What’s in your tampon? + President and Mayor Eric Garcetti + JFK memories

Hello! It’s Monday and we’re so glad you could join us for another edition of the Capitol Alert newsletter. Let’s get into it, shall we?

ICYMI — Friday’s buzz President Donald Trump’s latest beef with California and his administration threat to take away federal funding if the Golden State didn’t end a mandate requiring insurance companies provide abortion coverage.

And Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, had quite the clapback.

“If Donald Trump is dissatisfied with the abortion services California provides,” Atkins said in a statement, “we will happily reimburse him for any and all abortions he has paid for in California, immediately upon receipt of legal documents freeing the potential women involved from any non-disclosure agreements they may have been compelled to enter into.”

You can read my report here.

PERIOD PROBLEMS

Toxic chemicals in your menstrual products? Go ahead, add another reason why women should lose sleep.

No more, says Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, a Bell Gardens Democrat who plans to introduce legislation today that would require companies to disclose what ingredients they use to manufacture their period products.

Women are exposed to a slew of product toxins, according to the advocacy group Women’s Voices for the Earth, potentially leading to cancer, reproductive damage, allergic reactions and hormone disruption. Garcia’s bill would require that all product ingredients, from tampons to sponges to menstrual underwear, become more publicly available to consumers.

“If we are using these products, we should know what we’re putting in our bodies,” Garcia said. “If it’s a tampon, pad, a cup, Thinx underwear, no matter the product, I want you to have the best information out there.”

Garcia’s advocacy started with frustration over “being taxed for my period.” She wrote legislation to repeal the “tampon tax,” which led to a two-year implementation in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019 budget. She’s also advancing that proposal, Assembly Bill 31, again this year.

PRESIDENT GARCETTI

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will serve a two-year term as president of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors after getting elected to the position last week.

“I am honored and humbled to be elected President of the Democratic Mayors. Washington may be broken, but America is not. As mayors, we see up close how in their cities and towns the American people continue to innovate, work and create national change from the ground up,” Garcetti said in a statement. “We will amplify the Democratic voice in local politics and amplify the local voice in Democratic politics to win the national election.”

Garcetti said he intends to focus the organization’s efforts in electing a Democratic president in the 2020 battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In addition, he said his goal is to elect more Democratic mayors and to support Democratic mayors with messaging and social media content.

Garcetti wasn’t the only California mayor to get elected to a top spot with the national conference.

West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon was elected as one of several vice presidents of the organization.

PIECES OF HISTORY

Today, Sotheby’s will auction an archive of documents compiled by former Gov. Pat Brown surrounding President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The collection includes a letter Kennedy sent Brown several weeks before his death, as well as news wires announcing the assassination annotated by Brown and a letter from First Lady Jackie Kennedy thanking Brown for his help with the Kennedy Library.

“What’s quite unique about this is the scope, but also the personal touches,” said Kalika Sands, who works in Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts Department. “Having this together as an archive is really remarkable.”

The archive is from a private collector and will be auctioned as part of Sotheby’s Americana series, which also includes letters from George Washington and John Adams.

Sotheby’s lists the archive’s estimated value at between $20,000 and $30,000.

A CASUAL CONVO

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will headline a upcoming forum hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California.

The event, titled “A Conversation with Gov. Gavin Newsom,” will touch on such topics as climate change, the economy, fiscal and governance reform and the political landscape, according to the event page.

The free event is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. on Wednesday, but sorry, it’s already completely at capacity. You can still register to get on the wait list, or you can register to watch it online.

For what it matters — The United Farm Workers of America endorsed Senate Bill 50, the powerful zoning proposal that would help spur housing construction by requiring cities to plan for more units. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, is fighting hard this year to get his legislation through the Legislature.

“Today, farm workers are living in garages, barrack-style housing, trailers with no air conditioning that make summer living brutal,” wrote Esperanza Ross, the historic union’s legislative advocate, in a letter to Wiener. “Many of our most vulnerable farm workers also live with their employers controlling every aspect of a farm worker’s life. SB 50 would increase the state’s housing stock, including affordable housing, when the state faces a housing crisis.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I stand firmly behind my original statement. I was 1000% surprised when Lorena told me the bill was going to fail and I was 1000% shocked at the complete lack of respect shown to a fellow colleague; after being offered to present the bill (both in person and via email), I arrived at the committee hearing to find it wouldn’t even be heard, without even as much as a text message to inform me of this important change. Be that as it may, when Lorena and I spoke, she offered to be a co-author on the bill’s reintroduction and I hope she plans on keeping her word. We both have stated this is an important issue.”

– Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, D-Marina Del Rey, via Twitter. Burke was responding to comments Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, made in this story by Hannah Wiley.

We’re also just going to leave this tweet from former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger right here.

Best of The Bee:

• Gov. Gavin Newsom wants California to create its own prescription drug label to produce lower-cost drugs and has pointed to insulin as an example. Experts say insulin is uniquely difficult to manufacture, but could lead to significant savings if the state successfully produces its own version, via Sophia Bollag.

• California voters made marijuana legal to purchase and consume, but that hasn’t stopped state and local law enforcement from seizing tons of it from black market growers and retailers. By the end of 2019, agents at the California Bureau of Cannabis Control alone had seized nearly 24 tons of illicit cannabis, valued at nearly $133 million, via Andrew Sheeler.

• California unemployment held steady at a record-low 3.9 percent last month, although the state’s employers continued to add jobs to their payrolls. Sacramento’s unemployment rate also was unchanged, at 3.2 percent, showing the region’s economy remains healthy, via Dale Kasler.

• Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg Thursday brought his bid to make housing the homeless a government mandate to Washington, D.C. Thursday, explaining how funding the massive effort would work without offering a specific price tag. Steinberg spoke at a forum of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where mayors from around the country, including Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti, offered their own solutions, via David Lightman.