News from Assemblymember Garcia:
Sacramento, CA: With only a few weeks left in this year’s Legislative Session, Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) is pleased to report that his farmworker and Native American housing initiatives have passed favorably in the Senate Appropriations Committee and are ready to go before the Senate for a floor vote.
“These measures work to make housing resources available for populations that have been historically underserved,” said Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia.
AB 1010, would allow duly constituted governing bodies of a Native American reservation or Rancheria to become eligible applicants to participate in affordable housing programs.
“Affordable housing is one of our state’s most urgent issues. The passage of AB 1010 would rectify a grave disparity by allowing Native American tribes to apply for these desperately needed housing funds,” said Garcia. “My district is home to many tribal communities that could benefit from these local investment opportunities.”
Jamie Navenma, Executive Director, Northern Circle Indian Housing Authority stated, “On the heels of Governor Newsom’s most recent statements acknowledging the historic and systemic injustices committed against American Indians, this is a concrete example of dismantling those systems to put real resources into our communities – here for the tribal communities we serve in Mendocino and Butte County, as well as other tribal organizations and communities across the state.”
AB 389 establishes the Agricultural Working Poor Energy Efficient Housing Program within the Department of Community Services and Development to improve energy efficiency in farmworker housing.
“Agriculture is the economic driver of my district; over the years, our farmworker populations have become more rooted and much less mobile. The creation of this program will help families in our rural region overcome prevalent and often hazardous infrastructure challenges while improving energy efficiency,” shared Garcia.
“AB 386 will facilitate funding allocation for our Association of farmworkers organizations and will ensure that the farmworkers and other rural working poor are not left behind as we pursue the objective of lowering the carbon footprint, while concurrently increasing the farmworker’s disposable income in the State of California,” Marco Cesar Lizárraga, Executive Director of La Cooperativa Campesina de California, which serves as the association of the National Farmworker Jobs Program grantees for the State of California. La Cooperativa’s member network serves over 153,000 clients per year, over 55,000 of these clients are farmworkers and/or the poor rural Latinos.
Listed below are additional Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia authored and coauthored measures approved in their respective appropriations suspense hearings.
Senate Appropriations
AB 386 (E.Garcia) – Agricultural Working Poor Energy Efficient Housing Program: This bill establishes the Agricultural Working Poor Energy Efficient Housing Program (Program) within the Department of Community Services and Development. It will specifically require that the Program and funds be used to improve energy efficiency in farmworker housing in the following ways: weatherization of residences, replacement of energy inefficient appliances, replacement of lighting, installation of photovoltaic solar panels and solar water heating systems and Installation of battery backups. The measure also requires that the Program is developed to be compatible with the state’s current energy goals and to avoid duplicating any current energy efficiency programs.
AB 1010 (E.Garcia) – Native American Housing Eligibility: This bill would allow duly constituted governing bodies of a Native American reservation or Rancheria to become eligible applicants to participate in affordable housing programs.
AB 1248 (E. Garcia) – Capital Investment Incentive Program: local governments: property tax abatement: This bill would expand the Capital Investment Incentive Program (CIIP) by authorizing cities and counties to offer property tax abatements for up to 10 years to smaller manufacturers who make an investment of over $5 million in a proposed manufacturing facility, as specified.
AB 39 (Murarsuchi, E. Garcia)- Education finance: local control funding formula: aspirational funding level: reports: This bill expresses the intent of the Legislature to increase the per student base grant funding targets for school districts and charter schools under the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), as specified.
AB 173 (Chau, E. Garcia) -Mobilehomes: payments: nonpayment or late payments: This bill AB 173 would provide a one-year extension, until January 1, 2021, of the “Register Your Mobilehome” program,” which provides tax and penalty abatements for owners of mobilehomes who are unable to register their ownership interest with the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) because of past due taxes and fees.
AB 209 (Limon, E. Garcia)- Parks: outdoor environmental education: grant program: This bill would require the Director of Parks and Recreation to establish the Outdoor Equity Grants to increase the ability of underserved and at-risk populations to participate in outdoor environmental educational experiences at state parks and other public lands where outdoor environmental education programs take place.
