• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) called on his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to act on legislation to avert a pay cut for federal wildland firefighters on Sept. 30, according to a Sept. 11 statement from Carbajal’s office. “As Californians have been baking this week in an extreme heat wave, our brave federal firefighters choose to put on heavy gear and head into the heat. They spend these scorching months cutting down trees, digging lines, and sleeping yards away from these deadly wildfires—to keep us safe,” Carbajal said in the statement. “And if we don’t act soon, Congress is going to thank these brave firefighters for their service with a pay cut.” In 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided a temporary pay raise for federal wildland firefighters, but that raise expires at the end of the fiscal year. If allowed to expire, wildland firefighters could see their pay cut by as much as 50 percent, a cut that the Forest Service estimates would likely cause thousands of firefighters to leave the federal workforce. Earlier this year, Carbajal and his colleagues from the Western United States introduced the bipartisan Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act to permanently increase the base pay, deployment pay, and benefits for federal wildland firefighters.
• U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California), Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), and John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) recently introduced the Student Food Security Act of 2024, bicameral legislation to address food insecurity faced by college students nationwide, according to a Sept. 13 statement from Padilla’s office. According to a recent survey, nearly 40 percent of community college students are food insecure, more than half are housing insecure, and 18 percent have experienced homelessness. These factors negatively impact student success and graduation rates. The Student Food Security Act would support food-insecure students by expanding eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), allowing students to use SNAP benefits at on-campus dining facilities, increasing outreach by federal and state agencies to food-insecure students, and establishing an annual grant program to aid colleges and universities in better identifying and serving students. The bill includes key provisions from Sen. Padilla’s BASIC Act, bicameral legislation to ensure college students are able to meet their basic needs while pursuing their education. “College students shouldn’t have to choose between buying their textbooks or affording their next meal,” Padilla said in the statement. “Permanently expanding nutritional assistance and access to basic needs for college students is vital to ensuring young people juggling work, family life, and financial insecurity can still succeed in higher education.”
• Finalizing the complete package of historic bills to crack down on retail and property crime, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1960, which will create steeper felony penalties for large-scale felony theft offenses, according to a Sept. 12 statement from Newsom’s office. The bill would mandate that courts impose an enhanced sentence when suspects take, damage, or destroy property valued at more than $50,000 during the commission of any felony, including retail theft. Targeting large-scale fencing operations, the same enhanced sentences will also be applicable to those who knowingly receive stolen property or resell such property. “California already has some of the strictest retail and property crime laws in the nation—and we have made them even stronger with our recent legislation. We can be tough on crime while also being smart on crime—we don’t need to go back to broken policies of the last century,” Newsom said in the statement. “Mass incarceration has been proven ineffective and is not the answer—we need true accountability and strategies that enhance our nation-leading efforts to address crime.”
