STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
A7
State scrambles vaccine priority list again Bentz explains voting
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon is once again
scrambling its priority list for
COVID-19 vaccinations, with
some seniors pushed from next
weekend to March.
Gov. Kate Brown and
the Oregon Health Authority
blamed the whipsawing sched-
ule on unreliable information
from the Trump Administra-
tion as it wraps up its fi nal days
in offi ce.
“This is a deception on a
national scale,” Brown said.
The change came as OHA
reported late Friday that a
Multnomah County resident
was the fi rst known case in
Oregon of a highly infectious
variant of COVID-19.
Brown announced Tuesday
that those 65 and older were
now eligible for vaccination
beginning Jan. 23. Teachers
and child care providers would
also start receiving inocula-
tions the same day.
Oregon’s speedier rollout
of inoculations was announced
soon after U.S. Health and
Human Services Secretary
Alex Azar said Jan. 12 that
vaccine it was holding back
would be released. It was an
unexpected windfall for states
worried about scarcity in com-
ing weeks.
PMG fi le photo
Oregon is changing its priority list for COVID-19 vaccinations.
Federal offi cials also rec-
ommended opening up vaccine
availability to those 65-and-
over once the fi rst priority
group of health workers and
people in long-term care facili-
ties were vaccinated.
The timing meant older
Oregonians, who are the most
susceptible to serious illness
and death from COVID-19,
would get inoculations earlier.
But the optimism soon
evaporated. Federal offi cials
told Brown and Oregon Health
Director Pat Allen that there
had been a miscommunication.
Actually, no additional vac-
cine at all would be on its way.
“I thought I was losing my
mind,” Allen said, “I went
back and reviewed the actual
C-SPAN video of Secretary
Azar, and the words he used
were ‘releasing the entire sup-
ply.’ He talked about physical
inventory. It was incredibly
clear.”
In response, Brown on Fri-
day said the state would have
to revise its priority list for the
second time in one week.
The new rollout also under-
lined an already controversial
decision by the governor to
place school teachers and staff
above the elderly on the prior-
ity list.
After the current Phase 1a
of vaccinations for health care
workers, inoculations for K-12
educators and school workers
would start Jan. 25 statewide.
Brown had targeted Feb. 15 for
reopening in-class teaching.
Grant County has already
completed most of its Phase 1a
vaccinations and moved on to
educators Friday. A clinic for
people 65 and older was sched-
uled Tuesday for Grant County
residents.
But, outside of Grant
County, older Oregonians who
are not in long-term care facil-
ities would be placed into four
priority tiers. Those over 80
would begin vaccinations on
Feb. 8. Those over 75 come
next a week later, on Feb. 15.
Over 70 would begin Feb. 22
and over 65 on March 1.
Despite criticism that she
was putting schooling over
lives, Brown has stuck with
her decision to prioritize get-
ting schools reopened. She said
virtual learning had left many
students, particularly in less-af-
fl uent districts, falling behind.
She also pointed to an uptick
in teenage suicides due to the
long isolation.
Brown said she didn’t know
if any other state was giving
teachers the same higher prior-
ity. A Centers for Disease Con-
trol model program sent to the
states has at-risk elderly in the
group to be vaccinated after
health care workers and con-
gregate care residents and staff.
“Each state is doing it dif-
ferently,” Brown said.
GOP lawmaker defends opening Oregon Capitol door
Video shows Rep. Nearman letting protesters
into Statehouse; ‘Open ... means open,’ he said
By Peter Wong
Oregon Capital Bureau
Embattled state Rep. Mike
Nearman offered his fi rst
response last week to disclo-
sures that he let anti-lockdown
protesters enter the closed
Capitol during a Dec. 21 spe-
cial session of the Legislature.
The Republican from Inde-
pendence made no apologies
for his action.
“I do think that when …
the Oregon Constitution says
that the legislative proceed-
ings shall be ‘open,’ it means
open,” he said in a state-
ment. “And as anyone who
has spent the last nine months
staring at a screen doing vir-
tual meetings will tell you,
it’s not the same thing as
being open.”
The Capitol has been closed
to the public since March 18,
2020, at the start of the coro-
navirus pandemic. The House
adopted rules for the 2021 ses-
sion, which started Monday,
that make all committee hear-
ings virtual — over the objec-
tions of minority Republicans.
Nearman also went on the
attack against House Speaker
Tina Kotek, a Democrat from
Portland who disclosed on Jan.
Contributed photo
State Rep. Mike Nearman —
one of the Legislature’s most
conservative members — is
the state director of the an-
ti-union group Freedom Foun-
dation.
7 that State Police confi rmed
to her that it was Nearman
depicted on video as the man
opening a Capitol door. Pro-
testers entered a vestibule on
the northwest side of the Cap-
itol, but State Police troopers
confi ned them there and even-
tually ejected them. Police
repelled a second attempt to
breach the west entrance later
in the day.
