Categories
Enviroment UN/National Updates

Come to Brazil: COP30 Begins

The 30th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began on Monday, November 10th in Belém, Brazil and is taking place until November 21st, 2025. My boss, Regina Banks, our Director of LOPP-CA, is attending in-person. As the Hunger Advocacy Fellow in Sacramento, I am following the conference sessions online. I am excited for us both to connect with the larger global community to learn more about climate justice issues, especially from people most impacted by climate change.  

Previously, I had heard of the Conference of Parties as an environmental conference, but I did not know much about it. What I have learned is that this year’s COP marks the 10-year anniversary of the Paris Agreement. For those unfamiliar, it was initially formed in efforts to curb emissions and limit global warming to well below 2°C, and to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5 °C.  

However, 10 years later, the Climate Action Tracker projects that there is a 50% chance that warming will exceed 2.1°C by 2100. Countries and people groups who are most impacted by climate change contribute the least to emissions. Challenges to the Paris Agreement’s implementation have included the USA pulling out of the agreement altogether during both Trump presidencies and an overall lack of substantive action by the additional countries responsible for the most emissions. 

Lutherans from across the globe, not just from state public policy offices in Texas or California, are attending COP30, as the Lutheran World Federation sends people each year. We are following the Biblical imperative to protect the most vulnerable in society, which can be found in places like Matthew 25:40: “And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these siblings of mine, you did it to me.’”  

You may be wondering the quintessential Lutheran question, “What does this mean?” Why do Lutherans bother to show up to COP year after year? What does it mean for us to be united in our faith as a global community? Our presence at COP means that we can carry these stories of faithful people with us into our statewide advocacy. No longer can we say, “I don’t know of anyone outside of the United States of America who’s been impacted by climate change.” This brings us into greater accountability with not only people that share our faith, but also people who have different or no faith traditions of their own.  

Going forward, we will continue to share on this blog about what we are learning from COP, so ‘stay tuned’ to read more. 

Categories
Enviroment Immigrant Justice State Uncategorized

Lobby Day 2025 Bill Results

Thank you to everyone who attended our 2025 Lobby Day on May 28, 2025! We appreciate your commitment to LOPP-CA and faith-based advocacy.

Overview: At the conclusion of the California legislative session, 3 of the Lobby Day bills were passed, 2 will become a two-year bill, and one died. Our budget asks were directed toward both the state government of California and federal government of the United States of America.

Passed: SB 635 (Durazo), AB 49 (Muratsuchi) , SB 624 (Caballero)

Two Year Bill: AB 1243 (Addis), SB 684 (Menjvar)

Died: AB 794 (Gabriel)

About the Bills

SB 635 (Durazo): Food vendors and facilities: enforcement activities – Passed

This bill will prevent local governments from sharing personally identifiable data to federal immigration enforcement agencies, it will also prevent the collection of an individual’s immigration status, citizenship status or place of birth, criminal history, or collection of fingerprints, or requires a background check in order to receive a vending permit.

AB 49 (Muratsuchi): School sites and daycare centers: entry requirements: immigration enforcement – Passed

Protects undocumented students and their families by prohibiting ICE officers from entering a school site or childcare facility for any purpose without providing valid identification, a written statement of purpose, a valid judicial warrant, and approval from the school district’s superintendent or director of the childcare center.

SB 624 (Cabellero): Nonminor dependents: tax guidance – Passed

This bill will require county child welfare agencies and juvenile probation departments to mail information about the Foster Youth Tax Credit (FYTC) and tax filing to all nonminor dependents. It will also require the state to provide guidance to counties on best practices for implementing the FYTC.

AB 1243 (Addis), SB 684 (Menjvar): Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025 – Two Year Bill

Ensures polluters pay to protect Californians and lower costs by funding critical climate solutions, including transitioning to clean energy, disaster resilience, sustainable infrastructure, and support for workers and communities suffering climate harms.

