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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Happy New Year! I hope you’ve been safe and well during a momentous and challenging first week of this new year.
As you’ll read below, legislators are returning to Salem on Monday to organize their work for the 2021 session. Things will get busy during session, but I’m committed to continuing to do this newsletter regularly, although it might be more like once a week.
And thank you for your kind emails about how much you appreciate this newsletter. My team loves the encouragement!
I want to briefly address some troubling events from the week.
The riot in Washington, D.C., at the U.S. Capitol Building on Wednesday amounted to an attempted coup, incited by a selfish politician who lost an election fair and square. It was a disgraceful, tragic day for our country and our democracy. It’s devastating to know that an out-of-control mob has managed to sully our country’s historic reputation as a beacon of democracy in just one day.
Sadly, the footage in our nation’s capital looked all too similar to what we’ve seen on multiple occasions in Salem at our state Capitol. I want to thank Oregon State Police for their work to deescalate some very tense situations over the last few weeks, including during our recent special session on December 21, when multiple protestors unlawfully entered the Capitol with the intent to disrupt the proceedings.
As has been reported, the situation in our Capitol escalated dangerously when a state representative opened an exterior door to let unruly, armed demonstrators into the building. This was a serious breach of public trust, and his actions put the safety of legislators, staff and law enforcement at risk. This was especially terrorizing for our members and staff of color because the rhetoric of the protesters was out of the Trump playbook and catered to white supremacist motivations. His actions were completely unacceptable, reckless and dangerous. There is a criminal investigation underway, and my office is currently considering all possible consequences to hold him accountable for his actions.
Our democracy is fragile and depends on each of us to stand up for the rule of law and our democratic institutions. We must all stand together for peace and against violence and hate.
During these tense times, we can’t lose sight of the damage the COVID-19 virus continues to inflict on our communities. On Thursday, the nation recorded more than 4,000 deaths in one day for the first time.
New projections from the Institute for Disease Modeling, which can be found here, showed that virus transmission in the state is growing. The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report showed sharp increases in daily cases and positive tests.
Here are other notes from the OHA report:
- During Monday, December 28, through Sunday, January 3, OHA recorded 7,913 new cases of COVID-19 infection – a 17% increase over last week’s total.
- New hospitalizations rose by 6% to 358.
- There were 73 Oregonians who died in association with COVID-19 – down from 86 last week.
- Of the 118,458 cases reported to date in Oregon, 1,506 people have died, which is a case-fatality rate of 1.3%.
In response to the slow pace of vaccinations, Governor Brown announced today she has activated Oregon National Guard members to support vaccination efforts, beginning with the Salem Health event at the state fairgrounds. The goal is to get to 12,000 COVID-19 vaccinations per day within the next two weeks. Willamette Week has more information here.
Earlier this week, the Oregon Health Authority announced it’s taking the following steps to ramp up vaccinations:
- Speeding up Phase 1A prioritization by simplifying the staging and sequencing among groups.
- Speeding up the number of doses delivered to nursing home staff and residents by activating Part B of federal pharmacy partnerships. OHA anticipates this change will speed vaccinations to approximately 80,000 staff and residents.
- Speeding up the number of doses delivered to health care workers and other Phase 1A groups by giving them the option to get vaccinated at retail pharmacies.
- Making more doses available to Phase 1A workers by leveraging every available public health capability at our disposal.
- Speeding up the number of doses delivered to unaffiliated health care workers, nursing home staff and others by supporting innovative partnerships, such as a collaboration between OHSU and labor union SEIU to launch a pilot vaccination effort.
Unfortunately, re-infection is possible with COVID-19. Therefore, even if you have already had the virus and recovered, you may still be advised to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
This coming Monday, January 11, the Legislature will organize and swear in members in the Capitol. On Tuesday, January 19, the session work will begin.
Yesterday, Senate President Courtney and I released the Capitol Operations Safety Plan for the this year’s legislative session. In the wake of the ongoing pandemic that has led to the deaths of more than 1,500 Oregonians and stretched our hospital capacity to the brink, public health and safety are still top priorities.
The Legislature is committed to ensuring public input and participation throughout the pandemic. We are expanding participation through audio and video testimony so that Oregonians in every community throughout the state will have greater opportunity to provide feedback, regardless of how far they live from the Capitol. We’ve been practicing and improving upon this use of technology during last year’s three special sessions. For example, in preparation for December’s special session, approximately 100 Oregonians testified by audio and/or video in six hours of public hearings and submitted approximately 550 pieces of written testimony for the legislative record.
The Oregonian has more details here on how the session will operate. As more Oregonians receive the COVID-19 vaccine, legislative leadership will continue to regularly reevaluate the Capitol Operations Safety Plan in consultation with public health officials.
The Legislative Emergency Board virtually convened this afternoon to consider emergency funding requests to support Oregonians impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Labor Day wildfires.
This follows action taken during the third special session of 2020 on December 21, when the Legislature voted to move $400 million into the Emergency Fund for critical pandemic-related programs that will support Oregonians in the first few months of 2021, as well as $100 million to provide more support for Oregonians impacted by the Labor Day wildfires.
A brief summary of what was approved can be found here, and more details on all agenda items can be found here.
Many thanks (again) to the Oregon Law Center for its work to get information out to tenants about the newest eviction moratorium, which the Legislature passed in December. If you know someone who has been unable to pay rent during the pandemic, please consider sharing these graphics and video with them.
- The Oregon Health Authority announced 1,755 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing the statewide total of new and presumptive cases to 122,847. The OHA also reported seven more deaths, meaning 1,575 Oregonians have died of the coronavirus. You can click the images below for links to interactive data tables about coronavirus in Oregon.
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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