JPAC Legislative Agenda 2023
JPAC strives to support core Jewish community issues and values. This legislative agenda meaningfully addresses the Jewish community’s core security and discrimination concerns and provides critical social services for those in need.
Key
*Indicates JPAC is a lead sponsor
Two-year bill: A bill that will not advance in 2023, but may continue through the legislative process in 2024, the second year of the two-year session.
On Governor’s Desk: A bill that has passed both houses of the Legislature and awaits the Governor’s signature or veto.
[Green]: Indicates a successful bill or budget request.
If no status: A bill that is still going through the legislative process.
Core Jewish Community Issues
At a time when antisemitic and hate-motived incidents have reached record highs, our agenda supports policies that protect vulnerable communities and prevent further discrimination.
Community Security
Included in budget ($20 million): *Nonprofit Security Grant Program – $80 million: Provides assistance to nonprofit organizations at risk of hate-motivated violence to enhance their physical security infrastructure. Last year’s state budget included a record $50 million for the NSGP, but there was still only enough funding to provide grants to 38% of applicants. JPAC has championed this request every year.
Included in budget ($1.5 million for one year): *CA Collaborative on Holocaust and Genocide Education – $3 million over 2 years: Continues and expands the work of the CA Collaborative, comprised of 14 leading California Holocaust and genocide educational institutions. The Collaborative is charged with creating a robust series of CA Common Core-aligned lesson plans; developing vehicles for the statewide distribution of new curriculum; and training and supporting California teachers through workshops, conferences, and digital resources. We know that effective education about what happens when bigotry goes unchecked prevents future hate and hate crimes.
On Governor’s Desk: AB 449 (Ting): Requires every state and local law enforcement agency to adopt a hate crimes policy guiding officers to prevent, report, and respond to hate crimes. Requires pamphlets to be sent to the AG’s office on what’s available locally.
Two-year bill: AB 644 (Jones-Sawyer): Creates a campus climate survey at public higher education institutions.
On Governor’s Desk: AB 1079 (Jackson): Establishes a Hate Crimes Intervention Unit to implement research-based community interventions in conjunction with community leaders and organizations in communities where a hate crime has been confirmed by the Department of Justice.
On Governor’s Desk: *AB 1185 (Gabriel): Expands the California State Nonprofit Security Grant Program (CSNSGP) to include “community connectors,” nonprofits and government agencies who provide security services like vulnerability assessments and trainings for a network of at-risk nonprofits.
Two-year bill: ACA 4 (Bryan): Amends the Constitution to restore the voting rights of people currently incarcerated in prison. Studies suggest that people who vote are less likely to reoffend.
Anti-Discrimination
On Governor’s Desk: AB 1503 (Lee): Extends the acceptable amount of time off of school for religious holidays and gatherings from four hours to one full school day per semester.
On Governor’s Desk: SB 309 (Cortese): Inmate Religious Practices – Creates a statewide policy on religious clothing, grooming, and headwear in state and local correctional and detention facilities.
Two-year bill: SB 399 (Wahab): Prevents employers from disciplining workers who refuse to attend meetings where the sole purpose of the meeting is to convey an employers’ religious or political values.
Passed – On 2024 Ballot: ACA 5 (Low): Brings a 2024 ballot initiative to voters to remove anti-same sex marriage language (from Prop 8) from the California constitution.
Core Jewish Community Values
We aim to uphold the Torah’s most enumerated commandment – v’ahavta lere’acha kamocha (loving the stranger as yourself) – by working to combat hunger and poverty, expand access to healthcare, support vulnerable communities, and combat climate change.
Hunger
Two-year bill: AB 311 (Santiago) / SB 245 (Hurtado): Food4All – Provides state-funded nutrition benefits to all Californians who are income-eligible for CalFresh but cannot access the benefit due to their immigration status.
Signed into law: AB 712 (Carrillo): Allows CalFresh participants to purchase hot and prepared food with their EBT card.
On Governor’s Desk: SB 348 (Skinner): Healthy Meals for Children – Ensures every school-aged child has access to two healthy meals every day, regardless of where they live or their family’s income; increases student access to lower-added sugar and sodium meal options; and provides students with adequate time to eat at school.
Included in budget ($30 million): SB 600 (Menjivar): Increases benefit adequacy by raising the CalFresh minimum allotment from $23 a month to $50 a month.
