• Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) joined a bipartisan group of senators in announcing the inclusion of election security funding in the Omnibus Appropriations bill on March 22, the day before the bill was signed by President Donald Trump. The bill gives $380 million for states to improve election security, including cyber security guidelines and replacing outdated voting machines. The funding was first proposed in the Secure Elections Act, a bill introduced by Harris in December of 2017, according to a statement from her office. “The urgency to secure our elections is clear,” Harris said in the statement. “The 2018 midterm elections are already upon us, and we must assume that Russia will continue its attacks on the very heart of our democracy. We fought hard, and funding is a critical first step to providing states with the resources to begin securing their election infrastructure.”
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) issued a statement on March 27 about the Trump administration’s decision to include a citizenship question on the upcoming census. Feinstein said the question was “designed to depress participation” in “immigrant communities,” saying the people “living in mixed-status households” may fear participation could lead to targeting from the administration. “This is particularly troubling in states like California with high immigrant populations,” Feinstein said. “Without an accurate census, our state will lose federal funding for infrastructure, schools, and social welfare programs we are rightly owed. Even more troubling, an undercount of our population could lead to California losing seats in Congress, disenfranchising millions of California voters.”
• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) applauded the inclusion of a change to wildfire budgeting practices in the Omnibus Appropriations bill, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 23. According to a statement from Carbajal’s office, the change allows the U.S. Forest Service and Department of the Interior to retain their fire suppression funds even after they exceed their budgets fighting fires. Known as “fire-borrowing,” the departments would pull from fire suppression funds to fight wildfires, the release said, resulting in underfunding of fire prevention and mitigation. “After California’s most destructive wildfire season on record, this funding adjustment for our firefighting agencies is welcome news,” Carbajal said. “For far too long we have forced the Forest Service to sacrifice proactive land management practices in order to fight active fires. This practical wildfire funding fix will help agencies better plan for fires and devote the resources necessary to combat them.”
• Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill co-authored by Assemblymember Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) and state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) on March 23, Assembly Bill 417, which allows outpatient behavioral services at Vista Del Mar in Ventura to resume despite fire damage to the building. Vista Del Mar was scorched during the Thomas Fire, and inpatient services will remain unavailable, but outpatient services can now resume. “Vista Del Mar is a critically important provider of both inpatient and outpatient mental health services in the region,” Limón said in a statement. “The loss of both inpatient and outpatient services has had a ripple effect throughout the community. As one of the only providers of adolescent services, it is critical these services come back online as quickly as possible. I am happy the Legislature was able to help expedite this process.” The closure of Vista Del Mar following the Thomas Fire affected “vulnerable populations throughout Ventura and Santa Barbara counties,” according Jackson. “This bill provides an important fix that will make a big difference in many people’s lives,” she said.
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 5, 2018.
