California lawmakers limit their goals with 4 weeks left in session curbed by pandemic

State Sen. Mike McGuire, a Healdsburg Democrat, hopes to see his bill requiring telecommunications companies provide backup power systems for their cell towers become law this year.

“In an emergency, our phones are our lifeline,” he said, noting corporate assurances that phones would work during intentional power shutoffs proved untrue last year.

Assemblyman Jim Wood, a Santa Rosa Democrat, hopes a bill allowing nurse practitioners to work without physician oversight finally overcomes opposition from doctors and enables California to follow a step taken by 23 other states.

As the number of primary care physicians continues to decline, Wood said, “we must recognize that nurse practitioners ... can provide that quality care that Californians deserve.”

State Sen. Bill Dodd, a Napa Democrat, hopes for ratification of a bill that would protect public school districts from financial setbacks due to student absences during power shutdowns aimed at avoiding wildfires.

The bill, endorsed by Sonoma County schools chief Steve Herrington, would support school budgets in “communities stricken by PG&E’s poorly executed power outages,” Dodd said.

Those are some of the highlights from the three lawmakers ‒ known for their productivity ‒ all have whom have curbed their goals this year in the face of a virulent pandemic that prompted two legislative shutdowns.

The 40 state senators and 80 Assembly members now face a frantic, four-week effort to clear hundreds of bills before the Aug. 31 deadline.

“The pandemic has wreaked havoc on our schedule,” said Dodd, whose district includes a portion of Sonoma County.

Logjams are typical toward the end of a session, but Dodd said the coronavirus requirements for social distancing have limited lawmakers, who returned to work in May, to two rooms large enough to hold hearings, instead of the usual six or more rooms.

“It’s a year unlike any other we’ve seen in the modern era,” said Wood. Dealing with the state budget deficit pegged by Gov. Gavin Newsom at $54 billion demanded considerable time and effort, he said.

Legislative leaders have said there may not be time to consider all the pending bills and some lawmakers are considering a request to Newsom to call them back for a special session to act on important measures, including responses to the coronavirus.

Bringing the pandemic literally to the Assembly’s doorway, two members ‒ Autumn Burke, D-Marina del Rey, and Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale ‒ have tested positive for the virus. Burke had no symptoms and Lackey was hospitalized and recovered, Wood said.

The business at hand this month involves Senate consideration of bills passed in the Assembly and vice versa, and therein lies a low-level controversy.

Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins told members to hold back on legislation, and Dodd said upper chamber complied, cutting the 681 bills ready at the start of the year down to 200.

“The upper house is known for its maturity and responsibility,” he said.

But the Assembly did not show similar restraint, passing a flurry of measures reported to be three times larger than the Senate’s output.

Dodd refrained from accusing the Assembly of failing to play by the rules. “Their leadership might not have been as clear as ours was,” he said.

“Assembly members have been encouraged to pare their bills down if they have a dozen or more still alive and to collaborate with Senate committees on their priority bills,” Cathy Mudge, a spokeswoman for Wood, said in an email, adding that Wood “has done that.”

All three of the local lawmakers cut their agenda significantly.

Wood, who chairs the influential Assembly Health Committee, had 11 bills cued up in January. He let go of five and moved forward with six measures that were approved and sent to the Senate.

Dodd, chair of the Committee on Governmental Organization, started the year with 19 bills and honed his list down to five that went to the Assembly. McGuire, the assistant majority leader, said he was focused on three bills also awaiting Assembly consideration.

One of Dodd’s bills, sponsored by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, prohibits insurers from deducting the land value in paying claims from homeowners who seek a cash settlement after a loss, which Dodd described as “frankly an unethical practice.”

His other bills deal with horse racing safety, the addition of hi-lo sirens on emergency vehicles to signal evacuations and allow nurse-midwives to conduct routine services without direct physician supervision.

Five of Woods’ bills deal with health care, including the nurse practitioner measure and a requirement that skilled nursing facilities report any disease-related death during a declared emergency to the state within 24 hours. Another deal improves insurance policyholder rights on wildfire claims.

McGuire’s top priorities, in addition to the cell tower bill, are measures that would prohibit law enforcement officers from obstructing journalists covering demonstrations and another that establishes a contractor’s license that applies to residential rebuilding.

As a member of the new Special Committee on Pandemic Emergency Response, McGuire said he was intent on expanding COVID-19 testing and contact tracing and preparing for a potential “tidal wave” of hospitalizations when the flu season arrives on top of the coronavirus pandemic.

McGuire also intends to monitor PG&E’s fire prevention efforts, including placement and testing of generators at 62 of the utility’s substations that experienced substantial power outages last year.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.