Poverty
Two-year bill: SB 242 (Skinner): Prohibits funds deposited and investment returns accrued in a HOPE trust fund account from being considered as income or assets when determining eligibility and benefit amount for any means-tested program until an eligible youth withdraws or transfers the funds from the HOPE trust fund account, as specified. To the extent this bill would expand county duties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Two-year bill: SB 382 (Becker): California Workforce Pay for Success Act – Funds workforce development projects with a proven track record of training workers for successful careers. Creates a board and a separate fund in the state’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency to speed up grant awards to high performing, non-profit workforce training programs that have consistently been able to effectively train people and place them in successful careers. In cases where a non-profit doesn’t meet the goals set out in its application, the state would be free to terminate the contract and only pay for the results that were achieved.
Two-year budget request: Workforce Development Program – $800 thousand: Through the Labor and Workforce Development Agency’s California Workforce Development Board, designs a social innovation financing model based on achieving successful outcomes for serving those with barriers to employment as defined in Labor Code section 14005(j) and placing them in high quality jobs where there are measurable outcomes such as wage gains and career advancement.
Supporting Vulnerable Communities
Dead: Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention – $44 million: Prevents violence by engaging youth and community around safe and healthy relationships; provides spaces where survivors can access culturally-specific healing; engages men—and people of all genders—through nonviolence programs that are innovative, healing-centered, and holistic; stabilizes funding for domestic and sexual violence organizations by eliminating reliance on an inequitable fee; and creates a cohesive, coordinated, statewide approach to ending cycles of violence.
On Governor’s Desk: AB 28 (Gabriel): Gun Violence Protection Tax – Creates a permanent funding stream for violence intervention and prevention work that is currently funded through CalVIP and has no guarantee of funding.
Two-year bill: AB 617 (Jones-Sawyer): Representation, Equity, and Protections (REP) for All Immigrants Act – Ensures all immigrant Californians can access high-quality, holistic immigration legal services.
Two-year bill: AB 1040 (Alvarez): Offers course credit for community college students who offer one-to-one mentoring with historically underserved populations, which many community college students themselves grew up in. This could transform civic and community engagement in our state, while improving the long-term education/career success of community college students.
On Governor’s Desk: *SB 4 (Wiener): Affordable Housing on Faith Lands Act – Provides a streamlined process for religious organizations and nonprofit colleges to develop affordable housing on their property, making it easier for these institutions to build stable, affordable homes for their communities.
Two-year bill: SB 37 (Caballero): Creates a rent subsidy program for older adults and people with disabilities to end and prevent homelessness.
Two-year bill: *SB 85 (Wiener): Creates the CA Extended Case Management program, which provides an additional 3-9 months of services for new refugees beyond the federal government’s 90 days.
Two-year budget request: *CA Extended Case Management for Refugees – $18.2 million: Extends critical case management services for new refugees beyond the federal government’s 90 days. Offers an additional 3-9 months, depending on need.
Two-year bill: SB 227 (Durazo): SafetyNet4All – Creates an Excluded Workers Program for workers excluded from unemployment insurance due to their immigration status. Eligible workers would receive $300 each week for up to 20 weeks.
Mental Health & Healthcare
On Governor’s Desk: AB 904 (Calderon): Requires health insurers to develop a maternal and infant health equity program that addresses racial health disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes through the use of doulas.
Two-year bill: AB 1120 (Gabriel): Promotes universal school-based mental health screenings for students in grades 6-12.
Dead: SB 680 (Skinner): Creates financial disincentives for the biggest social media companies to make business decisions that they know will hurt children. Specifically, makes companies financially liable for promoting to children the sale of fentanyl, eating disorders, suicide content, or addictive techniques like auto-scroll and constant nudges to return to the platform.
Two-year bill: SB 729 (Menjivar): Requires health care services to provide coverage for infertility and fertility services. Revises the definition of infertility to ensure same-sex couples are covered by health care insurance and are treated without discrimination.
Climate
On Governor’s Desk: SB 49 (Becker): Offers tax incentives for companies to build solar canopies on their parking lots, which are already covered in cement, and not coveted for their view or wildlife protection.
On Governor’s Desk: SB 261 (Stern): Climate Financial Risk Disclosure – Mandates large companies that do business in California to submit annual climate-related financial risk reports to the public. It also informs the rest of the country, allowing other states to make use of the reports published here to mitigate their own risk.