He popped into a background briefing with reporters Friday to outline his priorities: mental health reform, education and gun safety.
- The governor said to look for amendments Tuesday to the Mental Health Services Reform Act, a proposal to redirect money from the state’s millionaire’s tax towards housing assistance. The amendments aim to address concerns raised by advocates and an analysis from the Legislative Analyst’s Office that some county-run mental health programs could lose out. Asked about criticism that the program may not include enough local flexibility, Newsom replied: “I’m not interested in failing more efficiently.”
- Newsom will be visiting schools and high school career academies around the state — including today in Elk Grove — to emphasize career pathways. The governor, who is helping lead recent efforts against book bans, also pushed back on the narrative from “outside agitators” on classroom culture wars, saying that parents are involved in the educational process. A parental rights rally, led by board members in school districts that have sought to limit classroom materials, is set for the Capitol today.
The governor plans to keep pushing his proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution on gun control. Today, Assembly Public Safety Chairperson Reggie Jones-Sawyer and Senate Public Safety Chairperson Aisha Wahab are to highlight a joint resolution that would call for a constitutional convention. The amendment, which Newsom is pursuing through his Campaign for Democracy PAC, would ban assault rifles, raise the federal minimum age to buy a firearm to 21 from 18 and mandate universal background checks, as well as institute a “reasonable” waiting period.
Newsom said he plans to build a coalition with other states: “They’re coming after our laws. They’re rolling them back. What can we do about it? Nothing in the absence of fundamentally changing the construct they’re using to do just that.”
Newsom said while he didn’t expect clawbacks on the budget deal, he might veto spending proposals, as he did last year.
And he pushed back on criticism that his M.O. is to jam his initiatives through the Legislature, such as mental health reform.
- Newsom: “I’m not interested in tinkering around the edges. I have a sell-by date, I’ve got three-and-a-half years left.”
While the Legislature was on vacation, Newsom signed some bills and vetoed a few. But there are many, many more that legislators must decide before they adjourn Sept. 14.
By the numbers
(courtesy of longtime lobbyist Chris Micheli):
Of 1,770 Assembly bills introduced this session, 1,055 have been sent to the Senate and nearly 90 have already gone to Newsom’s desk.
Of 890 Senate bills introduced, about 660 have been passed to the Assembly and nearly 50 to the governor.
About 390 Assembly measures and 290 Senate bills are before the other chamber’s appropriations committees this week as they move toward the dreaded “suspense file” at the end of the month.
Gut-and-amend: And while it’s too late in the session to introduce entirely new legislation, there is a work-around. Lawmakers can “gut” an existing bill that is still alive and “amend” it with a completely different proposal.
That’s the plan on a measure to allow striking workers to collect unemployment benefits, Politico reported late last week. The bill is backed by the California Labor Federation, whose leader Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher unsuccessfully pushed the idea in 2019, when she was in the state Assembly.
While Politico reports that the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups are already gearing up to stop the bill again and only New York and New Jersey offer jobless benefits to strikers now, the bill’s supporters hope to capitalize on the momentum created by the “hot labor summer” in California.
CalMatters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
