Opening the West Coast + Nonprofits are in trouble + Congressional help for farmers
Happy Tuesday! Thanks as always for reading!
First up, here are a couple stories we posted late Monday.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom insisted his administration extensively vetted the company it hired to provide the state with $1 billion worth of face masks for health care workers. Lawmakers want to know more.
- And, conservative attorney Harmeet Dhillon is suing Newsom on behalf of three pastors and a churchgoer who believe the governor’s stay-at-home orders are crushing religious liberty.
A REGIONAL RE-OPENING
As we approach the one-month anniversary of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order, there may be some good news on the horizon. California, in partnership with the states of Washington and Oregon, is looking at the possibility of opening back up.
California’s part of that plan will be released Tuesday, the governor’s office said.
Newsom was careful not to oversell the point during his noon press conference Monday.
“I don’t want to overstate this vision, I don’t want to over-state this framework. And I don’t want to under-state the imperative of meeting this moment by continuing to practice appropriate social distancing and practicing physical distancing so we can continue to bend the curve,” Newsom said.
Still, Newsom’s office, in conjunction with the offices of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, released a joint statement Monday identifying the framework which all three states would use as part of a regional approach to re-opening in the aftermath of the COVID-19 emergency.
“This effort will be guided by data. We need to see a decline in the rate of spread of the virus before large-scale reopening, and we will be working in coordination to identify the best metrics to guide this,” the statement said.
Though Newsom has avoided criticizing President Donald Trump since the coronavirus emergency began, it’s not hard to see the joint statement of the West Coast governors as a contrast to Trump’s position, which is that it is his call on whether the nation opens back up.
“For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect.... ....It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons. With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue. A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!” Trump said in a pair of tweets Monday morning.
NONPROFITS IN TROUBLE
Combined, California’s nonprofits make up the state’s fourth largest employer, generating 15 percent of the state’s gross domestic product, according to the California Association of Nonprofits. But like many other sectors of the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic has nonprofits facing uncertain times.
“Nonprofits are key partners with state and local governments in the delivery of essential services to communities across California. From health care to child care to senior food delivery to homeless animal care, nonprofits are reliably stepping up to continue supporting their communities as allowable under the shelter-in-place mandate,” said Jan Masaoka, CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits. “But we need the state to act now to assure these partners that during this emergency there will be added flexibility in their contracts, so they can both meet the needs of this moment and survive. If Governor Newsom doesn’t act soon, the damage to our sector and our communities will be irreparable.”
The nonprofits seek the following assurances, according to a statement released Monday:
- All California government agencies will continue to pay on contracts and grants with nonprofits if they are underperforming due to temporary closures and suspension or reduction of services associated with COVID-19.
- An expedited or automatic approval process for budget modifications that do not increase the contract total will be instituted to allow nonprofits to move budget-line items associated with existing contracts to new COVID-19 related priorities such as the cost of disinfecting facilities.
- State agencies will waive certain certification procedures to let nonprofits provide COVID-19 related emergency and essential services as needed and appropriate.
- New and immediate emergency funds be made available to address increased COVID-19 related costs to nonprofits to support the uninterrupted delivery of essential services that affect public health, such as stepped-up sanitation, take-out meals for the homeless, and pre-packaged food at food banks.
- Programs aimed at assisting employers, tenants, utility ratepayers, etc. through the COVID-19 crisis be made equally available and beneficial to nonprofit and for-profit entities.
FARMERS NEED HELP
Via Kate Irby...
Don’t let bought-out grocery shelves fool you — farmers are having a lot of trouble because of the novel coronavirus.
They’re seriously hurting if their main income came from selling products to schools, restaurants, amusement parks, sports arenas or any other enterprise that shut down to slow the spread of the virus. Dairy farmers, for instance, have seen a 30 to 40 percent decrease in the prices they receive as huge buyers of milk and milk products shut their doors.
Farmers are “price takers, not price makers,” as Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, a longtime almond farmer, put it.
But farmers have been mostly left out of the economic stimulus packages President Donald Trump has signed so far.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, says farmers are going to be a priority in the next bill Congress passes. But it’s still unclear exactly what that aid will look like, and farmers say they need the money sooner rather than later.
The alternative, Costa said, would be farms going out of business and a diminished food supply chain.
“Food is a national security issue. Unfortunately, the majority of Americans don’t think it is, because you go to a grocery store and there’s all the food you want,” Costa said. “But it’s not until you see those grocery shelves with some of your favorite foods empty. Then it dawns on you that food doesn’t come from the grocery store. It comes from a farmer, a dairy person, a rancher out in California.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The West Coast is guided by science. We issued stay at home orders early to keep the public healthy. We’ll open our economies with that same guiding principle. CA, WA, and OR will work together on a shared vision focused on health--not politics. Together--we’ll meet this moment.”
- Gov. Gavin Newsom, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
Check your bank account. If you qualify for a government rebate via direct deposit, it should be there by Wednesday in many cases, via David Lightman.
The mayor of Auburn is facing backlash and calls for his removal from office following posts and comments he made last week on Facebook, which appeared to compare supporters of President Donald Trump to the Ku Klux Klan amid criticism of the president’s response to the coronavirus, via Michael McGough and Sam Stanton.
California Insurance Comissioner Ricardo Lara has ordered carriers to return premiums paid for at least the months of March and April for insurance lines where the risk of loss has fallen substantially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, via Andrew Sheeler.