• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) released a statement on June 4 criticizing an executive order President Donald Trump issued that instructed federal agencies to waive environmental reviews for certain development projects during the economic downturn the country is facing. In a statement his office released, Carbajal questioned the intent of this order, which Trump said he issued to expedite projects that could spur the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “Waiving requirements for public input and environmental impact assessments does nothing to save our cities, counties, and states from bankruptcy,” Carbajal said in the statement. “This order is clearly aimed at giving corporate interests the green light to trample on our public health and environment under the guise of expediting economic recovery.”
• Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on June 3 that further outlines how the general election this November will operate amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other actions, the order requires counties to set drop boxes where voters can deposit their ballots between Oct. 6 and Nov. 3. The order also allows counties to consolidate voting locations, while maintaining at least one voting location for every 10,000 registered voters. This order follows up on a previous one the governor issued in May that requires county election officials to send vote-by-mail ballots to all registered voters for the general election. “We are committed to protecting the hard-fought right for Californians to make their voices heard this November, even in the face of a pandemic,” Newsom said in a statement. “As the demonstrations across the country remind us, civic participation is critical to our democracy. If we are to address the racial inequities that exist in our institutions, policies, and representation, we must ensure that all eligible Californians have an opportunity to safely cast their ballot.”
• On June 1, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) responded to President Donald Trump’s intention to use The Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy armed forces throughout the country to suppress the protests taking place over the death of George Floyd. “We are at a critical moment in our history, and America needs compassionate leadership,” Carbajal said in a statement. “Now is the time for a national conversation about racism, inequality, and reform in policing. Instead, the president labeled protesters as ‘thugs’ and threatened to invoke violence against fellow Americans.” Carbajal, who is a veteran, noted that Trump never served in the armed forces and further stated that using the U.S. military to threaten and silence protesters goes against American values.
• In a Facebook post on June 3, Assemblymember Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) said she recently stood with the California Legislative Black Caucus as its members spoke at the state Capitol about the need to pass legislation that would begin to address the decades of discrimination that the black community and other minorities in the state have experienced. “Our community, state, and nation are hurting and seek healing from experiences that have gone unaddressed for many decades,” Limón said in the post. “I want our black and African American community to know that I see you and I hear you. As a [California] state representative, I will continue to look at ways we can change our systems and institutions to better address systemic barriers in our community faced by those historically underserved.”
This article appears in Jun 11-18, 2020.