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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
While we enjoy summer, the holiday weekend, and newly reopened business, it is important to remember that we are still in the midst of an unprecedented health crisis, and cases across the state and the country are continuing to rise. Today, Governor Brown extended our COVID-19 state of Emergency for another 60 days, until September 4th, in line with her commitment to reviewing the Emergency Order every 60 days. You can read her entire statement here, but I’d like to share some of her words with you as well. She correctly explains the vital importance of each of us taking seriously our responsibility to care for ourselves and our community.
“Now, we again find ourselves at a crossroads as a state. The individual choices each of us makes will decide whether Oregon either flattens the curve of new COVID-19 infections, or sees a devastating spike in cases that overwhelms our hospital capacity in the next month.
“If we all follow the advice of doctors––if you wear a face covering in public, if you wash your hands, if you cover your mouth and nose when you cough and sneeze, if you stay home when you are sick––together, we can keep our friends and loved ones healthy and safe.
“If too many Oregonians continue to ignore these precautions, we could see an exponential growth in cases, and newly reopened communities and businesses could close again. We have a chance, now, before the Fourth of July weekend, to make sure that Oregon’s COVID-19 numbers don’t follow the same skyrocketing trajectory of states like Texas or Florida or Arizona.
“Oregon, you have a choice. You can help to save lives again. What happens next is up to all of us.”
The upcoming July 4th holiday weekend comes at a critical moment in our fight against the coronavirus. The state saw an uptick in cases after the Memorial Day weekend. It’s important to make good choices about how we socialize and how we travel. Please keep your celebrations as small and local as possible. Each of us can make a difference in stabilizing the infection rate. Ask yourself how you can reduce risk to the people around you. Remember these things:
- Stay 6 feet away from other people.
- Wear a mask.
- Avoid large gatherings, and if you are in a group setting - like a holiday barbeque - stay outside, keep your distance and use a face covering when you’re not eating.
- Wash your hands frequently.
- Stay home if you’re sick.
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Statewide Mask Requirement: Starting tomorrow, July 1, every Oregonian over 12-years-old will be required to wear a mask or face covering in all indoor public spaces. Face Coverings are recommended for children over 2-years-old. This brings Oregon in line with our neighbors, Washington and California, and at least 16 other states. As mentioned above, complying with this requirement is essential to keeping our communities safe and our businesses open. Read more from the Oregonian here.
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Supreme Court Ruling: I was relieved to see the US Supreme Court strike down a Louisanna Law restricting access to abortions. This law was almost identical to a Texas law requiring that all abortion providers have hosptial admitting privileges, which was also struck down 4 years ago. In Oregon, we have taken important steps to ensure that all Oregonians have equitable access to the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health services. I hope that one day soon women across the country will have similarly comprehensive access, but for now I am relieved that their rights are not being further restricted. Read more from the Associated Press here.
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Washington County Library: While our libraries remain closed for most normal services, Brookwood and Shute Park libraries are now offering “To-Go” service. You can check out the online catalog, reserve a book, and make an appointment to pick up your order once you are notified that it is available. Returns can be done at any time at one of the 24-7 drop off locations. Learn more about the To-Go program here. Forest Grove Library is also offering several different online resources and opportunities to engage, including Teen and Tween Book Clubs and Writing Groups, learn more here.
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 Click on the image above to watch me carry SB 1601 on the floor of the House. SB 1601 provides vital funding flexibility to transit agencies as they respond to COVID-19, and prevents citations from being issued for expired driver licenses, permits, and vehicle registrations and further directs courts to dismiss any citation for specified offenses between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. These provisions are important to ensuring our transportation system keeps moving through this crisis!
Rental and Foreclosure Moratoriums:
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House Bill 4204: Directs lenders to defer both residential and commercial mortgage payments during the pandemic emergency period until September 30, 2020 if a borrower is unable to pay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Deferred payments would be due at the end of the loan, unless the borrower and lenders determine alternate, agreeable terms.
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House Bill 4213: Extends the moratorium on both commercial and residential no-cause evictions through September 30, 2020 and creates a six-month repayment grace period after the moratorium ends for tenants to repay their back rent accrued during the moratorium. During the repayment period, tenants may not be evicted for failure to repay their back rent, but they must keep paying their ongoing monthly rent. Negative credit reporting for non-payment of rent during the moratorium is prohibited, as is assessing late fees or other penalties for nonpayment during the moratorium period.
