WASHINGTON
USDA, FDA, EPA Launch Website for Biotechnology Regulation
Today, in recognition of January 2020 as National Biotechnology Month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a Unified Website for Biotechnology Regulation. The Website streamlines information about the three regulatory agencies charged with overseeing agriculture biotechnology products and is part President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order on Modernizing the Regulatory Framework for Agricultural Biotechnology Products.
“Agricultural biotechnology has been and will continue to be an essential tool in helping America’s farmers and ranchers feed, fuel, and clothe the world,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. “From producers to consumers, all Americans deserve a government that delivers science-based, common-sense regulations that foster innovation, conserve resources, and protect public health—especially when it comes to the food supply.”
Background:
The Unified Website for Biotechnology Regulation describes the federal review process for certain biotechnology products and allows users to submit questions to the three agencies. The goals of this website are to provide enhanced customer service to innovators and developers, while ensuring Americans continue to enjoy the safest and most affordable food supply in the world and can learn more about the safe use of biotechnology innovations.
—Submitted
Uber pumps the brakes
Uber announced Wednesday it will adjust its rules to accommodate California’s new worker-classification law, even as it presses ahead with an initiative that would overturn the law.
Uber emailed 150,000 drivers and millions of passengers in California alerting them of changes “due to new state laws.”
California riders will get an estimated price range, have the opportunity to ride with favorite drivers, and won’t be eligible for price protections through the company’s rewards program.
- Uber: “These changes may take some getting used to, but our goal is to keep Uber available to as many qualified drivers as possible, without restricting the number of drivers who can work at a given time.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reports the changes are meant to establish that drivers are running independent businesses.
Uber relies on independent contractors, a category of workers that some employers have exploited and that stands to shrink under the new law and the California Supreme Court decision it’s based on.
Under Assembly Bill 5, signed into law in 2019, workers are considered employees if the work they are assigned to do is core to the company’s business—say, driving. That makes it harder for companies to categorize workers as independent contractors.
Seeing the law as a threat to their business model, Uber, Lyft, Doordash, Postmates and Instacart have deposited $110 million into campaign accounts for a ballot measure to overturn AB 5.
—CALMatters
A new oil tax, perhaps
California senators will consider legislation next week that would impose a new 10% state tax on oil extracted within the state, a move that would raise pump prices that already are second highest in the nation.
An oil severance tax has been proposed many times in the past, and invariably fails. The Senate set a hearing for Wednesday on the bill by Sen. Bob Wiekowski, a Fremont Democrat.
The decision to hear the bill is something of a surprise.
- Democrats have hesitated to approve new taxes after then-Sen. Josh Newman, an Orange County Democrat, was recalled in 2018 over his vote yo approve a gasoline tax.
- Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a first-term Democrat from a swing district in oil-rich Kern County, sits on the committee that will hear the bill, and would likely have to vote on the measure.
The State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, which represents oil workers, will oppose the measure, along with oil companies.
Robbie Hunter, head of the trades council, said that if approved, the measure would raise pump prices, make California more reliant on Saudi Arabian oil, and “destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
Meanwhile: AAA’s latest survey shows the average price of gasoline in California is the nation’s second highest after Hawaii, and almost $1 above the national average.
—CALMatters
Seeking to preserve Proposition 13
Business groups and taxpayer advocates are urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to protect California’s Proposition 13 property tax cap approved by voters more than 40 years ago.
The “Fight for Prop. 13” coalition, girding for a fight over a ballot measure that would raise property taxes on businesses, submitted a final batch of petitions to the governor’s office on Wednesday, .
- Rob Lapsley, of the California Business Roundtable: “Prop. 13 is one of the last protections that we have in the state of California against higher housing, gasoline, milk and daycare costs.”
Fullerton Democratic Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, former Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and Peter Kelly, former chair of the California Democratic Party, participated in the event.
Teachers unions and the Service Employees International Union, as well as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, are backing the measure headed for the November ballot to generate an estimated $12 billion a year.
—CALMatters
Expanded family leave, revisited
Gov. Gavin Newsom, aka “Governor Dad,” used his budget proposal last year to pitch the idea that California workers should get more paid time off to care for new babies.
The budget Newsom signed last summer will expand paid family leave from six weeks to eight weeks, starting this July, giving workers between 60% and 70% of their normal pay while on leave.
But it didn’t address a major criticism of California’s system—that many workers don’t actually use the leave they pay into because they can’t afford to get by on partial salary, or could lose their jobs if they take the time off.
- Only half of eligible mothers and a quarter of eligible fathers took paid family leave in 2017, state officials report.
Expect Newsom to push for more changes to paid family leave in the budget he announces Friday.
It will likely include new job protections for workers, something the California Chamber of Commerce has labeled a “job killer” in the past, and has defeated many times before.
—CALMatters
Seeking greater school oversight
California’s 7-year-old school finance overhaul has gotten positive reviews, with one big exception: Following the money has been next to impossible.
That could change under newly introduced legislation, CalMatters’ Ricardo Cano reports.
Remind me: In one of his signature measures, Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013 signed legislation creating the “Local Control Funding Formula” governing K-12 spending. Its goal was to close persisting achievement gaps by giving more money to districts with high concentrations of foster youth, English learners and low-income pupils.
The state auditor reported in November that the formula “has not ensured that funding is benefiting students as intended.”
Democratic Assemblywomen Shirley Weber of San Diego and Sharon Quirk-Silva of Orange County have responded by proposing Assembly Bills 1834 and 1835 to strengthen oversight of how that money gets spent.
—Submitted
