Lobby Day 2021 Recap
On May 26, 2021, NCJW|LA Advocates Joined Forces to Take Action!
We are happy to report that our legislative meetings and conversations were informative and promising. We are proud of the connections we made.
Our advocates demonstrated their commitment to addressing critical issues of economic injustice for Californians:
- Helping End Hunger
- Reproductive Inequities
- Homelessness / Poverty
- Lack of Childcare
- Lifting People Out of Poverty
Drawing on their passion and dedication to these important challenges facing Californians, our advocates encouraged our legislators and their staff to work hard to advance economic justice and equity for women, children, and families.
During our Lobby Day, we met with local Senators and Assemblymembers:
Senator Maria Elena Durazo's District Consultant Baydsar Thomasian
Assemblymember Miguel Santiago's Legislative Assistant Tom Steel
Assemblymember Laura Friedman, along with her Chief of Staff Allison Ruff Schuurman
Assemblymember Richard Bloom, along with his Field Representative Lenh Voong
Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, along with his Regional Director Emma Taylor and Legislative Grace Dikho
Assemblymember Mike Gipson, along with his Legislative Assistant Jordan Panana Carbajal
Assemblymember Autumn Burke's Legislative Director Aaron Moreno
Meeting with Sen Maria Elena Durazo's staff Baydsar Thomasian
In each of our meetings, Legislators and staff were attentive; many of the offices we met with sponsored, authored, or co-authored the bills we advocated for:
Food Insecurity
SB 364 (Skinner) - End Child Hunger: Ensure free meals for all school children while maximizing available federal funds to support California's food economy and combat child hunger.
Childcare Access
AB 92 (Gomez-Reyes) – Childcare: Creates an equitable sliding scale for family fees that will alleviate the burden on working families struggling to pay for childcare and early childhood education services.
Homelessness & Foster Youth
SB 234 (Wiener) - Foster Youth Housing: Creates a forgivable loan program of $100 million to be used to create new housing, or acquire existing housing, for youth between ages 16 and 26.
Reproductive Service Access
SB 379 (Wiener) - Reproductive Rights: Prohibits the University of California (UC) from entering into a contract with a health facility contractor or subcontractor in which a UC-employed practitioner or trainee would be limited in their ability to provide patients with medical information or services due to nonclinical policy-based restrictions on care in the health facility.
Poverty Reduction
SB 691 (Rubio) - EITC Expansion: Permanently increase the California Earning Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) for workers excluded from the federal EITC and extends eligibility for the Young Child Tax Credit (YCTC). This would be possible by establishing a $100 minimum CalEITC Credit for most workers who do not get the federal EITC.
Addressing Poverty & Building Assets
AB1338 (Low) Public Social Services Programs: Financial Assistance Demonstration and Research Programs: would establish "financial assistance" as an unconditional cash payment of an equal amount issued monthly, but for a period not to exceed 60 months.
AB 1177 (Santiago) California Public Banking Option Act: would create a public banking option to help "unbanked" residents.
Meeting with Asm. Laura Friedman and staff
Meeting with Asm. Miguel Santiago's staff Tom Steel
Our collective hope is to continue to work alongside our state representatives to continue pushing for the bills and the budget asks to pass. We will continue to elevate these issue areas and ensure we continue to pursue economic justice and equity for working women across California.
If you would like to join us for our next lobbying opportunities, we will have our Summer In-District Visits for 2021; these will be virtual and will give us another opportunity to meet with our Legislators. Stay tuned for more information!
