No dice on single-payer + LGBTQ 2021 scorecard + $$ for Weber + Bera heads to Ukraine
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
ASSEMBLY PUNTS ON SINGLE-PAYER, TACKLES FAST FOOD REFORM
That’s it for single-payer this year, folks.
Assemblyman Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, announced in a statement Monday afternoon that he was pulling AB 1400 from consideration. To put it simply, the bill didn’t have the votes, Kalra said.
“Although the bill did not pass the Assembly by today’s deadline, this is only a pause for the single-payer movement; our coalition, including the mighty California Nurses Association, will continue the fight for accessible, affordable, and equitable healthcare for all Californians,” Kalra said in a statement.
The announcement came minutes before the bill was set to be heard on the Assembly floor.
For their part, the California Nurses Association was not happy with Kalra, accusing him of providing cover to vulnerable Democrats by pulling the bill, after progressives in the California Democratic Party threatened to withhold endorsements of any Democratic Assemblymember who voted against the bill.
“Nurses condemn this failure by elected representatives to put patients above profits, especially during the worst surge of Covid-19 yet, at a time when it’s more clear than ever before that health care must be a right, not just a privilege for those who can afford it,” the group said in a statement. “Nurses are especially outraged that Kalra chose to just give up on patients across the state. Nurses never give up on our patients, and we will keep fighting with our allies in the grassroots movement for CalCare until all people in California can get the care they need, regardless of ability to pay.”
Be sure to check out Sophia Bollag’s story of the bill getting pulled, which you can read here.
One bill that did pass on Monday was AB 257, also known as the FAST Recovery Act. The bill would establish a Fast Food Sector Council within the Department of Industrial Relations, which would “establish sectorwide minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other working conditions related to the health, safety, and welfare of, and supplying the necessary cost of proper living to, fast food restaurant workers, as well as effecting interagency coordination and prompt agency responses in this regard,” according to the legislative counsel’s digest summary of the bill.
“This bill is aoout creating equity and inclusion for fast food workers and franchisees,” said bill author Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena.
The bill had the support of some Democrats, such as Assemblywoman Luz Rivas, D-San Fernando Valley, who said, “These workers have exhausted nearly every option available to them, yet the system has failed them. We shouldn’t fail them today.”
The bill also ran into stiff resistance from Republicans and some Democrats, including Assemblyman Ken Cooley, D-Rancho Cordova, who said that AB 257 was “”written to undermine the ability of the Legislature to honestly weigh in on these issues.”
Assemblyman Bill Quirk, D-Hayward, agreed that there is a problem with the fast food industry, but said, “I just don’t think having a separate set of regulations for the fast food industry is the way to do it.”
The bill passed 41-19, and now moves to the Senate.
Be sure to check out Lara Korte’s coverage of the bill, which you can read here.
EQUALITY CALIFORNIA UNVEILS 2021 LEGISLATIVE SCORECARD
Equality California, the largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization in the country, has released its 2021 legislative scorecard, rating how lawmakers voted on LGBTQ issues last year.
Of note, California Gov. Gavin Newsom for the first time in his governorship did not score 100%. Newsom received an 88%, for signing seven out of eight bills scored by Equality California last year.
Meanwhile, two-thirds of the Legislature scored at or above 80%, with 70 lawmakers earning a perfect score of 100%.
“While states across the nation pursued and passed policies attacking the transgender community, the California Legislature invested in the health and well-being of trans and gender-nonconforming people and adopted legislation to better respect and affirm Californians’ gender identities,” Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang said in a statement. “From streamlining the processes that transgender people can use to change their names on marriage certificates, college diplomas and their children’s birth certificates to allowing nonbinary people’s identities to be recorded accurately on death certificates, these advancements are a testament to the dedicated activists who inspire us with their stories, integrity and perseverance.”
You can see the scorecard for yourself here.
WEBER UNVEILS FUNDRAISING HAUL
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has not drawn a high-profile challenger for her bid to election to a full term of office, but that hasn’t stopped her fundraising efforts.
Weber’s campaign announced that it has received more than $996,000 in contributions, with 97% of them coming from within the state of California and 70% of them being under $100.
“Just as our democracy is people-powered, so is our campaign. We are enormously proud of the broad-based, grassroots energy powering Dr. Weber’s campaign — and backing her vision for protecting equal access to the ballot. We are entering this pivotal election year, in which Dr. Weber will be on the statewide ballot for the first time as Secretary of State, equipped with the resources we need to win in June and November,” her campaign said in a statement. “As dark money groups pour money into efforts to undermine voting rights and election administration across the country, our campaign is a shining example that there is a powerful grassroots movement behind candidates who fight to defend democracy and work to oversee fair, secure elections. “
Weber’s campaign said that she is committed to continuing the fight against dark money in political campaigns.
Weber’s campaign notes several high-profile endorsements, including from Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sens. Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon as well as Reps. Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters and Karen Bass, SEIU California, the California Teachers Association, the California Nurses Association, the the California legislative Black and women’s caucuses, NARAL, Equality California and Black Women Organized for Political Action.
REP. BERA VISITS UKRAINE
Via David Lightman...
The United States is strongly behind the “sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity” of Ukraine, Rep. Ami Bera and other House members told Ukrainian officials on a just-concluded trip to that country.
Bera, D-Sacramento, was part of an 11-member group of Republicans and Democrats that met with senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as top NATO officials during a stop in Brussels.
Asked on CNN if Russian President Vladimir Putin was engaging in “military theater” or was planning to invade Ukraine, Bera said, “You never can tell,” noting that “We’re taking this very seriously.”
It was clear in Ukraine, he said, that people there ”don’t want to get back to the soviet way of life. They’re ready to fight for their freedoms and their country.”
Zelenskyy, Bera said, “reassured us that the country Ukraine is ready to defend itself and the people will be ready to stand up and defend themselves.” They just need the support of the United States and others as well as economic and military help.
And if they need it, Bera said, the United States will be ready.
“He (Zelenskyy) understands the United States is standing with this young democracy in Ukraine,” he said.
Bera was in Brussels from Tuesday to Thursday and in Kyiv from Thursday until Sunday.
The trip was designed to discuss and learn what our NATO allies and European Union counterparts are considering with concern to the Russian military buildup and possible further invasion into Ukraine, Bera’s office said
Bera is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and chairs its subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and nonproliferation.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“’I need to preach and practice, not just preach and not practice, and I’ve done my best to do that,’ - Governor Gavin Newsom after his French Laundry scandal. How’s that going for you, governor?”
- Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday acknowledged that he briefly posed maskless for a picture during Sunday’s NFC championship football game, via Andrew Sheeler.
California conservation groups won a partial victory this month in their quest to protect the federally endangered Southern Sierra Nevada population of Pacific fisher, an elusive tree-dwelling mammal in the weasel family, via Carmen Kohlruss.
This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 4:55 AM.