California Republicans introduce a bill to repeal the labor law AB 5. It’s a long shot.

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REPUBLICANS INTRODUCE LONG SHOT EFFORT TO REPEAL AB 5

Could a five-year-old California law soon go national? Not if Republicans have their way.

Assembly Republicans and U.S. House Rep. Kevin Kiley gathered on the Capitol steps in Sacramento Tuesday to rail against AB 5, the 2019 law that sought to prevent misclassification of regular employees as independent contractors, thus denying them legally required wages and benefits.

AB 5 has been a bugbear on the right ever since California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law, and now the U.S. Department of Labor, which is run by acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, formerly the secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, is working to make similar policies a rule nationwide.

Kiley is, safe to say, not a fan — of either Su or AB 5.

“Nationalizing California’s AB 5 would cost millions of Americans their livelihoods. I am urging my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support my legislation to overturn the Department of Labor’s new rule and protect the right to earn a living and the American Dream,” Kiley said in a statement issued Tuesday.

While Kiley works against the DOL at the national level, at the state level, Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez, R-Rancho Santa Margarita, announced her intention to file legislation to repeal AB 5, saying in a statement that “there are few things more American than starting your own business and working for yourself.

“It’s a big part of the American dream. For too many Californians, that dream was ripped away by AB 5. That’s why I’m introducing legislation to fully repeal AB 5 and help restore the tens of thousands of jobs that law needlessly destroyed,” she said.

Still, both Kiley and Sanchez face long odds to success.

While Kiley belongs to the Republican majority that controls the House, that control is tenuous. And his legislation still would have to clear a Democratic-controlled Senate and survive a likely veto from Democratic President Joe Biden.

Sanchez faces an even steeper uphill climb — her bill must somehow make it through the Democratic supermajority-controlled Legislature and then survive Newsom’s own veto pen.

PROPOSED SPORTS BETTING MEASURE IS DEAD

Speaking of long odds, a proposed ballot measure to legalize sports betting in California has been pulled from consideration.

Kasey Thompson, the measure proponent who works in the gambling industry, told the website EGR (which covers the online gambling industry) that opposition from California tribes led him to withdraw the measure.

“This initiative was supposed to be for the tribes but is only causing division,” he said, according to EGR. ”That was never my intent. I see now the needed unity is not coming, and so I’m standing good to my word and not moving forward. I’m pulling it in full.”

In a statement to The Bee, Thompson said that “from the very beginning we said we would not move forward without majority tribal support.”

Thompson said it became apparent that wasn’t going to happen and so the measure was pulled.

“We still feel this was the best tribal bill ever, but without the support of the tribes it was going nowhere,” he said.

PrEP BILL SENT TO NEWSOM’S DESK

A pill that can prevent the transmission of HIV may soon be more widely available from pharmacists without a prescription, after the Legislature voted unanimously to send San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener’s SB 339 to Newsom’s desk for a signature.

While a 2019 bill, by the same author, made PrEP available without a prescription, pharmacists across the state reported running into trouble actually being able to fill orders for the drug, including a lack of support from patient health plans.

SB 339 is intended to remove those barriers. It would require health insurers to cover the cost of a pharmacist filling the order, in order to make the drug more accessible.

“With 4,000 new HIV cases a year in California, HIV transmission continues to be a major public health challenge in our state, and easy PrEP access is an essential part of any strategy to end HIV infections,” Wiener said in a statement.

Newsom has 12 days to sign the bill into law once he receives it. Newsom has not indicated a position on the bill.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Chaya has a much-needed and powerful voice as well as a tremendous platform that will benefit Oklahoma students and their families.”

- Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, in a statement announcing the appointment of Chaya Raichik to the state’s Library Media Advisory Committee. According to HuffPost, Raichik is a California resident. Her Twitter account, Libs of TikTok, has been used to wage a campaign of harassment against LGBTQ people and their supporters across the country, including in Davis, where multiple schools and a library were targeted with bomb threats after she posted about them, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Best of The Bee:

• Within 24 hours of walking off the job, faculty across the California State University system have canceled their weeklong, systemwide strike after reaching a late-night deal with university administrators, via Maya Miller.

• Newsom is going to get lonely without candidate Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, to kick around any more, via Tom Philp. (Opinion)

• Another California state agency will require most of its workers to return to the office twice a week starting later this spring, via Maya Miller.

• Who is Steve Garvey, retired baseball star running as a California Republican for Senate? Via Gillian Brassil and Stephen Hobbs.

• California’s top U.S. Senate candidates blasted one another over homelessness, another Trump presidency, their views on the Israel-Hamas war, and nearly everything else in a spirited debate Monday, via Lindsey Holden.

• Fact check: Here’s what was true, false and almost true at the California Senate debate, via Gillian Brassil and Andrew Sheeler.

• For the first time, the four top candidates to fill the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s U.S. Senate seat took the stage together. Here are some key takeaways from the event, via Andrew Sheeler.