Thursday was a day many lawmakers fret each year, as appropriations committees for both houses of the Legislature decided which bills to advance and which to cut.
A number of bills passing committees would levy new regulations on agriculture — from a measure on chlorpyrifos use reporting to expansions on workers’ comp and family leave time.
Perhaps the greatest disappointment for the San Joaquin Valley was that the Assembly amended SB 559 to strip funding for fixing the Friant-Kern Canal. If the author accepts the changes, the bill would instead propose a study on the issue.
Also left on the cutting room floor were incentives programs to help famers adapt to climate change, to help displaced farmworkers and to restore habitats on farmland.
The Senate did withhold AB 2954, a bill that divided Democrats and ag groups over carbon sequestration on working lands.
Few wins for agriculture following key hearings
The State Capitol shrouded in haze from wildfire smoke in 2020.
