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State Updates

2024 LOPPCA Budget Letter

We have completed our budget letter containing our concerns and asks regarding the proposed 2024 State Budget. The letter has been sent to the budget committees in the Assembly and Senate.

Our asks come from consideration of our partner coalitions’ budget concerns and our faith discernment of the Governor’s proposed budget text.

Apart from our LOPP specific budget letter, LOPP signs onto other budget and bill letters that come through our networks throughout the legislative session as well. You can find our budget letter and some other sign-ons we’ve done so far in 2024 on our Sign On Letters page.

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AiQ State Updates

AiQ News: 1/17/24

AiQ resumed for the new year today. Advocates heard updates about the 2024-25 proposed state budget as well as the legislative landscape in 2024.

Key notes:

  • State Budget– While a lot of critical programs and funding continue in the Governor’s proposed budget, there is still an estimated $38 billion deficit, per the Governor’s budget team analysis (this number could be as high as $58 billion, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office). Key cuts or funding delays exist in the housing/homelessness space, CalWORKs, and climate investments.
  • Legislature- The Assembly has new leadership following the change in Speaker, so we will be monitoring how the committee changes may impact legislation this session. Additionally, 2024 is the second year of the 2-year legislative cycle. Bills from 2023 will need to advance out of their house of origin by the end of January.

Note: AiQ will NOT meet next Wednesday, January 24th. We encourage you to attend the ELCA webinar on COP28, the UN Climate Conference, happening at the same time. Register here. Join us for AiQ again on Wednesday, January 31st.

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AiQ Homelessness & Housing State Updates

AiQ News: 9/13/23

Great news, advocates! SB 4 passed out of the legislature and is on its way to the Governor! This is the product of years of advocacy, and we cannot be more excited to get this important housing bill across the finish line. Please call, email, and tag the Governor’s office on social media to urge him to sign the bill.

AB 249 (Holden), another one of our Lobby Day priority bills, has just one more vote to go in the legislature before going to the Governor as well. That means 2 of the 4 Lobby Day bills have a great chance to become law! Thank you for your continued advocacy to get these and other important bills done this year.

Important dates:

  • September 14th- Last day for each house to pass bills; legislative recess begins upon adjournment
  • AiQ is on hold until Wednesday, October 18th
  • Save the date! We will be holding a virtual legislative session wrap-up call on November 1st, at 6:30 pm PT
Categories
Education Enviroment State Updates

Lobby Day 2023 Bill Updates (7/13)

These two bills are continuing to move forward following committee hearings this week as we approach the deadline for bills to make it out of their second house policy committees. The next step is the Appropriations Committee before a floor vote. These bills can use our continued advocacy!

  • SB 4 (Wiener): Affordable Housing on Faith-Based Lands Act. This bill would provide a streamlined process for religious institutions and nonprofit colleges to develop affordable housing on their properties, regardless of local zoning restrictions. This bill also would guarantee by-right approval of projects as long as they are consistent with all objective standards of the jurisdiction and comply with listed environmental protections.
  • AB 249 (Holden): Clean Drinking Water in Schools, Lead Testing. This bill increases the testing and disclosure requirements of school drinking water lead levels. It would additionally allocate funding for testing filters and infrastructure improvements to reduce and ultimately, eliminate, lead in water at schools. Furthermore, the bill establishes the limit on lead levels that the drinking water cannot exceed.

The following bill did not move forward from the Senate Agriculture Committee, however, Asm. Irwin has made it a two-year bill. This means that it will be worked on and considered in the next legislative session. Additionally, there is a federal level bill addressing food date labeling that is moving and can use our advocacy.

  • AB 660 (Irwin): Food Date Labeling Reform, Food Waste. This bill requires the use of uniform terms for food product date labels, i.e., removing ‘sell by’ dates visible to consumers and making ‘best by’ or ‘use by’ dates clearer for consumers. The streamlined phrasing will help consumers understand peak quality and freshness of their food, which will play a role in addressing hunger as well as methane emissions and climate change.

The following bill did not pass through the Assembly Appropriations Committee in May and is effectively a dead bill for this session. This policy idea may be pursued in the future by legislators if there is enough community support.

