How’s Gavin Newsom doing? + A bill gets pulled + ‘Scandal’ star pens a letter
Welcome back to another week in the Capitol! Thanks for reading!
‘CALIFORNIA NATION’ ASSESSES THE GOVERNOR
When you’re the governor of California, you have a lot of eyes on you. There’s no shortage of opinions about the job that you’re doing.
But it’s one thing for outsiders and laymen to weigh in on the governor’s performance. What about those who have spent time in the “horseshoe?”
That’s what Sacramento Bee Opinion Editor Gil Duran wanted to know in the latest episode of the California Nation podcast, which you can listen to here.
To that end, Duran gathered up three individuals who spent time in past gubernatorial administrations, which had their own fair share of crises: Elizabeth Ashford, who advised both Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown; Steve Maviglio, former press secretary for Gov. Gray Davis; and Joe Rodota, who was a cabinet secretary under Gov. Pete Wilson.
In the podcast, Duran asks Ashford, Maviglio and Rodota to rate Gov. Gavin Newsom’s performance in handling the coronavirus crisis: What he’s done well, what he’s done wrong and how the governor should move forward.
LAWMAKER FIGHTS TO SAVE BILL FROM BEING PULLED
Facing a truncated session punctuated by pandemic, California lawmakers are going to have to make some hard choices about what bills they are going to focus on in the time they have left remaining.
Many bills that might otherwise make it to Gov. Newsom’s desk are being held to make room for others.
That’s what happened to AB 2203, a bill that would cap Californians’ insulin payments. But the lawmaker behind that bill is fighting the decision to press pause, arguing that the Senate Health Committee is “making perfect be the enemy of the good.”
Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, D-Los Angeles, said the timing for AB 2203 couldn’t be more important. The bill caps insurance co-pays for insulin at $50 for a 30-day supply, no more than $100 a month.
That’s important in a state currently being rocked by a pandemic where almost half the residents are pre-diabetic, he said. And with a disproportionate number of Black, Latino and American Indian people having diabetes, Nazarian said his bill is also a matter of racial equity.
So what happened?
According to Nazarian, Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, who chairs the Senate Health Committee, said that cost-cutting for insulin should be part of a broader, more holistic approach by the Legislature – that Nazarian’s bill was too narrow and focused on just one drug.
“This bill is not flawed. This bill is a customer protection bill,” Nazarian said.
The Los Angeles assemblyman added that his bill has so far sailed through the legislative process with bipartisan support. He said he was confused about why the bill is being held.
Nazarian said he is going to fight to keep his measure alive this session, and he hopes it will be one of those heard when the Senate Health Committee next meets.
Reached for comment, Pan’s office provided The Bee with a memo that was sent out to lawmakers ahead of the session resuming.
The memo states that committee chairs and vice chairs “were directed to evaluate and prioritize bills for relevance to COVID-19, wildfires and other urgent issues in deciding which bills to set for hearing for the end of session.”
‘SCANDAL’ STAR PENS A LETTER TO LAWMAKER
NBA all-star Draymond Green isn’t the only star speaking out now about AB 1998, Assemblyman Evan Low’s bill establishing consumer protections for tele-dentistry.
If you’ll recall, Green spoke out against the bill, saying that it will block access to oral care for minorities. Then the California Community Economic Development Association released a digital ad opposing the bill.
Now, Scandal star Kerry Washington is also speaking out against the legislation. In a letter to Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, Washington, who has partnered with dental company Byte, wrote asking Glazer to vote against AB 1998.
“For too long, our systems have failed to provide equitable access to oral care, and if AB 1998 passes, these groups will continue to be under-served. California should not consider legislation that would limit care and further disenfranchise a significant portion of the state population,” she wrote.
Washington said companies like Byte offer the opportunity for low-income and minority groups to receive dental and orthodontic care.
Low argues that his bill “protects patients from dangerous and harmful tele-orthodontics, building upon regulations passed last year as a result of the Dental Board of California’s sunset review,” according to an Assembly floor analysis of the bill.
AB 1998 has been referred to the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee.
Best of The Bee:
That extra $600 weekly payment for unemployed workers Congress allocated in March ended on Saturday, and no one knows when at least a portion of that payment may return, via David Lightman.
During the final four weeks of the 2020 legislative session, California lawmakers vulnerable to the worst of COVID-19 will be allowed to submit proxy or remote votes on bills at the cost of losing their daily pay if they select that option, via Hannah Wiley.
The Chinese researcher who fled her post as a visiting researcher at UC Davis after being questioned by the FBI has emerged from the Chinese consulate in San Francisco and is in custody at the Sacramento County Main Jail, online jail records show, via Sam Stanton.