AB 794 (Gabriel): California Safe Drinking Water Act: Emergency Regulations – Died in amended assembly

This bill would have required the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) to adopt an emergency regulation based on the existing federal standards. After setting the regulations, the board must set standards for PFAS chemicals in drinking water.

Budget Asks: State and Federal

State of California: Restoration of Medi-Cal Funding

Our Ask: We advocated for a restoration in funding to the Health and Human Services funding lost in the May Revise of the California state budget. Categories included reinstating the Medi-Cal asset limit, the cap of in-home supportive services overtime and travel hours at 50 hours, the mandatory Medi-Cal enrollment freeze for undocumented immigrants age 19 or older, and imposing a $100 monthly healthcare premium for adults age 19 or older with unsatisfactory immigration status.

Result: The Medi-Cal asset limit was reinstated. Medi-Cal enrollment remains frozen for undocumented immigrants age 19 and older. Premiums for unsatisfactory immigration status adults are now capped at $30 a month down from $100 a month.

Federal Government: Restoration of Health and Human Services funding

Our Ask: We advocated for the full restoration of $800 billion from Healthcare and Medicare Programs, $300 billion from education programs, and $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). We also urged our legislators to stop the passing of the One Big Beautiful Bill in Congress, as these tax cuts will impact millions of working families, those with disabilities, and low-income communities.

Result: Tax cuts from the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” and the federal government were passed. Federal funding for SNAP was cut by nearly $200 billion – about 20% — across 10 years. The state Department of Health Care Services estimates that work requirements will result in up to 3 million adults losing coverage as well as a loss of at least $28.4 billion in federal funding for Medi-Cal. In addition, currently-qualifying immigrants’ healthcare will be taken away, as HR-1 restricts access to Medicare to only US citizens, green card holders, Cuban-Haitian entrants, and individuals from COFA nations (Compacts of Free Association). The bill also eliminates the Graduate Plus loan program and limits borrowers to just two repayment options: a new fixed-payment option called the “standard” plan and a new income-based plan called “Repayment Assistance Plan” (RAP).

Once again, thanks to all who attended Lobby Day 2025. We invite you to remain connected to LOPP-CA going forward, and hope you will consider attending next year’s Lobby Day in 2026.

Categories
AiQ California Ballot Measures Federal Legislation Immigrant Justice Uncategorized Updates

LOPP-CA Letter on Prop 50 and a Letter from our Bishops

In faith and hope, we pray.

The letter below hopes to inform you of our discernment regarding Proposition 50, which we provide alongside an accompanying letter of support from the Bishops of the Sierra Pacific, Pacifica, and Southwest California Synods of the ELCA.
In all things, we pray for God’s guidance and your discernment in the coming days.

Letter from CA Bishops in Support of LOPPDownload
Prop 50 Policy Council Letter 2025Download
Categories
Homelessness & Housing

California Housing Legislation Highlights

As of August 17 2025 in cartoon form. This is a great way to get an overview of many years of housing legislation over the years in California.

Categories
Here I Pod Podcasts UN/National Updates Updates

FEMA Changes and Lutheran Disaster Response

Listen to ELCA Advocacy’s “Here I Pod” for Season 2 Episode 2 with host Regina Banks as we explore FEMA Changes and Lutheran Disaster Response.

Categories
Health Care Immigrant Justice Poverty Racial Justice

State Budget Adds Sweeping Cuts to Medi-Cal Access for Immigrant Adults 

On June 27, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the new state budget for Fiscal Year 2025-26 that makes sweeping cuts to Medi-Cal access for immigrant adults as a way to offset the state’s $11.8 billion dollar budget deficit. A handful of legislators led efforts to oppose these harsh cuts with us and our work continues to urge all of our state representatives to equitably invest in and support immigrant Californians.

