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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Today was a Salem Legislative work day. We needed a floor to continue to introduce bills that will be sent to The Speaker’s office. We also started Committee work today. I chaired the Joint Transportation Committee starting at 8:00am, remotely from my office. We had an organizational vote and adopted our Committee Rules. Then we turned to an informational portion of the agenda to review our bills and introduce committee bills. Staff caught us up on the large Ombudsman Bill that contains technical changes, word clarity, or removal of outdated material in Statute. There are also some policy sections on DMV work. You can see in the picture below that we are practicing social distancing at the Capitol. Twenty representatives, myself and Representative Sollman included, remained in the balconies for the entire floor session.
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Meet one of our two interns this session. Camden Fobert is a senior at Willamette University majoring in Politics. He has lived his whole life in Oregon, and is excited to get the opportunity to work in the state's legislature. We love having interns in our office, even when it has to be remote.
Watch all Oregon State Legislature Live-Streams and Meetings HERE
Track all 2021 Session Bills HERE
Governor Brown delivers State of the State address
Governor Kate Brown today delivered her State of the State address, which expands on the vision she set forth in her 2021-23 budget to build back a more just and equitable Oregon in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, historic wildfires, and a long overdue clarion call for racial justice. Governor Brown's speech highlighted key policy and budget initiatives focused on helping Oregon rebuild, including:
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Proposed investments to expand access to affordable health care;
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Broadband expansion statewide to ensure that every single school across Oregon is connected to the internet;
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Support to help communities create response plans and fire evacuation routes so that they’re better equipped for future fire seasons;
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More than $10 billion invested in K-12 schools and early education so that Oregon can close the opportunity gap and build an antiracist curriculum that is honest about the past;
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$250 million in affordable housing, homelessness prevention and rental assistance; and
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Prioritizing criminal justice reform.
Capitol Launches Live Virtual School Tour Pilot
I have always enjoyed the school tours that come through the Capitol and this is a great alternative until we are able to visit in person again.
- Visitor Services today announced a Live Virtual School Tour pilot program. They are accepting reservations from schools throughout the state to fill 25 tour slots between February 1 and March 5. Schools participating in the pilot program will be asked to provide feedback on their virtual tour experiences.
- The program is available to remote and in-classroom learners alike. During the tour, a Visitor Services staff member will guide students through our 360° virtual Capitol tour using the Microsoft Teams video conferencing platform.
- If you have schools in your district that are interested in participating, please refer them to Visitor Services at 503-986-1388 or by email at Capitol.Events@oregonlegislature.gov.
Oregon shifts vaccination plan in light of new information about supply
- Early last week, OHA updated its vaccination plan after being informed by the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar, that the federal government would be releasing its entire supply of COVID-19 vaccines to states.
- On Friday, Oregon received the news that the federal reserve of vaccines that Oregon and other states expected to receive does not exist. OHA is updating Oregon’s vaccination plan considering this new information.
- The new plan depends on Oregon receiving a reliable supply of doses from the federal government. The current plan is:
- Starting the week of Jan. 25, begin vaccinating teachers and childcare providers.
- Starting Feb. 8. Begin vaccinating the first of four “waves” of seniors.
- Wave 1: Seniors 80 and older.
- Wave 2: Seniors who are 75 and older would follow.
- Wave 3: Seniors who are 70 and older would follow next.
- Wave 4: Eligibility to all Oregonians 65 and older would follow in the weeks after.
In addition, it’s not just important to offer more options to get vaccinated, we want you to know when, where and how you can get immunized. Today on our website, you will find a new personalized, interactive guide that tells you:
- If you’re eligible to get a vaccine, based on your age and occupation.
- Where you can get information about a vaccine, based on your local county resources.
- Where you can get the facts about vaccines and answers to your vaccination questions.
