Lawmakers kill a number of bills from Arambula, Patterson

Fresno’s two Assemblymembers each had a wide swath of their legislative goals held up in the Appropriations committee’s so-called suspense file. 

Asm. Joaquin Arambula (D–Fresno) and Asm. Jim Patterson (R–Fresno) both likely fell victim to the state’s looming budget deficit, with only a fraction of the bills they had up for consideration on Thursday making it through the committee. 

Arambula’s bills: Early last year Arambula explored a run to be the next Speaker of the Assembly, which ultimately was won by Robert Rivas (D–Hollister). 

• Just a few months after that Rivas removed Arambula from the Assembly Budget Committee. 
• Out of the 14 bills Arambula had in the suspense file on Thursday, only six of them were passed through the Appropriations Committee. 
• One of the bills that passed was AB 1840, which makes it so applicants to the California Dream for All homebuying program cannot be disqualified solely because of immigration status. 
• Bills that were held up in the committee include AB 1915 to create an opioid overdose training program for public schools and AB 2390, which would have established a Social media Harm Reduction Pilot Program. 
• The committee also shot down AB 3081, which would have appropriated $15 million to develop a Medical Education Collaborative at UC Merced. 

Patterson’s bills: While most of Arambula’s bills did not make it through, Patterson had even less support from the Appropriations Committee. 

• Only one of Patterson’s bills made it through: AB 2471, which deleted renewal fees for registered nurses to renew their public health nurse certificates. 
• The committee shot down AB 1803, which would have expanded restitution for victims of human trafficking. 
• AB 1804 was another public safety bill that would have cracked down on fentanyl dealers, but was also held. 
• One of the other four bills that were held up was AB 2764, which would have prohibited the compensation that commissioners on the California Public Utilities Commission receive does not come from fees imposed on ratepayers.