Vulnerable Oregonians take center stage during Legislature's emergency session, likely to extend into next week
He went to the hospital in Corvallis with pneumonia, but the physician who saw him thought the 64-year-old quadriplegic man with developmental disabilities would be a waste of masks and gloves.
The physician’s recommendation? Quit feeding him and send him home to die.
Oregon legislators convened an emergency session June 25 to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and police brutality. They started with hearings to learn what the people of Oregon have been going through these past four months.
Oregonians had a lot to say.
Sarah Frazzino provides homes for elderly and disabled residents as the executive director of Benco in Corvallis. One of those residents, she told senators and representatives on the session’s joint committee, is the quadriplegic man health care providers wanted to send home to die.
“This was said within earshot of him,” Frazzino told legislators.
“This man was made to feel as if he was less than worthy of receiving essential health care support due to the fact that his quality of life was deemed less valuable,” she said.
Frazzino said advocates for the man intervened to make sure he received the treatment he needed, and he eventually made a full recovery. She used his story to advocate for the passage of Senate Bill 1606.
BILL TRACKER: See the status of bills Street Roots is tracking during the emergency session
Among other provisions, the bill would allow disabled people to have at least one support person present during a hospital stay. It also prohibits hospitals from triaging patients and deciding who is too far gone to help based on age or disability.
Hospitals often isolated patients early in the pandemic and restricted or prohibited visitors, even if advocates were needed to help patients make medical decisions. Dr. Susan Tolle, the director of the Center of Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health & Science University, told legislators mistakes were made.
“I am deeply saddened by what happened in the early phases of the pandemic when we didn’t have enough masks, we didn’t have enough tests, and urgent policy was put into place that restricted visitors in a way that was harmful,” Tolle said.
However, she added, many such policies changed June 8. She cautioned lawmakers from passing the bill in the emotional climate of the moment.
“This cannot be put together in a few days in a short session,” Tolle said.
It was a sentiment expressed often at the State Capitol Building as the session started, and lawmakers faced a blizzard of approximately 50 emergency bills, all demanding attention.
Senate Minority Leader Fred Girod (R-Stayton) complained that Gov. Kate Brown called the session June 16 without giving Republicans any say on proposed legislation.
“We have no right whatsoever to write a bill,” Girod said on the floor of the Senate June 25. “We have no right to amend a bill. I’m sorry, but that is just plain wrong when you’re talking about 38 bills or 40 bills or 50-some bills. We feel very strongly that the rights of the minority, no matter who the minority is, are extremely important.”
He also criticized Democrats for taking precautions against the coronavirus by shutting most members of the public and the press out of the Capitol. Legislators and their staff members are required to wear masks on the House and Senate floors and keep at least six feet apart.
Most committee meetings are conducted via Zoom web conferencing.
“Because the virus spreads through close personal contact and through the air, we absolutely must modify our rules to preserve health and safety while continuing to satisfy the obligations placed on the legislative assembly by the Oregon Constitution, including obligations to conduct open deliberations,” state Sen. Rob Wagner (D-Lake Oswego) said as senators considered rules for the session.
Open deliberations require direct public participation, Girod said. Testimony submitted in writing or through video meetings is not enough, he added.
“No matter how you want to phrase it, this is the building of the people,” he said. “It’s not ours. It’s not the Legislature’s. It’s the building of the people. And we need the people to fetter those bills to make sure they’re done appropriately.”
He said public input is particularly vital on bills responding to police brutality.
“I listened to a bunch of heart-wrenching, emotional testimony yesterday about police oversight,” Girod said. “We have to get those bills right. It doesn’t do us a lot of good to run through and just do window dressing. Those bills, it is essential they’re done correctly to make sure there’s some balance, and we alleviate that problem once and for all.”
Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem) said it was time to put bipartisan sniping aside. Lawmakers must meet the call of history, he said in introductory remarks on the Senate floor June 24. “I have never seen a situation where so much is at stake,” Courtney said. “This isn’t a special session. This is a catastrophic session.”
“No matter how many bills we pass, no matter how many great speeches are given by whomever, no matter how many horrible actions we see, if it doesn’t get inside you, we’re not going to get there. We will not survive this thing.”
Police brutality and racism must be addressed immediately, he said, but legislators must do more than pass bills. Lawmakers must feel that call of history, he added.
“No matter how many bills we pass, no matter how many great speeches are given by whomever, no matter how many horrible actions we see, if it doesn’t get inside you, we’re not going to get there,” Courtney said. “We will not survive this thing.”
Justice will not wait forever, he said. “Somewhere, some generation is going to say enough is enough.”
State Sen. Lew Frederick (D-Portland) said he is stunned by the international outcry against racism sparked by the May 25 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin while three other officers stood by.
“There is, in fact, another virus of racism that had been something that a number of us, a lot of us, had dealt with for years and was now becoming visible,” said Frederick, who is African American. “I’m both pleased and overwhelmed by the fact that we are going to be looking at these issues in this special session.”