Oregon is surpassing daily COVID-19 vaccination goal
- Vaccination sites across the state are now keeping up with Governor Kate Brown’s goal of administering 12,000 vaccinations per day. Oregon first hit the mark on Jan. 8 with 12,039 total doses administered and tallied a record-high 15,094 doses administered on Jan. 15. For the seven-day-period of Jan. 12 through Jan. 18, Oregon averaged 12,289 vaccinations per day.
| Date of Administration |
Total Doses |
| Tuesday, Jan. 12 |
12,775 |
| Wednesday, Jan. 13 |
14,533 |
| Thursday, Jan. 14 |
13,836 |
| Friday, Jan. 15 |
14,759 |
| Saturday, Jan. 16 |
15,094 |
| Sunday, Jan. 17 |
9,513 |
| Monday, Jan. 18 |
5,511 |
- Oregon is now a week ahead of schedule in vaccinating our Phase 1a health care workers, first responders and people who live or work in nursing homes and other long-term care residences, with nearly two out of three people within Phase 1a already vaccinated. Child care providers and teachers can still plan to get vaccinated starting the week of Jan. 25, and people 80 and older will be eligible beginning on Feb. 8. To learn more about your eligibility for a COVID-19 vaccine, visit our COVID-19 webpage and start a chat with our Vaccine Information Tool.
Quick, but careful: The extensive testing of the COVID-19 vaccines
- The COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna were released faster than any vaccine in history. Luckily for people in the U.S., that speed didn’t replace integrity.
- The COVID-19 vaccines were evaluated extensively in large-scale clinical trials. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires rigorous safety testing before it will approve any vaccine. Tens of thousands of people from many backgrounds and ages, including Oregonians, participated in vaccine testing.
- Even though vaccines were approved quickly by use of an Emergency Use Authorization, the safety testing performed by the manufacturer generated sufficient evidence to convince the FDA that the vaccines were safe and effective.
To learn more about the vaccine review process, visit OHA’s vaccine webpage here.
- Confirmed Cases: 24,135,690 (up 153,106 from yesterday)
- Deaths: 400,306 (up 2,297 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.
- Oregon Status Report: Oregon now has 135,142 total cases (confirmed and presumptive) of COVID-19.
- Today we have 675 new confirmed and presumptive cases, and 25 new deaths.
- A total of 1,841 Oregonians have died from COVID-19.
(previous daily case updates from OHA here)
- Washington County still has one of the highest case counts at 18,867 confirmed cases, including 175 deaths. You can review on-going updates from OHA by clicking on the table below.
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The Oregon Health Authority recently provided 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.
Updated guidance for schools is released
- As part of its planned guidance and metrics review process with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) released an update to the Ready Schools, Safe Learners guidance.
- The updated guidance includes updated advisory metrics for in-person instruction. The metrics are based on the latest COVID-19 studies and data and help Oregon’s schools make informed decisions about returning to in-person instruction.
- While health metrics have shifted from required to advisory, schools must follow all the required guidelines. All staff must be trained on the first three sections of Ready Schools, Safe Learners and schools need to designate a school leader to implement, support and enforce health and safety protocols.
- A new requirement, that when students and staff return to in-person instruction out of alignment with the advised metrics, schools must offer access to on-site COVID-19 testing for symptomatic students and staff identified on campus as well as those with known exposure to individuals with COVID-19.
- The update also includes multiple new resources to support learning outside, field trips, equitable grading practices, attendance best practices, contact tracing partnerships, COVID-19 testing, and more.
- A video of ODE Director Colt Gill explaining the updates is available.
- As schools make decisions about returning to in-person instruction, they must focus on two critical factors:
- It remains important that the community case counts (or case rates) are low enough that the community is not regularly introducing new COVID-19 cases into the school. The county metrics remain the best tool for determining when cases are down enough to return to in-person instruction.
- The ability to implement public health and safety protocols in the school with fidelity. Oregon’s guidance is comprehensive and includes diligent entry screening, universal use of face coverings, physical distancing, cohorting, frequent handwashing, and over 160 other requirements for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
- ODE engaged with nearly 2,000 school and community partners over the last two weeks, including Governor Brown’s Healthy Schools Reopening Council and Medical Advisory Panel, to inform this update. The guidance takes effect immediately. As conditions change, our guidance will be updated so that we can continue serving the needs of our students.