Nearman questioned the
timing of the disclosure,
which occurred one day after
the Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S.
Capitol by a pro-Trump mob
intent on disrupting the con-
gressional certifi cation of
the electoral votes confi rm-
ing Democrat Joe Biden’s
victory over President Don-
ald Trump. Five people died,
among them a U.S. Capitol
Police offi cer.
The video of Nearman’s
action has gone viral, trigger-
ing an outpouring of criticism
of Nearman.
“I hope for due process,
and not the mob justice to
which Speaker Kotek is sub-
jecting me,” he said in the
statement.
Facing actions
Nearman is under criminal
investigation by Oregon State
Police, who have arrested fi ve
people in connection with the
disruption. The breach did not
stop lawmakers from complet-
ing their work in the one-day
session.
Any criminal charges
would likely be decided by the
Marion County district attor-
ney. Potential charges could
include “offi cial misconduct,”
which covers a variety of
offenses.
Kotek did take three
actions against Nearman, who
was seated for his fourth term
along with the 59 other rep-
resentatives. Nearman acqui-
esced in one of them.
She stripped him of his
two committee assignments,
depriving him of any abil-
ity to infl uence legislation
beyond voting on bills in the
full House. She fi ned him
$2,000 for the cost of damage
to the door. She also joined
other members to fi le a com-
plaint against Nearman with
the Legislative Equity Offi ce,
which could trigger an inves-
tigation by the House Com-
mittee on Conduct, which has
an equal number of members
from both parties.
Nearman read a statement
in which he agreed to sur-
render his electronic access
card to the Capitol, not admit
non-authorized people into
the Capitol and give 24-hour
notice before he enters the
Capitol.
against impeachment
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-On-
tario, voted against impeach-
ing President Donald Trump
on Wednesday, joining most
House Republicans in a los-
ing effort to avoid a stinging
rebuke to the president in his
last week in offi ce.
The impeachment was
approved 232-197, with
10 Republicans joining all
Democrats in the equivalent
of an indictment for incit-
ing a mob to violently invade
and ransack the U.S. Capitol
on Jan. 6, killing fi ve.
The article of impeachment
for incitement of insurrection
would normally be sent to the
Senate for an extended trial to
convict or acquit the president.
Only three presidents have
been impeached: Andrew
Johnson, Bill Clinton and now
Trump twice. In the prior three
trials, all were acquitted.
House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, D-California, can send
the impeachment to the Sen-
ate. Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ken-
tucky, said the earliest he
would consider the impeach-
ment would be Jan. 19. That is
the day before Biden replaces
Trump as president during
ceremonies at the Capitol.
Bentz did not speak
during the two-hour debate
and spent much of the time
off the fl oor due to attempts
to limit COVID-19 exposure
in the House chamber.
Bentz said Wednesday the
attack on the U.S. Capitol by
pro-Trump supporters was
inexcusable. “I continue to
share the emotions many are
feeling in the aftermath of the
unprecedented and unaccept-
able violence this past week.”
Bentz said the “rush-to-
judgment”
impeachment
would only divide the nation
more and undercut efforts to
get both parties working on
key issues such as COVID-
19 as soon as possible.
“I voted against impeach-
ment because our focus
should be on unifying our
nation, ensuring a peace-
ful transition to the Biden
Administration,” Bentz said.
With less than two weeks
since he was sworn-in, the
bulk of Bentz’s time has been
taken with the Electoral Col-
lege vote, the riot and oppos-
ing efforts to oust Trump as
Oregon Capital Insider
“OUR FOCUS
SHOULD BE ON
UNIFYING OUR
NATION, ENSURING
A PEACEFUL
TRANSITION
TO THE BIDEN
ADMINISTRATION.”
— Rep. Cliff Bentz
soon as possible.
“I came to Congress to
stand up for rural communities
across my district by address-
ing the terrible damage caused
by recent wildfi res, and to
reform the laws that govern
our water rights,” Bentz said.
As the lone Republican in
Oregon’s House delegation,
Bentz was at odds with the
state’s other Congress mem-
bers — Suzanne Bonamici,
D-Beaverton, Earl Blume-
nauer, D-Portland, Peter
DeFazio, D-Springfi eld, and
Kurt Schrader, D-Salem.
“Donald
J.
Trump
encouraged and incited the
violent attack that occurred
on Jan. 6, when Congress
was gathered to certify the
results of the 2020 presiden-
tial election,” Bonamici said
in a statement. “It was an
attack on our Capitol and our
democracy. Today I voted to
impeach him for incitement
of insurrection.”
Two Republicans from
Washington state voted to
impeach.
Bentz was sworn in Jan.
4 as the new congressman
replacing 20-year veteran Rep.
Greg Walden, R-Hood River.
Bentz had been in the Cap-
itol earlier on Jan. 6, before
thousands of Trump sup-
porters stormed the seat of
national government, over-
whelmed police and began
defacing statues, occupying
offi ces and stealing computers
and other items.
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