12
community
september17
2020
Wyden Calls for Coordinated
Federal Response to Western
Wildfires on Senate Floor
Says current forest policies are
“misguided” and ‘out of date”
Oregon’s senior Senator Ron Wyden
took to the Senate floor on Monday, September
14, 2020 and called for a new approach to for-
est management in western states, including the
creation of a new Civilian Conservation Corps
which would put youth to work in America’s
forests.
“I want to be able to call this ‘the day
the Senate got serious about Fire Prevention,’
said Wyden during his Senate remarks. “The
day the Senate took a dilapidated and out of
date fire policy and replaced it with a modern
strategy appropriate for the real on-the-ground
conditions we are seeing across the West right
now.”
Wyden said managing our forests for
wildfire resiliency can generate jobs, timber
for mills, and improve recreation opportunities.
“But it requires an investment that many have
been simply unwilling to spend.”
Wyden spread around the blame for the
current crisis. “The Congress cannot allow this
pattern of negligence and inaction to go on any
longer. This debate has been going on for too
long, with misguided priorities on both sides.
On one side, some in the timber industry skipped
past active management to pursue the golden
calf of the elimination of environmental laws.
On the other side, misguided non-management
priorities beat back every attempt to manage our
forests based on science.”
Wyden named three specific strategies
he would like to see implemented immediately
to help protect against destructive wildfires:
• a 21 st Century Civilian Conservation Corps
Act which would use young Americans to help
re-establish infrastructure and make sure people
are able to vote this fall in devastated areas;
work on soil stabilization projects this fall to
prevent massive flooding in the spring; and de-
ploy workers into forests and wildland/urban in-
terface neighborhoods to reduce hazardous fuels
• create a program for prescribed fires during
winter months
• called on Congress to make long-term budget
investments in treatments and fire prevention
Wyden said Oregon has two million
acres of projects that he termed “ready to go”
– projects that have gone through the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other
environmental reviews. “It is clear the Forest
Service has the technical tools it needs to im-
prove forest health and wildfire resiliency. That
two million acre backlog shows the Forest Ser-
Salem Report:
Unemployment Benefits
vice lacks the funding and the manpower to get
it done.”
“By allowing that fire prevention back-
log to build, the Congress racks up a dangerous
debt. The devastation and the smoke in Oregon
and across the West today is that debt coming
due,” said Wyden.
While advocating for “boots-on-the-
ground” strategies to address wildfire damage,
Wyden also pointed to a larger issue – global
climate change. “The American West is on fire.
Entire neighborhoods, whole communities, are
being destroyed. Our air quality has the dubious
recognition as being the worst in the world. The
climate crisis is happening now – to us, to our
kids. America ignores this at our peril.”
In May of this year, months before the
wildfire season began, Wyden addressed similar
issues as part of COVID-19 economic stimu-
lus when he introduced legislation that calls for
major investments in public health, wildfire pre-
vention, and rural jobs.
“The 21 st Century Conservation Corps
for Our Health and Our Jobs Act would specifi-
cally:
• increase the pace and scale of hazardous fuels
reduction and thinning efforts, prioritizing proj-
ects that are shovel-ready and environmentally-
reviewed
• help outfitters and guides who hold U.S. For-
est Service and U.S. Department of the Interior
special use permits – and their employees – stay
afloat through the truncated recreation season
• increase job training and hiring specifically for
jobs in the woods, helping to restore public lands
and watersheds, while providing important pub-
lic health related jobs in this time of need
• fund capital improvements and maintenance
to put people to work reducing the maintenance
backlog on National Forest System lands, in-
cluding reforestation, and facilitate landscape
restoration projects on state, private, and federal
lands
• fund on-farm water conservation and habitat
improvement projects
“This needs to be the day the Senate
gets serious about fire prevention as part of a
comprehensive effort to fight the climate crisis,”
said Wyden in his Senate remarks in September.
“These ideas ought to become law soon, and
with broad bipartisan support. I’m talking about
policies aimed at protecting our communities
and the families who live in them. Protecting
jobs. Protecting homes and businesses. These
proposals cost money, but it’s a lot cheaper to
prevent a fire than it is to rebuild a community
out of the ashes.”
By Representative Brad Witt
House District 31
Oregon has now been approved for FEMA’s
Low Wage Assistance program. This is a temporary
emergency program that will give an extra $300 per
week for people who are out of work due to CO-
VID-19 and are receiving unemployment benefits.
There is $44 million in federal disaster relief funding that
can be used for the Low Wage Assistance program. The length
of the program will depend on how many states participate, and
how many people qualify for the extra payments. If there is a
natural disaster, the money may go instead to that FEMA disaster
response, per the federal government.
Oregon has been approved for three weeks of payments
which will be paid to Oregon workers who received unemploy-
ment benefits from July 26 through August 15. The Oregon Em-
ployment Department will be seeking additional weeks of the
Low Income Assistance program as soon as they become avail-
able.
Oregonians receiving unemployment benefits from June
26 through August 15, 2020 will automatically qualify, but they
must self-certify that they are unemployed or partially unem-
ployed due to disruptions caused by COVID-19.
This additional self-certification requirement will ap-
ply to those people receiving Regular Unemployment Insurance
benefits, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation,
and Extended Benefits. People who are receiving Pandemic Un-
employment Assistance payments have already been certified, so
they do not need to take this additional step.
The Low Wage Assistance program is retroactive to eli-
gible claimants beginning with the week ending August 1, 2020,
but will only be sent for the weeks a person qualifies for unem-
ployment benefits and meets the Low Wage Assistance program
requirements. Low Wage Assistance payments are taxable un-
der federal law, as are regular UI and PUA benefits. If taxes are
withheld from other benefits they will also be withheld from this
benefit.
My staff and I are continuing to work with constituents
and state employment officials on a daily basis to resolve unem-
ployment issues. If you are still having problems, we want to
help and are willing and able to step up and do our best to help
you obtain the benefits you are owed. If you would like our as-
sistance, please reach out to me by email, supply your contact
information and current address. We will then channel your re-
quests to the appropriate person to best address your needs.
Email: Rep.BradWitt@oregonlegislature.gov
Phone: 503-986-1431
Address: 900 Court St NE, H-382,
Salem, OR, 97301
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/witt
Vernonia’s Voice is published twice each
month on the 1 st and 3 rd Thursday.
Look for our next issue on October 1.
Cedar Side Inn
Angel
Memorials
Headstones
A Trusted Name in Funeral Service
Fuiten, Rose & Hoyt
Funeral Home & Crematory
2308 Pacific Ave.,
Forest Grove
503-357-2161
Specialty Pizzas
Granite Markers & Monuments
971-344-3110
Locally owned in Vernonia
Serving NW Oregon
All Cemeteries Accepted
Order drawing at no charge online
www.angelmemorialsheadstones.com
741 Madison Ave.,
Vernonia
503-429-6611
Taco Tuesday
from opening until 9 pm
3 hardshell or 1 softshell $4.25
Jeff & Kathryn Hoyt
Family Owned & Operated
Formerly Prickett’s Mortuary
11:00 am - 9:50 pm Every day
Check our Facebook page for daily specials
756 Bridge Street, Vernonia
503-429-5841
Forest Grove Memorial Chapel
503-357-3126
To sign the online guest book or to send a
condolence to the family go to
www.fuitenrosehoyt.com