What if I need a home repair?
Keeping your home free from outside visitors is an important way to limit the spread of COVID-19, but sometimes you may need to have someone in your home for a necessary repair. If you do need to have a repair person or other visitor in your home, here are some steps to limit the risk of spreading COVID-19.
- Look on the repair company’s website or ask them what they are doing to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.
- Make sure the visitor knows that you expect them to wear a well-fitting mask.
- Stay at least 6 feet away from the visitor.
- Everyone in the house should wear a mask while the visitor is present, including those who live there.
- Open doors and windows.
- Place a fan near an open window or door, blowing outside.
- Turn on the exhaust fans in your bathroom and kitchen. Keep them running for one hour before and after the visit to remove virus particles.
More information on ventilation is on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
Congratulations to Centro Cultural for a banner year helping Washington County
Centro Cultural really stepped up to serve Washington County in a year when all resources, both local and federal, have been stretched thin. Here are just some of their accomplishments this year:
- provided $1.2 million in direct support to families relating to COVID19
- Over 470 quarantining families received more than $753,000 in direct payments for rent, groceries, and other needs
- Supported 17,518 people through food insecurity programs in the area
- $4.2 million in small business financing
- $3.7 million in small business procurement opportunities
- 896 unemployment claims supported
- 296 people supported in finding work
Four health systems will join together to open a vaccination clinic for people who are eligible
- Kaiser Permanente, Providence, Legacy Health and Oregon Health & Science University are pooling their COVID-19 vaccine doses and staff to launch what they are calling a mega clinic at the Oregon Convention Center in Northeast Portland.
- The need to vaccinate the entire state population as fast as possible makes mass vaccination sites a necessity. Hospital campuses don’t have enough parking, indoor space or staff to accommodate the number of people getting vaccinated on top of their regular flow of patients.
- The plan and partnership is a work in progress, and many of the details have yet to be finalized, including how people eligible to receive the vaccine can sign up for appointments.
- Kaiser’s goal is to launch the Oregon Convention Center vaccination clinic next week, initially on a smaller scale. The launch of a mass vaccination site in Multnomah County, to serve the Portland metro area, will be a key part of a broader statewide effort to ramp up vaccine distribution in anticipation of more doses -- and more demand.
- Kaiser will also be partnering with Salem Health to support the vaccination clinic at the Oregon Fairgrounds, and is working with health systems in Clark County.
Oregon wildfire recovery debris removal begins
- Crews around the state are beginning to clear roads and private properties of trees damaged in September’s wildfires. The tree clearing is part of the Oregon Wildfire Recovery Debris Management Task Force’s effort to provide cleanup for homes and businesses in the eight affected counties – Clackamas, Douglas, Jackson, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn and Marion. The work paves the way for rebuilding efforts, community recovery and helps revitalize Oregon’s economy.
- Before crews begin clearing hazard trees from private property, they will clear remaining logs and debris from roadsides. Drivers in fire-affected areas should keep an eye out for crews and be prepared to stop.
- State contractors are marking trees for removal with blue dot and a barcode tracking tag. Many other entities, including utilities and private companies, continue with their own tree removal operations and have their own markings.
- On private property, dead or dying trees will be removed if they pose a threat to the safety of cleanup crew or public right of ways. Ash and structural debris removal will soon follow, including concrete and other household and construction materials, from private homes and businesses. A list of what is included in cleanup is available.
- Home and business owners must sign an All Wildfire Debris Right of Entry Form with their county to allow cleanup crews onto their property. Visit https://wildfire.oregon.gov/ or call 503-934-1700 to submit your form and for more information. Even those who did not join in Step 1 of the cleanup may still opt into the program. Participating property owners also need to complete a questionnaire about their property, to help with planning and ensure an efficient, safe removal of debris.