AB 512 (Ting, E. Garcia)- Medi-Cal: specialty mental health services: This bill would codify the requirement that a county health plan must prepare a cultural competency plan, and would specify additional requirements for the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and county mental health plans related mental health disparity reduction targets.
AB 556 (Carrillo, E. Garcia)- Outdoor experiences: community access program: grant program: This bill would require the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) to develop and implement a community access program and would authorize the agency to develop a transportation-based grant program.
AB 614 (Eggman, E. Garcia)- Income taxes: credits: food banks: This bill would expand the existing Fresh Fruits or Vegetables Tax Credit to include qualified donations of specified food items, raw agricultural products, and processed foods.
AB 658 (Arambula, E.Garcia)- Water rights: water management: This bill would allow groundwater sustainability agencies or other local agencies to apply to the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) for temporary five-year permits to divert and store groundwater during high-flow events.
AB 1510 (Reyes, E. Garcia)- Sexual assault and other sexual misconduct: statutes of limitations on civil actions: This bill would allow individuals to bring specific time-barred civil claims related to adult sexual assault and similar activities by a physician occurring at a student health center, as specified.
AB 1747 (Gonzalez, E. Garcia)- Law enforcement: immigration: This bill would prohibit California law enforcement agencies, as defined, from making the information in their databases available to any person or entity for the purposes of immigration enforcement, except as specified. It also would require a law enforcement agency to justify withholding specified information regarding its participation in a joint law enforcement task force.
ACR 50 (Chiu, E. Garcia)- Workforce development: This bill would call on the state’s workforce development system to improve access to workforce development programs for all Californians, including minority communities, limited English proficiency individuals and the formerly incarcerated.
ACR 64 (McCarty, E. Garcia)- California State University and University of California: SAT and ACT: This resolution requests the Trustees of the California State University (CSU) and the Regents of the University of California (UC) to conduct a study on the usefulness, effectiveness, and need for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT) to determine student admissions, including the evaluation of specified matters and recommendations, and a plan, if determined to be necessary, for phasing out the use of the SAT and ACT as a basis for admission
Assembly Appropriations
SB 66 (Atkins, E. Garcia)- Medi-Cal: federally qualified health center and rural health clinic services: This bill allows federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) or rural health clinics (collectively, clinics), after a rate adjustment has been approved by the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), to bill for two visits taking place on the same day at a single location when the patient suffers illness or injury requiring additional diagnosis or treatment after the first visit, or when the patient has a medical visit and another health visit with a mental health or dental provider.
SB 127 (Wiener, E. Garcia)- Transportation funding: active transportation: complete streets: This bill makes significant changes to the Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans’) programming, planning and capital improvement processes to better ensure Caltrans considers, plans for, implements and maintains transportation facilities that provide safe mobility for all users, including bicyclists, pedestrians, transit vehicles, truckers and motorists, appropriate to the function and context of the facility, a condition often referred to as a “complete street.”
SB 273 (S. Rubio, E. Garcia) – Domestic Violence: This bill extends the statute of limitation for the crime of domestic violence to eight years when specified conditions apply, and makes changes to domestic violence training requirements for law enforcement.
SB 538 (S. Rubio, E. Garcia) – Electronic Cigarettes: This bill requires electronic cigarette manufacturers to submit to the Department of Public Health (DPH) a written physical description and photograph of each electronic cigarette sold and requires DPH to post this description and photograph on its website by July 1, 2020. This bill also requires DPH to conduct a public outreach campaign to notify school districts, charter schools and parent organizations that this information is available on DPH’s website.
SB 558 (Hueso, E. Garcia)- Commission on California-Mexico Affairs: This bill establishes the Commission on California-Mexico Affairs to serve as the public body tasked with developing policy proposals and recommendation on issues pertaining to the California-Mexico border region and other California-Mexico issues. The bill requires the commission be comprised of 11 members, including nine public voting members appointed by the Legislature and Governor and two nonvoting legislators from either legislative house. The Commission’s work may be funded with public or private funds.
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Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) serves as the chairperson of the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife. He represents the 56th district, which comprises the cities and communities of Blythe, Brawley, Bermuda Dunes, Calexico, Calipatria, Cathedral City, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, El Centro, Holtville, Imperial, Indio, Mecca, Oasis, North Shore, Salton Sea, Thermal, Thousand Palms, and Westmorland.