Political Watch: September 29, 2022

• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) voted with a bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives to advance a collection of bills that would improve federal support for local law enforcement and other first responders, create new grant programs to help curb gun crime and solve gun crimes, and improve public safety on the Central Coast, according to a Sept. 22 statement from the congressman’s office. The Invest to Protect Act—co-sponsored by Carbajal—would create a new grant program for police departments with fewer than 125 officers, which includes every police department on the Central Coast between Ventura and San Luis Obispo. This ensures departments with fewer administrative staff do not have to compete with large metropolitan areas for grants that can help cover the cost of hiring, training, retaining, or equipping law enforcement professionals. The House also passed the Mental Health Justice Act, which would create a new grant program to train and dispatch mental health professionals to emergencies involving behavioral health issues, enabling law enforcement to focus on crime response and prevention and other threats to public safety. “Central Coast law enforcement officers work hard every day to protect our communities, combat gun violence, and keep our families safe,” Carbajal said in the statement. “Supporting our law enforcement officers while they’re protecting our communities also means ensuring we don’t ask them to handle situations that they aren’t trained or equipped to handle, especially when it takes them away from their other sworn duties.”

• U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) introduced the bipartisan American Music Fairness Act to ensure artists and music creators receive fair compensation for the use of their songs on AM/FM radio, according to a Sept. 22 statement from Padilla’s office. This legislation would bring corporate radio broadcasters in line with all other music streaming platforms—which already pay artists for their music. Identical legislation has already been introduced and received a hearing in the House, setting Congress up for action this fall, according to Padilla’s office. Currently, the United States is the only democratic country in the world where artists aren’t compensated for the use of their music on AM/FM radio, college radio stations, and noncommercial stations. By requiring broadcast radio corporations to pay performance royalties, the American Music Fairness Act would close an antiquated loophole that has allowed corporate broadcasters to forgo compensating artists for the use of their music for decades. “For too long, our laws have unfairly denied artists the right to receive fair compensation for their hard work and talent on AM/FM broadcasts,” Padilla said in the statement. “California’s artists have played a pivotal role in enriching and diversifying our country’s music scene. That is why passing the American Music Fairness Act is so important. It’s time we treat our musical artists with the dignity and respect they deserve for the music they produce and we enjoy every day.”

• Gov. Gavin Newsom went to Climate Week NYC where he met with climate leaders and showcased California’s climate goals on a global level, according to a Sept. 21 statement from the governor’s office. Recently, California enacted some of the nation’s most aggressive climate measures in history, as Newsom signed a package of legislation to cut pollution, protect residents from big polluters, and accelerate the state’s transition to clean energy—an “essential” piece of the California Climate Commitment with a record $54 billion investment in climate action. “In partnership with the Legislature, we just passed the most bold, most comprehensive, and most significant climate policy of any jurisdiction anywhere in the world—Big Oil lost, and they’re not used to losing,” Newsom said in a statement. “Later is too late to act—lifestyles, places, and traditions are being destroyed—and California is leading the world in our efforts to combat climate change.” During his time at Climate Week, Newsom met with Australian Minister of Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert, and Scotland’s Minister for Environment and Land Reform Máiri McAllan to discuss the future of clean energy investments and potential partnerships.

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