About the Debris Management Task Force
The State of Oregon is working with federal, state and local partners to safely and efficiently remove hazard trees and debris resulting from the wildfires that devastated Oregon in late summer 2020. The Oregon Departments of Transportation and Environmental Quality, and Office of Emergency Management are jointly leading this effort as the Debris Management Task Force.
Hotline: (503) 934-1700 Email: ODOT.Wildfire@odot.state.or.us
What a new administration means to disaster declarations
- On Sept. 15, 2020, former President Trump declared a federal disaster in Oregon due to Oregon wildfires, unlocking FEMA funds and assets for wildfire survivors. As the United States changes administrations, it's important to note there will be no losses to those benefits, which are defined in the Stafford Act.
- Increases to the non-federal cost share will be discussed with the new administration, as will any unresolved questions regarding eligibility for things like foundations and concrete slabs under the Public Assistance program. Stay tuned for more information on how Oregon and the country will continue to support wildfire survivors but rest assured current efforts will continue as planned.
Wildfire Recovery Resources:
OEM has put together this list of contacts to help speed up the process of replacing these documents:
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Green cards: Phone (800)-375-5283; Website: www.uscis.gov
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Medicare cards: Phone: (800)-772-1213; (TTY) (800)-325-0778 Website: www.medicare.gov
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Military records Phone: 866-272-6272 Website: www.archives.gov/contact/
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Passport Phone: 877-487-2778; (TTY) 888-874-7793 Website: travel.state.gov
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Social Security card Phone: 800-772-1213; (TTY) 800-325-0778 Website: www.ssa.gov
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U.S. Savings Bonds Phone: 844-284-2676 Website: www.treasurydirect.gov
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U.S. tax returns Phone: 800-829-1040 Website: www.irs.gov
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Birth, death, marriage, domestic partnership, divorce certificates Phone: 888-896-4988 Website: www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/Birthdeathcertificates
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Driver’s license, auto titles and registration, ID cards Phone: 503-945-5000 Website: www.oregon.gov/odot
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SNAP (Oregon Trail Card) Website: www.oregon.gov/DHS/Assistance/Food-Benefits
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State taxes (Oregon Dept. of Revenue) Phone: 503-378-4988 or 800-356-4222 TTY: All relay calls are accepted. Website: www.oregon.gov/dor
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Real estate and property - Contact your county government.
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Credit cards - Contact your credit card company directly.
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Credit reports from Equifax, Experian, TransUnion Phone: 877-322-8228 Website: www.annualcreditreport.com
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Insurance documents - Check with your insurance agent.
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Medical records - Call your doctor or your medical insurance company; medical and prescription records are tracked electronically.
The Governor’s office has put together a Wildfire Resources page that you can access from the Governor’s home page. It has links to many of the most important updates about the status of fires and resources for evacuees. This website will be updated regularly.
Legal Resources: Oregon State Bar’s Lawyer Referral Program, Oregon lawyers, through the Oregon State Bar, are partnering with FEMA and the American Red Cross to provide legal assistance on FEMA claims, contract claims, insurance claims, landlord-tenant matters and more.
The Department of Forestry’s Wildfire Response and Recovery Overview has ongoing updates about firefighting efforts, damage reports, and more.
FEMA Updates: FEMA has provided several different Fact Sheets and resources for accessing benefits, determining eligibility and avoiding scams.
Employers and Employees
Education Links
Hillsboro School District (en inglés y español)
Forest Grove School District (en inglés y español)
Oregon Department of Education
COVID-19 Resources for Oregon Higher Education Partners
Local Government
City of Hillsboro (en inglés, español y más idiomas)
City of Cornelius (en inglés, español y más idiomas)
City of Forest Grove (Personal que habla español disponible en este número: (503) 992-3221)
Washington County
Utilities Assistance
Portland General Electric (en inglés y español)
NW Natural
City of Hillsboro Utility Billing
Comcast
CenturyLink
AT&T
City of Forest Grove
Food and Housing Assistance
Community Action.org
Oregon Food Bank
Meals on Wheels
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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