1. Encourage employees to register with the state so they receive notifications and know how to make appointments when they become eligible.
2. Share all the vaccine information in the toolkit with employees, customers and your business network. Email, text and social media templates are available for you to use. This is important to address vaccine hesitancy and to make sure employees feel comfortable about getting a shot.
3. The state needs more medical personnel to administer the vaccine. Please consider putting a call out to your employees to see if they are qualified medical providers. They can sign up here if they have the necessary experience.
4. Some employers may be able to host onsite vaccination clinics for their employees and community members. The state plans to make these arrangements with large employers and will provide specific information in the next week or so. We will keep you updated as information becomes available.

• Today, March 22: Migrant and seasonal farmworkers in counties where they are already working, and Oregonians 45 and older with underlying health conditions in counties that can attest a majority of their senior population has been vaccinated (was previously March 29)
• March 29: All migrant and seasonal farmworkers, seafood and food processing workers, residents in low-income senior housing, wildland firefighters, pregnant women 16 and older
• April 19: Frontline workers as defined by the CDC, multigenerational household members, and Oregonians 16 and older with underlying health conditions (was previously May 1)
• May 1: All Oregonians over 16 years old (was previously July 1)

1. The employee has regular close contact with others outside of their household (less than six feet); and
2. The employee has routine (more than 15 minutes per person(s)) close contact with others outside of their household; and
3. They cannot perform their job duties from home or another setting that limits the close or routine contact with others outside of their household.

• Working with a broad coalition, OBI helped defeat HB 2205, Oregon’s version of a Private Attorney General Act which would allow anyone to sue on behalf of the state. The bill did not get scheduled for a work session by Friday, so that bill is now dead. This was one of OBI’s top priorities to defeat because we have seen the proliferation of lawsuits the California version of this bill has created.
• We were also successful in defeating SB 477, which would have eliminated an employee’s burden of proof for many discrimination claims. We heard from many members that this bill was a major concern.
• On tax issues, a proposal to tax forgiven PPP loans, HB 2457-1, was posted in the House Revenue Committee for a work session with less than 24 hours’ notice. OBI worked quickly with our partners at the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) to help organize broad opposition to the bill, and it was pulled from the agenda without explanation. Thank you to everyone who emailed the Legislature about this issue; your input made a difference.
• Finally, it appears that the proposal to raise taxes on beer, wine and cider will not move forward. Proponents signaled they were pulling back on Friday when they asked for an amendment to the bill that would instead create an interim task force to evaluate how to raise taxes. OBI has worked with a coalition of partners on this effort as well.