Attached online are a state update from Agency legislative consultant Gus Khouri and an updated state bill list. Two additions from the list adopted by the TAMC Board of Directors on June 24, 2020 are shown in underline:
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Senate Bill (SB) 288 (Wiener), California Environmental Quality Act: exemptions, known as the Sustainable Transportation COVID-19 Recovery Act. The Executive Committee adopted a support position on behalf of the Board of Directors, given the urgency of this legislation.
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SB 1459 (Caballero), State Route 183 relinquishment, would authorize the relinquishment of a segment of State Route 183 to the City of Salinas. The Executive Committee adopted a support position.
Two other bills, Assembly Bill (AB) 2323 (Friedman) and SB 1351 (Beall) have both been substantially amended since the Board adopted positions. On August 5, the Executive Committee discussed the amendments adopted the positions as indicated in the attached bill list.
SB 25 (Caballero and Glazer), CEQA: projects funded by qualified opportunity zone funds or other public funds, was a bill TAMC previously supported but was thought to be dead before it was revived on July 8. Due to TAMC's previous approved support position and that it has not been amended since then, staff sent another support letter on July 16 at the request of the author.
The TAMC-sponsored bill, Senate Bill 1231 by Senator Monning, which will allow the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to issue an incidental take permit for the Santa Cruz Long-toed Salamander for the purpose of enabling Caltrans to construct the State Route 156 West corridor project, passed the Senate on June 11 and the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee on August 4. It goes next to the Assembly Appropriations Committee and then the Assembly floor.
Federal transportation authorization legislation is moving forward via the House Resolution (H.R.) 2, the Moving Forward Act (see web attachments 3, 4 and 5). The Moving Forward Act marks a transformational investment in American infrastructure that would create millions of jobs, take bold action on the climate crisis, and address disparities in urban, suburban, and rural communities across our country. The White House has threatened to veto it if it were to pass through the Senate, which in itself seems unlikely at this juncture.
On July 8, the House Appropriations Committee passed its Transportation, Housing and Urban Development spending bill for fiscal year 2021 (see web attachment 6).
Senate bill 2404 (S. 2404), the Build Local Hire Local Act (see web attachment 7), was introduced in July 2019.