Joint Committee on Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform:
Last week the legislature passed HB 4201, creating the Joint Committee on Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform. Today, Senate President Peter Courtney and Speaker of the House Tina Kotek have appointed members to that committee, and their work will start as soon as possible to continue the review of current policing practices and make recommendations for further reforms. According to the legislation, the committee is charged with the following work:
- Examine policies that improve transparency in investigations into and complaints regarding the use of force by police officers, and increase transparency in police protocols and processes to build public trust in policing;
- Examine policies that reduce the prevalence of serious physical injury or death caused by the use of force by police officers by analyzing the use of force, the authorization of the use of force under state law and the disparate impact of the use of force on communities of color;
- Determine the most appropriate policy for independent review of the use of deadly force by police officers, including an analysis of procedures and policies used in other states; and
- Examine any other policies that increase transparency in policing and reform the use of force by police officers.
For more detailed information on the bills passed last week, check out this OPB article and the Oregon Legislative Information Site (OLIS).
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National Numbers:
- Confirmed Cases: 2,581,229 (up 35,664 from yesterday)
- Deaths: 126,739 (up 370 from yesterday)
- These national numbers come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You can view their national and state by state data here.
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Oregon Status Report: Oregon now has 8,656 total cases (confirmed and presumptive) of COVID-19. Today we have 181 new confirmed and presumptive cases. Tragically we have had a total of 207 Oregonians die from COVID-19. Washington County still has one of the highest case counts at 1331 confirmed cases, including 18 new cases today. You can review on-going updates from OHA by clicking on the table below.
- The Oregon Health Authority also provides a Public Health Indicators Dashboard to enable communities across Oregon to monitor COVID-19 in the state.The dashboard, which will be updated weekly on Thursdays, provides a transparent report that presents complex epidemiological data in an interactive, easy-to-understand way on a state and county level.
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Table showing Oregon case, testing and demographic data, link to more information
Hillsboro Reopening, Ready Schools Safe Learners:
While the plans have not been finalized, Hillsboro School District is considering options of full-time distance learning and a hybrid model, which would involve students coming to school part of the time* and engaging in distance learning part of the time, with the ultimate goal being students’ return to campus full-time when it is safe and allowable to do so. (*Please note that, depending on the planning teams’ ultimate decisions, some students may be attending in person more often than others, or not at all, in a hybrid model.) HSD is trying to be very careful in sharing information with families to avoid spreading potential misinformation, so limited specifics are available at this time, but updates will be published regularly. Learn more about the districts reopening planning here.
Forest Grove School District:
FGSD has not published their progress on evaluating reopening options yet, but they continue to post COVID-19 related updates on their website. You can view more information on COVID-19 and related updates and services, including summer meal distribution here.
Oregon Department of Education
Ready Schools Safe Learners-Reopening Oregon Schools:
- Today, The Oregon Department of Education released an update to their Ready Schools, Safe Learners Guidance. The department is committed to providing regular updates to their guidance, on a specified schedule so administrators, teachers, parents and students can all be prepared for school in the fall, whatever that looks like for their district. The next update will be on July 21st.
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ODE’s focus is on the Safe Reentry of Students and Staff to School. ODE will continue to work closely with the Oregon Health Authority to develop and update requirements and recommendations for school districts that meet obligations for health, safety, equity, and quality instruction across the state. Oregon Health Authority epidemiologists helped create and vet this guidance, and this collaboration ensures that our school leaders have the critical information they need so that school doors are open and ready to welcome students in the fall.
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For the 2020-21 school year, each and every public school will work under the direction of the school district to develop an Operational Blueprint for Reentry that meets the requirements outlined in the guidance while tailoring their approach for their own students, staff, and community. Through this process, each school must also determine whether they will teach all students on-site, teach all students through distance learning, or utilize a hybrid model that combines both approaches. Before the beginning of the school year, the local school board must review each school’s plan and make it available to the community on the district website.
- Broadly the guidance is centered around four guiding principles:
- Ensure safety and wellness
- Cultivate connection and relationship
- Center Equity
- Innovate
- Visit the Ready Schools, Safe Learners website for more information.
