• Registered vehicle owners in California could get at least $400 per vehicle as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed $11 billion relief package for Californians facing high gas prices, the governor’s office announced on March 23. “We’re taking immediate action to get money directly into the pockets of Californians who are facing higher gas prices as a direct result of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine,” Newsom said in a statement. “But this package is also focused on protecting people from volatile gas prices, and advancing clean transportation—providing three months of free public transportation, fast-tracking electric vehicle incentives and charging stations, and new funding for local biking and walking projects.” The proposal calls for $9 billion in tax refunds—$400 direct payments capped at two vehicles—and provides $2 billion in broader relief. About $750 million will be given in grants to provide free transit for three months, $600 million will pause a part of the sales tax rate on diesel for one year, and $523 million will pause gas and diesel inflation, according to Newsom’s office. The tax refund will take the form of $400 debit cards for registered vehicle owners, and individuals will be eligible to receive up to two payments. An average California driver spends approximately $300 in gasoline excise tax over a year.
• U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) questioned Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on the third day of her confirmation hearing to become the next associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, according to a March 22 statement. Padilla asked Jackson about the role of the Supreme Court in upholding the fundamental right to vote and the federal government’s responsibility to and relationship with sovereign tribal governments. “California is home to the largest Native American population in the country. In fact, more than 1 in 10 Native Americans call California home. … As a general matter, can you just share what your understanding is of the federal government’s legal and moral trust, responsibility, and relationship with tribal governments?” Padilla asked, according to a statement. Jackson discussed the relationship between tribal and federal governments, and said that the federal government has some responsibilities to the nations. “It’s a very, very important care and trust responsibility that the federal government has in terms of making sure that the tribes are recognized and cared for, in the context of our system,” Jackson said.
• A bipartisan majority on the House Committee on Education and Labor approved the Federal Firefighters Fairness Act, a measure written by U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) that ensures federal firefighters receive the same access to job-related disability and retirement benefits as state, county, and municipal firefighters, the congressman’s office recently announced. The measure would create the presumption that federal firefighters who become disabled by serious diseases—including heart disease, lung disease, and certain cancers—contracted the illness on the job. Currently, that is not the case, and it makes it difficult for federal firefighters to qualify for workers’ compensation or disability benefits, the statement said. The bill now moves to the U.S. House of Representatives floor for consideration, and if passed it could improve benefits for more than 10,000 firefighters across the United States. “I’m pleased that to see my measure to give our brave federal firefighters the health care benefits they have earned has made its way through the committee process and one step closer to becoming law,” Carbajal said in a statement. “Federal firefighters have been on the front lines in California fighting wildfires as we experience longer and more extreme fire seasons, but their threshold to prove work-related illness is much higher than their state or local counterparts here in California and around the nation.”
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 7, 2022.