The budget decisions at the state and federal levels will exacerbate the harms immigrant communities are already facing in their communities. The deployment of federal immigration agents, the military and National Guard for indiscriminate raids in Southern California and the Central Coast have created fear and chaos and resulted in the kidnapping of thousands of community members. 

Despite these challenges, we cannot give up! The fight for healthcare access is not over. Several groups remain committed to fighting against the Medi-Cal rollbacks and won’t stop until we win. 

Categories
Poitical Violence

LOPP-CA Statement on Recent Political Violence

“For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us” (Ephesians 2:14).

In Ephesians, either Paul or his disciple invites us to see our vocations, the gifts and responsibilities entrusted to us, as holy offerings to the household of God. In this divine architecture, all are called to build the Kin(g)dom of God through mutual dignity, truth-telling, and service. The text challenges us to submit our vocational lives, be it as lawmakers, policy professionals, caregivers, or neighbors, to the self-giving love of Christ, who is our peace. Ephesians reminds us that vocation is not just, or even primarily, about personal fulfillment.Vocation ispublic discipleship. When we honor our own gifts and recognize the vocations of others as sacred, we resist the alienation and hierarchy that mark so much of our civic and political life. This is especially urgent for public servants, who often bear the emotional and physical toll of conflict and unrest. The church must continue to name their labor as sacred and stand with all who bear vocational burdens in pursuit of the common good.

This week, we grieve and condemn a series of recent violent political acts that have shaken our collective conscience. U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) was shoved, forced to the ground, and handcuffed by security after attempting to ask a question at a press conference while defending the integrity of public servants. And there was a devastating attack on Minnesota lawmakers that left State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, dead, and State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, hospitalized with serious injuries. We name these acts for what they are, political violence. We reject them with our whole hearts.

We are living through a pivotal moment in our nation’s history. The atmosphere is charged with division, fear, and escalating threats against those who serve in public life. But as Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reminded us last year, “division and violence don’t have to be our inevitable future.” Our call, as people of faith, is not to retreat but to show up with courage, love, and conviction.

Lutheran theology grounds us in a robust understanding of vocation: “Freed through the Gospel, we are to serve others through arenas of responsibility such as family, work, and community life”[1]. For those of us in the ministry of public policy, whether in Washington, Sacramento, or our own congregations, this means stepping boldly into advocacy as peacemakers, peacekeepers, and truth-tellers, even when it is costly. Political violence has no place in our shared life. We mourn those whose lives have been stolen by it, we stand with those who have been targeted by it, and we recommit ourselves to the long, faithful work of peacebuilding.

Jesus’s commandment to us to love one another as he loved us must inform our participation in the democratic process. Our faith should give us the strength to listen to our opponents when we want to denounce them, to respect those with whom we disagree, even when our instincts are to respond to fear and hate with disdain and rejection. We must have faith in ourselves and our ability to remain calm in the face of chaos, to preach love when surrounded by anger.

May we resist dehumanizing rhetoric, confess the violent tendencies within ourselves and our culture, and renew our collective courage to live as disciples of the Risen Christ, who breaks down walls and calls us to be bridge-builders, justice-seekers, and peacemakers.

In faith and fierce hope,
PAX,

Regina Q. Banks, JD

Director, Lutheran Office of Public Policy – California

[1] (Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All, p. 7)

Categories
Gender Justice UN/National Updates

69th Commission on the Status of Women

What is CSW?

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is a function commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It occurs for two weeks every year, bringing together representatives of United Nations member states and civil society organizations to further efforts for global gender equality. This year marked 30 years since the adoption of the Bejing Declaration and Platform for Action, so the focus was on analyzing the progress made in its implementation and how we can continue to move forward and work towards achieving gender equality globally.

What is the Bejing Declaration and Platform for Action?

