• President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act into law on March 11. It will provide direct relief to Americans, resources for school reopenings, and funding to set up community vaccination sites nationwide. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statement later that day praising the act. “With this infusion of federal stimulus, California can make faster progress on responding to COVID, supporting small businesses, putting money in people’s pockets, and bolstering K-12 and higher education,” Newsom said in the statement. “I look forward to working with our partners in the Legislature to prioritize these critically needed funds, focusing on key shared priorities such as equity, housing affordability, education, and infrastructure, and coming out of this pandemic as a stronger and more inclusive California.” Newsom joined with state Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) on March 12 to issue a joint statement on how the state will continue to support business in the coming weeks as the new relief begins to take effect. “With small businesses and their employees still suffering from the consequences of COVID-19, we continue to work on measures to provide them additional relief related to federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, as was done last year under AB 1577,” they said. “The legislation that would conform to the federal tax treatment of these grants will be delayed temporarily while we seek detailed guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department regarding provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act … . We remain committed to an equitable and broad-based recovery and acting expeditiously to provide additional relief to businesses in the state—especially those that have been hardest hit by COVID-19, such as bars, restaurants, barbers, nail and hair salons, and performing arts venues, among others.”
• State Sen. Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) wrote in a March 11 Facebook post that Senate Bill 543, which she introduced in February, passed the Senate Governmental Organization Committee. The bill “requires state agencies that significantly regulate or impact nonprofits to designate at least one person among existing personnel to perform nonprofit liaison duties,” Limón said in the Facebook post. “The liaison will respond to complaints, provide technical assistance on agency regulation compliance, report nonprofit concerns to agency leadership, and develop innovative procurement and contracting practices to increase opportunities for nonprofits.” According to the bill, existing law already maintains similar requirements for state agencies that regulate or impact small businesses, so Limón’s bill would expand that requirement to agencies that impact nonprofits.
• Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham (R-San Luis Obispo) wrote in a March 10 Facebook post that he remains committed to tackling human trafficking issues in the state after speaking about the issue at a California Massage Therapy Council oversight hearing. “Human trafficking is real, and it is happening throughout California and right here on the Central Coast. According to the anti-human-trafficking nonprofit Polaris, there are more than 9,000 illicit massage businesses operating in the United States, many of them in California,” Cunningham wrote in the post. “There is a human trafficking problem in the massage parlor industry. As a member of the committee that oversees the California Massage Therapy Council, I will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure that stopping human trafficking is [prioritized] by the council. We must continue to work together to end modern slavery.”
This article appears in Mar 18-25, 2021.