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CHAMBER IN SACRAMENTO THIS WEEK: MOVING CALIFORNIA FORWARD
More than 100 business and civic leaders — including more than 30 Southern California Leadership Network fellows — spent Wednesday in Sacramento advocating for immediate action to improve the statewide business climate. The annual ACCESS Sacramento trip focused on vital issues including jobs and business-friendly legislation, CEQA reform, regulatory reform, health care, education and workforce development. The delegation held more than 50 meetings with state lawmakers and senior officials from Gov. Jerry Brown's office. "California is coming back," Gov. Brown told the delegation. "We're coming back slowly, but we're getting things done." State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, State Controller John Chiang, Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, State Sen. Mark Leno, Chief Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor and Chancellor Jack Scott also met with the delegation. Thank you to all our trip sponsors, including title sponsor Southwest Airlines. Contact Jessica Duboff, 213.580.7558. View photo gallery.
Above, Gov. Jerry Brown addresses the delegation on Wednesday. Photo by: Tia Gemmell
Business teams make budget, pensions and tax incentives top priorities
 The Chamber's support for budget reforms, which is outlined in the Government Accountability Act proposed for the November ballot, and Gov. Jerry Brown's 12-point pension reform plan were two priority issues for the three business teams. The teams met with Nancy McFadden, the governor's executive secretary for Legislation, Appointments, and Policy (left), and the offices of the Assembly Majority Leader Charles Calderon, Assembly Minority Leader Connie Conway and Senate Majority Leader Ellen Corbett to express their support. The teams also discussed the Chamber's support for bills that would extend film tax credits and provide tax incentives to exporters to encourage California competitiveness as we prepare for the opening of the widened Panama Canal. Contact Jessica Duboff, 213.580.7558.
Energy teams make CEQA reform a priority
 CEQA energy teams met with CARB Chair Mary Nichols (left), EPA Acting Secretary Matthew Rodriguez and a number of legislators to discuss the Chamber's recommendations for returning CEQA to its original intent of protecting the environment while also allowing for the timely development of projects. They presented concepts that a number of business groups throughout the State are beginning to unite around, including ideas on eliminating duplicative review, reducing the cost burden on agencies and ensuring all parties involved are a matter of public record. Legislators asked Chamber members to provide examples of egregious CEQA abuse to bolster reform efforts. The teams also supported bills to establish quarterly compliance dates for regulation implementation and support investment in a wide range of renewable options, including biofuels. Contact Jessica Duboff, 213.580.7558.
Transportation teams thank Assembly for support of AB1446
 On Monday, the Assembly passed AB 1446, which would give Metro the authority to ask voters to extend Measure R in order to bond against future proceeds and expedite projects that would create jobs and improve mobility. The transportation team thanked the Assembly and urged the Senate to follow suit. Additionally in Sacramento, the teams urged legislators to authorize the release of Prop 1A bond funding that would go towards high-speed rail early investment programs to improve existing rail infrastructure, connectivity and utility. Contact Jessica Duboff, 213.580.7558.
Health care team discusses workforce pipeline with legislators
 The health care team met with State Sen. Ed Hernandez, chair of the Senate Health Committee, and State Sen. Kevin De Leon, Health Committee member (with the team at left), to stress major concerns with the administrations proposal to immediately transition 900,000 children currently enrolled in the Healthy Families Program into Medi-Cal. Hernandez discussed his efforts to support our health care workforce pipeline and create more efficiency, which the Chamber strongly supports. He will speak more about sustaining the health care workforce at the Chamber's upcoming Health Care Council on Friday, June 1, 9-10:30a.m. at the Chamber. Register now or contact Sonia Campos-Rivera, 213.580.7538.
Education team focuses on importance of higher education
 The higher education team met with State Sen. Sam Blakeslee (with the team at left), and Assemblymembers Paul Fong and Katcho Achadjian to advocate for the support of critical community college legislation — SB 1456 (Lowenthal) and SB 1062 (Liu) — which seek to dramatically improve completion rates among California Community Colleges students. The delegation encouraged legislators to embrace policies and strategies that will drive a more productive community college system to ensure greater student success. The delegation also called for minimizing cuts to higher education and critical state financial aid programs to ensure continued access and affordability for the State's post-secondary students. Contact Alma Salazar, 213.580.7566.
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L.A. City Council approves ban on single-use plastic bags
This week Los Angeles became the largest city in the country to ban single use plastic bags. The Chamber worked to develop a compromise supporting the ban on plastic, but allow paper bags to be available for purchase, instead of the ban on both that was initially proposed. The compromise passed 13-1. Contact Jessica Duboff, 213.580.7558.
L.A. Area Outreach to the National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security
Wednesday, June 13, 9-11 a.m.
L.A. Area Chamber
With the release of the president's National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security (the Strategy) in January, the Department of Homeland Security and the Cross-Sector Supply Chain Workgroup are reaching out to state and local governments, and industry, on a regional level to conduct meetings to discuss the Strategy and a path forward for its implementation. These outreach meetings seek to bring together parties to gather thoughts, comments, and concerns on how best to implement the Strategy. Register now or contact Jessica Duboff, 213.580.7558.
Chamber meets with Gustavo Arnavat, U.S. Executive Director at the Inter-American Development Bank
On Thursday, Gustavo Arnavat, who is appointed by President Barack Obama, discussed his role on the Board of Executive Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which is responsible for day-to-day-oversight of the IDB’s management, credit decisions and operations, including the approval of all loans, grants and technical assistance programs, as well as bank policies. IDB is the largest source of multilateral funding in Latin America and the Caribbean. He noted the importance of trade with Latin America as he pointed out that 46 percent of U.S. exports go to Latin America and the Caribbean. Contact Carlos J. Valderrama, 213.580.7570.
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