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Equity Plans at Oregon Department of Education:
Recently, ODE director Colt Gil reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to creating an equitable education system in Oregon and announced the implementation of an equity strategic plan to align and guide the agency's equity work. You can read his full June Education Update here, or check out the highlights below.
While this commitment to equity is not new, this plan represents a significant and strategic commitment to expand our internal cultural and structural capacity to ensure sustainability. This will enable ODE to more consistently and effectively interrupt historical and current patterns of neglect and oppression in order to create and ensure educational equity in Oregon’s school systems. As COVID-19 workplace provisions continue, ODE is working on a way to effectively share back this effort with all staff. It was created collaboratively across offices and teams and centers on three goals:
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Goal 1: We cultivate shared narratives, practices and protocols that center equity in our work.
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Goal 2: We leverage our organizational capacity for internal change, innovation, and collaboration to enable and inspire equitable educational practices and outcomes.
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Goal 3: We continually expand our capacity for and commitment to diverse and inclusive partnerships in service of educational equity.
In an effort to answer your questions around regular unemployment benefits, the Employment Department will be hosting another Zoom webinar with program experts on July 2, at 12:30 p.m. They will talk through the key parts of filing regular unemployment claims in COVID-19 situations. They'll also discuss the most common reasons some regular unemployment claims have longer delays before payment. Then attendees can ask questions through the Zoom chat feature.
Please register in advance through this link. Once registered, you should receive a confirmation email. Please note only 500 spots are available for this webinar. If you are unable to attend, a recording of the webinar will be posted afterward on Facebook, Twitter, and the OED website.
You can view the last PUA webinar by clicking on the image below!
Employers and Employees
- Unemployment options http://www.oregon.gov/employ, including the Work Share program at oregonworkshare.com
- See FAQs, and subscribe to updates at https://govstatus.egov.com/ORUnemployment_COVID19
- File a Claim online at https://secure.emp.state.or.us/ocs4/index.cfm?u=F20200324A152211B60880938.0174&lang=E
- Independent Contractor, Gig Worker, & Self Employed Workers can use the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Application at https://govstatus.egov.com/ui-benefits/CARES
- Email the department with questions: OED_COVID19_Info@oregon.gov, you should hear back within about a week, please do not email multiple times with the same question, and please include as much information as possible in your first email. Sending multiple emails asking about the status of your claim will only cause further backlog, and make it harder for OED staff to respond to you and others.
- If you have received a claim denial, or need to appeal an Employment Department decision, use this email: OED_UI_HEARINGSREQ@oregon.gov
- With the extreme increase in people seeking unemployment, the phone lines are busy and it has been difficult to get through. Please preserve phone line capacity by using the email and online tools whenever possible, many of our neighbors do not have internet access but have not been able to get through on the phone due to bottlenecks. You will not lose your place in line by filing online or using email instead of the phone.
- The Oregon Labor and Industries Technical Assistance for Employers page at https://www.oregon.gov/BOLI/TA/pages/index.aspx has information about employer obligations and responsibilities.
- Business Oregon has a robust list of financial resources including non-bank lenders at https://www.oregon4biz.com/Coronavirus-Information/
- The US Small Business Administration offers disaster assistance in the form of SBA loans to designated states. Information about these loans is available at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/Information/Index
- The latest COVID-19/Coronavirus information on resources for workers and business owners is available at https://www.oregon.gov/gov/Pages/coronavirus2020.aspx
- Oregon Secretary of State’s business resources can be found at www.oregon.gov/smallbusiness or you can email questions to business.sos@oregon.gov.
Education Links
Local Government
Utilities Assistance
Food and Housing Assistance
View Past Updates, Share and Subscribe:
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 (http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/mclain), click on “News and Information,” and you’ll find them all there. You can also share this site with your friends and loved ones, so they can view past newsletters, and subscribe to future updates.
A quick comparison of life at the capitol last spring vs. this spring. I definitely miss gathering with staff and colleagues in more personal ways, but we are finding our stride!
Yours truly,
 Representative Susan McLain
House District 29
email: Rep.SusanMcLain@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1429
address: 900 Court St NE, H-376, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/mclain
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