  • AB 1534 (Irwin): Methane Emissions Monitoring. AB 1534 would have required the utilization of remote sensing technologies to better identify methane emissions with the goal of improved regulations on those emissions from landfills.

Thank you all for your continued advocacy! Our work is not done this year and we need your support to get SB 4 and AB 249 across the finish line.

Categories
AiQ State Updates

California Redistricting is Complete!

It’s important to learn what Congressional, State Senate and State Assembly Districts you are in. These will be our districts for the next ten years, beginning with the June 2022 Primary. I used the following link to find mine. It is important to click just one final map at a time to see the districts you are in. If you are close to a line between two districts you can put in your exact address to make sure which one you are in. I needed to do that to verify my State Senate District.

https://www.wedrawthelinesca.org/final_maps

Categories
Local Events Updates

September 2020 – Legislative Update (updated)

Many things have happened this year, and we have won almost all of our priority bills! LOPP-CA’s advocacy this session was important in making many bills into law. We take specific pride in the passing of AB 3070 and AB 3073, as we pushed and fought hard for these bills! Here is the list of our vitories:

  • A law providing guidelines for the pre-enrollment of recently incarcerated persons into the statewide food assistance Calfresh Program, a bill that our office co-sponsored alongside advocacy organization Bread of the World (AB 3073)
  • A law altering and strengthening anti-discrimination procedures within courts in the jury selection process. Discrimination within the jury selection process has been noticed by many, and this legislation is powerful in giving advocates the tools to address systemic racism within the justice system (AB 3070)
  • A law creating a funded campaign for protections and health awareness during COVID-19 for agricultural workers, which includes thousands of migrant workers (AB 2043)
  • A law establishing one of the nation’s first mandatory task forces to study the issue of Slavery’s legacy within the United States and the need for reparations for African Americans; the task force will create proposals of mechanisms that can be enacted to address the need of reparations (AB 3121)
  • A law barring criminal conviction of a person based on race, ethnicity, or national origin. This law will expand a persons ability to contest cases of unlawful imprisonment on the basis of discrimination, and thus open a doorway to pursue equity within the justice system (AB 2542)

Californians  also saw a monumental victory with the signing of AB 1876, expanding the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable communities, specifically immigrant workers. ITIN tax filers were previously barred from receiving refunds from their state tax claims, despite paying more than 3 million in taxes annually. LOPP-CA has fought for over 4 years with 60 organizations, making this a milestone for Lutheran advocacy in California.

Other Legislative updates:

  • A bill pushing for a one-time cash-via-card food assistance stipend towards migrant workers, many of who have been left out of our government’s efforts to help during this COID-19 crisis, was vetoed by Governor Newsom. (AB 826). This bill was a priority for many of our coalition partnerships.
Categories
Events Local Events Racial Justice Updates

Text Banking for Prop 16!

Our sustained action every other Monday at 6pm


This coming November is a chance to pursue our baptismal calling to advocacy in many ways. In moving in our churches firm commitment to fighting the sin that is racism and building a country that holds all of as children of God, we are having continued advocacy for voting YES on Proposition 16 until the election.

We will be meetings every other Monday at 6pm to Text bank California Voters, asking them to vote YES on Prop 16! We welcome all to come and join, even if you haven’t done so before (we will train you!). It is very easy, and all you have to do is follow the directions at the sign up below!

Categories
State Updates

Legislative updates and Bill summaries: end of session 2020

*Being updated regularly

This legislative session was full of highs and lows, unexpected turns, and strained by a global pandemic, climate catastrophes and more. LOPP-CA has followed multiple bills throughout this time, diligently following legislation that embodies our moral understanding of God’s commandment to run after justice and peace in all ways. 

“…Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled… Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

Excerpts from the Beatitudes


Now is the end of the legislative year 2020, and there are five bills we have tracked that have made it past the legislature and currently sit on the Governor’s Desk. The bills and a brief summary of each are below:

 

Food Access: extending God’s table to the most vulnerable

  •  AB 826: Emergency food assistance: COVID-19 – This measure creates an one-time fund for emergency food assistance that will help millions of people throughout California find food security during this COVID Crisis; This bill specifically uplifts immigrant communities that have been left out of many pandemic relief efforts. See a bill fact sheet made by California Association of Food Banks here.

