Lutheran Office of Public Policy - CaliforniaOn 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.
Most bills we’ve been following this year are in their respective Appropriations Committee and waiting on final hearings to determine if they will continue this session.
Stay tuned for our discussion on the Governor’s May Revise, which is the updated state budget that is released every year in May. The May Revise is being announced this Friday, May 10th. We will cover the updated state budget situation at AIQ on Wednesday, May 22nd. Join us!
Lobby Day is nearly here! Check out our priority bills for 2024.
Advocacy actions for the week:
It’s the active season in the California state legislature! Bills are moving through their various policy committees, and we at LOPPCA are in attendance giving our support in many hearings.
Some upcoming hearings of key bills we’re supporting this session include:
If your legislator is on any of these committees, please CALL them and ask them to support these bills in their respective committees!
Federal: Call your Senators to ask them to pass the Child Tax Credit expansion bill.
Budget subcommittee hearings ramp up beginning the week of February 26th in both houses of the state legislature. LOPP will be attending hearings throughout the legislative session. Key ones to pay attention to next week include:
You can find upcoming legislative hearings at the following pages:
Remember to register for Lobby Day 2024! The first 15 people under the age of 25 who register will have their hotel and transportation fees covered by LOPP. Check out our Lobby Day website page for more information!
Federal: Complete the federal ELCA advocacy Action Alert to urge Congress to expand the Child Tax Credit.
All 2023 bills have been acted on or died for this 2-year legislative session as of last week. Some, like SB 85 (Wiener) – case management services for refugees, passed out of their house of origin last week and are therefore still moving this session. Others, like AB 259 (Lee) – wealth tax on extremely wealthy Californians, died in committee and failed to pass out of their house of origin.
The deadline for bills to be introduced in 2024 is next Friday, February 16th. We will have a better idea of what bills exist after that point.
Advocacy actions:
SB 4 (Wiener): Affordable housing on faith-based lands – passed out of Assembly Natural Resources Committee with amendments on 7/10. It next heads to Appropriations.
SB 253 (Wiener): Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act – passed out of Assembly Natural Resources Committee with amendments on 7/10: It next heads to Appropriations.
**Any bills still active as of today will need to be passed out of their respective policy committees by the end of the day on Friday, July 14th to meet the legislative deadline. Bills that do make it to Appropriations will need our support in those committees. From there, we encourage you to start calling your representatives to urge them to support these and our other priority bills on the floor.
Federal advocacy: Please complete the ELCA Advocacy Action Alert on the Endangered Species Act. You can do so here.
AiQ schedule: We will NOT be meeting for AiQ until Wednesday, August 16th on account of the legislative summer recess (July 14th-August 14th).
SB 253 (Wiener)- The Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act is being heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 18. If your senator is on this committee, reach out and tell them to support it! If they are not on this committee, tell them to support it on the Senate floor!
AB 660 (Irwin)- Updating expiration/use-by dates on food packaging, is being heard in the Assembly Health Committee on April 18. If your assemblymember is on this committee, reach out and tell them to support it! If they are not on this committee, tell them to support it on the Assembly floor!
ELCA Advocacy News: Farm Bill listening sessions are only a week away! Sign up for the Pacific Time Zone session here. These sessions will focus on the federal Farm Bill that’s up for reauthorization this year with a time zone area focus. The Pacific Time zone focused session will take place on Friday, April 21 at 12 noon PT.
SB 253 (Wiener)- The Climate Corporate Leadership & Data Accountability Act, a bill LOPPCA is strongly supporting along with our various coalition partners, is being heard in committee TODAY! Call your state Senator and urge them to support this crucial bill.
ELCA Advocacy call for public comment on harmful proposed asylum rule: Comment by March 27th! Find out more on the proposed rule and take action here.
Next Wednesday, March 22nd, is World Water Day. Instead of our regular AIQ meeting on that day, we will be joining Southwest California Synod from 12-1 pm for their annual celebration of World Water Day. There will be several speakers, including our Director, Regina Banks. We hope to see you there! You can sign up here to attend the event. The regularly scheduled AIQ will be back on March 29th.
Act in support of legislation to safeguard future elections. Go to this link on ELCA Advocacy to take action: https://support.elca.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1562
At AIQ today Andrew shared with us links to several resources related to housing, including a voter guideline for people facing homelessness.