People historically pushed to the edges of public policies — including people experiencing racial prejudice, economic hardship and physical disability — are often taking center stage during this special session.
While much of this week was spent listening to public testimony, Democrats hailed the passage of House Bill 4210 June 25, prohibiting the court system from suspending people’s driver’s licenses because of their inability to pay fines and fees.
STREET ROOTS INVESTIGATION: Inability to pay punitive fines and fees cripples low-income Oregonians
State Rep. Chris Gorsek (D-Troutdale) drafted the bill.
“The inability to pay a traffic fine for minor offenses like the failure to signal, a broken tail light or even a minor speeding ticket can mean a long driver’s license suspension if you’re unable to pay,” Gorsek, a former Portland police officer, told members of the joint committee.
“This can create a cruel cycle for our constituents as losing your license really erodes your ability to earn money,” he said.
Many Oregonians lose their licenses for years, he told his colleagues. They can’t drive their children to school. They can’t get themselves or medically fragile loved ones to medical services. Reinstating their licenses means additional fees.
All this has a ripple effect, Gorsek said. “As a culture, while we’re considering the inequities of institutional bias, we should consider how people of color and low-income Oregonians are all disproportionately impacted by debt-based driver’s license suspension,” he said.
Representatives from the Oregon State Police made that connection directly when they testified before the Legislature in February.
“There’s a direct line from these suspensions to the racial disparities in their citation data for driving while suspended for African-American Oregonians,” Gorsek said. “Ending this practice is the first step toward stopping the harm caused by unjust fines and fees, which also has been exacerbated by the current pandemic.”
State Rep. Christine Drazen (R-Canby) challenged the bill. Echoing the objections of her GOP colleagues on many bills, she said legislation should wait until lawmakers convene for their regular session next year.
“I’m interested in this session in supporting legislation that relates to the pandemic, helps out economy recovery and is responsive to parts of government that are impacted by shutdowns,” Drazen said.
Gorsek stressed the importance of passing the bill now.
“Many of the people who have had to work and continue to work are lower-income people,” he told the committee.
“And lower-income people are the ones who are the most impacted by these sorts of fines and then suspensions,” he said. “We do have a connection to COVID in the fact that we don’t want to put yet another barrier between their ability to take care of their families during a time when we need them to work, and we want them to be able to make a living.”
As of press time, legislators worked out a possible deal to extend Oregon’s moratorium on residential and commercial evictions to Sept. 30.
Members of the joint committee passed a version of House Bill 4213 to the full House and Senate that also gives tenants until March 2021 to pay back rent owed landlords from the months of the pandemic.
LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW: Housing-related measures on the table in special session
Brown imposed an eviction moratorium by an executive decision April 1. Her order was scheduled to end June 30. The bill would replace that order.
“We have been scrambling to attempt to keep people informed and work with renters throughout this eviction moratorium,” Jesse Sharpe, a regional organizer for the Community Alliance of Tenants, told committee members.
“We particularly want to make sure the eviction moratorium is extended just long enough that we can at least be working with tenants and making sure they have the protection they need before it is lifted, that we can be giving them the rental assistance dollars that often times have not reached the people who need them at this point,” he added.
Coya Crespin, another organizer with the alliance, said the bill should have included a two-year rent freeze. “I don’t believe this bill goes far enough,” she told legislators.
“We at Community Alliance of Tenants are speaking with tenants who are in a lot of turmoil over losing housing and have lost all of their income and have not received any unemployment,” she said.
Events unfold quickly during this session, but as of press time, legislators appeared likely to keep meeting into next week.
“Although the Constitution doesn’t allow me to limit the length of the special session for the issues considered, I ask that the members act expeditiously in enacting legislation,” Brown said when she called for the session June 17.
Courtney said he was glad to be back in Salem. “I have wanted to get on the field for a long time,” he said as he opened the session.
“This is our time,” he told his colleagues. “The other branches of government, as great as they are, are on the sidelines. This is our moment. I know some of you are angry about the building being closed. Some of you are angry because we’re not going to have time to deal with more bills I think than any other special session of the Oregon Legislature.”
However, he added, history cannot be ignored.
“You’re here, but you’re scared,” said Courtney. “You’re scared about a disease. You’re scared that our state seems to be breaking up. These small businesses are shutting down. You’re scared. I’m scared. But I got to tell you, this is our moment. It is. This is our time. I hope you feel that way. I hope as much as you may disagree with me, you’re so proud to be in these seats this morning in the Oregon Legislature, the Oregon State Senate, at this time.
“No other group has been called to do what we have been called to do,” he said. “Remember, I am you, you are me. They are us. We are them. We are one. That is what this is. Oregon, my Oregon, we are one.”
Most all, Courtney said, lawmakers are battling a virus. “This virus is many things — the virus of hatred, the virus of discrimination, this disease that just seems to keep coming back and coming back.”
There is also no getting around the rush of a short session, he added. “We’ve been asked to do too much in too short a time. So be it. So be it.”
Check for updates on bills Street Roots is tracking here .
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