Bill deadline claims some victims
With only a few days left to go for the Legislature to pass bills before the summer break, a few bills notably did not advance out of their policy committees Tuesday. One bill, authored by Republican Sen. Shannon Grove of Bakersfield, would have made the human trafficking of a minor a serious felony. In May, the Senate approved it 40-0.
But with only the two Republicans voting “yes,” the bill failed to make it out of the Assembly public safety committee. In response, Grove said that trafficked children in California “will continue to be raped and victimized until Assembly Democrats take action.”
- Grove: “I am profoundly disappointed that committee Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to support the bill, with their stubborn and misguided objection to any penalty increase regardless of how heinous the crime.”
The chairperson of the committee, Los Angeles Democrat Reggie Jones-Sawyer, told CalMatters in a statement that the bill made “no new corrective actions or enhancements” to laws that were already in the books.
- Jones-Sawyer: “Ultimately, members of the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee understood the author’s intent but recognized this bill needs considerable work and granted reconsideration.”
—Lynn La, CALMatters
Fast food chain accountability legislation not dead
Labor groups seeking to hold fast food chains legally responsible for the working conditions in their franchisee-owned restaurants are getting a little more time to try to get their bill through the state Senate in the face of industry opposition.
On Tuesday, Assemblymember Chris Holden, a Pasadena Democrat, pulled his Assembly Bill 1228 from its scheduled hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Bills need to pass out of policy committees before the end of the week, so that would normally mean it’s dead for the year.
But committee Chairperson Tom Umberg, a Santa Ana Democrat, said he’ll ask for a rules waiver to get the bill a hearing when the Legislature comes back from its summer recess in mid-August.
Holden’s spokesperson Timme Mackie said the bill was pulled “to give the opposition some time to have more dialogue with Assemblymember Holden.”
But neither Holden’s office nor Umberg’s would say whether the lawmakers see any ways to compromise with businesses over one of the most controversial labor bills this year.
Bill sponsor SEIU says holding the corporations who control the franchise business model liable for labor violations of franchisees would help rein in wage theft and other worker mistreatment across the low-wage industry.
But chains and franchise owners alike say that’ll destroy their business model, which emphasizes the independence of franchisees in making workplace decisions. A coalition of businesses and restaurants has staged a concerted opposition campaign, spending $150,000 lobbying against it between January and March. Lawmakers are hearing the group’s many fast food franchise owners who have made personal appeals, spokesperson Kathy Fairbanks said.
—Jeanne Kuang, CALMatters
Americans losing confidence in higher education
Americans’ confidence in higher education is at an all-time low, according to the results of a Gallup survey released Tuesday.
The poll, which was conducted in June, found that 17% of Americans had a “great deal” of confidence in higher education while 19% said they had “quite a lot of confidence.” Those are both down by more than 10% since Gallup conducted the same survey in 2015 and are now at a new low point.
The survey didn’t ask respondents for reasons behind the decline in confidence, but it’s likely that the rising costs of attending college are a big factor, according to Gallup.
The survey results were based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,013 adults across all 50 states.
—Michael Burke, EdSource