The Bejing Declaration and Platform for Action is “the most comprehensive global policy framework and blueprint for action.”1 Specifically, it outlines the vital objectives and actions for the advancement of global gender equality in the following 12 critical areas of concern:

  1. Women and Poverty  
  2. Education and Training of Women 
  3. Women and Health  
  4. Violence against Women 
  5. Women and Armed Conflict  
  6. Women and the Economy  
  7. Women in Power and Decision-Making  
  8. Institutional Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women 
  9. Human Rights of Women 
  10. Women and the Media  
  11. Women and the Environment 
  12. The Girl Child

Why was it important that we were there? 

Churches are essential places for the formation and growth of societal and cultural norms. It does not matter how many women hold government positions or if a constitution states gender equality is the law of the land if society does not view us as equals. Especially in a time when religion is being used to further marginalize and discriminate against women, we need to be present and clear that our faith views all of God’s creations as equal. In the ELCA’s social statement on Faith, Sexism, and Justice: A Call to Action, the church acknowledges how “Misuses, misunderstandings, and the limitations of translations have led to and still reinforce beliefs and actions that devalue women and girls.”2 The Church’s recognition of this injustice and inequality on the basis of gender and sex calls on us to “Seek and encourage faithful dialogue, discernment, and, when possible, joint action on issues of patriarchy and sexism with other members of the body of Christ and with partners of other religions and worldviews.”3

Personal Reflections

Attending the 69th Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations was a remarkable and educational experience. It was inspiring to see the progress made in the 30 years since the unanimous adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action by 189 countries. However, per the United Nations’ 2024 Global Gender Gap Report, no country has reached full gender equality, and it will take over 100 years to reach it at current rates. While it is important to acknowledge all the advancements that have been made, it was hard not to be frustrated and disheartened by all the work that is still needed, especially when it feels like we are regressing. Throughout the week, women from around the world recounted their experiences of surviving gender-based violence, the continuation of child marriage, and the lack of equal access to education and health care.  

One concept I repeatedly heard throughout the week is that equality is not a gift given from the top; it is a right fought for from the bottom. While I know there is still a long road ahead, I have faith that, as Lutherans, we will continue to show up and work towards an equitable and just world in God’s image.  

  1. United Nations Women, Platform for Action (New York: United Nations Women, 1995), 7, https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/CSW/PFA_E_Final_WEB.pdf. ↩︎
  2. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Faith, Sexism, Justice: A Call to Action (Chicago: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, August 9, 2019), 18, https://elcamediaresources.blob.core.windows.net/cdn/wp-content/uploads/Faith_Sexism_Justice_Social_Statement_Adopted.pdf. ↩︎
  3. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Faith, Sexism, Justice: A Call to Action, 9. ↩︎

Categories
AiQ Federal Legislation

AIQ News: 2/12/24

On February 12th, we held a special hour-long session of AIQ that focused on the impacts of Executive Orders and funding freezes on social, health, and human services in California. The recording of our session will be shared at noon on Friday. In the meantime, we would like to provide resources that explain the potential impacts on Californians.

Federal Funds Supporting California

According to the California Budget & Policy Center report “California at Risk: Proposed Federal Funding Cuts Jeopardize Key Services” around a third of California’s state budget comes from federal funds. A majority of these funds support health and human services and social services that are now at risk due to the proposed federal funding cuts.

Federal Funds Supporting Lutheran Social Services

Lutheran Social Services of Northern California and Lutheran Social Services of Southern California both utilize federal funds to support vital programs in their communities that are at risk due to Executive Orders and a freeze on the allocation of federal funding. To learn more about these two groups, please visit their websites linked above. Additionally, to learn more about how both groups receive federal funds and what programs they support click here for LSS Northern California and here for LSS Southern California.

Categories
AiQ State Updates

Proposed 2025-26 State Budget

On January 10th Governor Newsom released his proposed budget for the State of California. It is important to note that this is the first iteration of the budget, it will be revised in May before a final version is passed this summer. Click here to read the proposed budget in its entirety.

To further understand the proposal and learn more about its expected impacts and shortfalls, click here to read the California Budget and Policy Center’s report.