there.
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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