VETOED

  • AB 3073: CalFresh: pre-enrollment – California is the largest food producing state in the U.S, but still faces the tragic truth that 1 in 8 Californians are food insecure. Bill AB 3073 expands the CalFresh program to those disenfranchised through the carceral system, giving guidelines to both pre-enroll the currently incarcerated as well as enroll formerly incarcerated people. This bill is designed to extend the basic human need of food towards some of our most vulnerable.

PASSED

Racial Reconciliation: repairing harm, embracing the full Body of Christ

  • AB 2542: Criminal Procedure: discrimination (California Racial Justice act) – This bill creates a legal pathway to the sin of racism within legal prosecution. Specifically, it disallows criminal prosecution on the base of Race, Ethnicity, or National Origin and paves a way to legally challenge racial bias within any criminal case. This is a monumental bill toward gaining racial equality in California. A fact sheet for the bill is found here.

PASSED

  • AB 3070: Juries: Peremptory Challenges LOPP-CA supports this bill as another attempt for California to address systemic racial injustice. This Bill bolsters the legal framework of identifying and rectifying racial bias in the jury selection process. There are many key changes to the current legal process made, all of which can be found by viewing the bill analysis here.

PASSED

  • AB 3121: Committee to Study Reparations – This legislation creates a 8 person committee to begin the difficult work of reckoning with the legacy of racism and slavery in the U.S,  which will ultimately make recommendations on how best to address Reparations towards African Americans. More on this bill can be found here.

PASSED

 

Worker Protection: guarding those that serve others

  • AB 2043: Occupational Safety and Health: agricultural employers and employees: COVID-19 -Introduced by Representative Robert Rivas in District 30, the bill, “Ensures enforcement by Cal/OSHA of its COVID-19 guidance, funds a targeted bilingual outreach campaign to educate agricultural workers on Cal/OSHA guidance, as well as COVID-19-related paid sick leave and workers compensation benefits, and directs Cal/OSHA to track and report workplace investigations related to the agricultural industry.” This bill was introduced as a package to support California’s vulnerable and necessary farm workers, neighbors that provide food for our entire nation. More on the bill here.

PASSED

Anti-poverty Legislation: expanding our social net to hold those that work

  • AB 1876: Expanding California EITC to Immigrant ITIN Filers – This is a long standing battle to broaden the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which current immigrant ITIN tax filers do not receive. The Federal and State income tax return credit is one of the most powerful tools available for lifting people out of poverty, and this legislation would expand EITC guidelines to include many hard working Californians.

PASSED


This is powerful news, and we are uplifted to see that some change-making bills have the chance to move our state closer to God’s vision of love. We need to fight for change, in all ways possible. We need leadership from Governor Newsom in signing these measure into law.  Advocate by calling or emailing here the Governor before September 30th!

 

Categories
Events Local Events Updates

God’s Work, Our Hands Event! Yes on Prop 16!

Sunday, September 20th: Text Bank advocacy for Prop 16

Sign up link here!!!

California is a vast state filled with people that celebrate God’s diversity; sadly our state hasn’t done enough to live into this joy. We are voting YES on Proposition 16 this November so that we can continue the fight for the beautiful wholeness of our Church, so we can work alongside those moving for racial justice all over our country, so we can fight against gender discrimination,  and so we as God’s Church can stand by our Baptismal covenant of justice. Ephesians 2:14 says, “for he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility..” 

 

LOPP-CA is working with the Yeson16 Coalition to pass Prop 16! We will be running a 1 hour training for our Intuitive Text-Banking system, then jumping into some messaging to California Voters as a group! Don’t worry, we won’t be using your direct phone number, and we will teach you everything you need to know! All you will need is a Laptop (preferred), Tablet, or Phone! SIGN UP ON THE LINK BELOW

https://www.mobilize.us/voteyesonprop16/event/322120/

Our training times are: 12pm, 2pm, 4pm (google hang out meeting link upon registration)

Our text banking happens right after each training: 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, and 6pm (zoom link upon registation)

Make sure to sign up at our link above so we know how many folks we have coming. Let’s make God’s Work happen!

taken from Equal Vote Yes on Prop 16, Equal Opportunities

Categories
Updates Worship Resources

Hunger Strike Vigil