On Monday, Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D – Oakley) introduced AB1 a bill to fund transportation improvements in California. He calls it “a sensible and realistic approach to tackling California’s crumbling transportation infrastructure,” which is similar to the transportation funding bill he co-sponsored, earlier this year.
“My commitment to passing a comprehensive funding plan that addresses California’s failing transportation system will not waiver,” stated Frazier, who is the Chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee. “This proposal dedicates billions to road and highway repairs that our state so desperately needs while also creating tens of thousands of good paying jobs.”
According to the bill’s text, “This bill would create the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program to address deferred maintenance on the state highway system and the local street and road system. The bill would require the California Transportation Commission to adopt performance criteria, consistent with a specified asset management plan, to ensure efficient use of certain funds available for the program. The bill would provide for the deposit of various funds for the program in the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account, which the bill would create in the State Transportation Fund, including revenues attributable to a $0.012 per gallon increase in the motor vehicle fuel (gasoline) tax imposed by the bill with an inflation adjustment, as provided, an increase of $38 in the annual vehicle registration fee with an inflation adjustment, as provided, a new $165 annual vehicle registration fee with an inflation adjustment, as provided, applicable to zero-emission motor vehicles, as defined, and certain miscellaneous revenues.”
Frazier claims that AB1 represents an adult-in-the-room approach to meeting the vital, long-term needs of California’s transportation system. The proposal if approved will raise an additional $6 billion in annual funding to repair state and local roads, improve trade corridors and support public transit. Also included are measures related to accountability and streamlining of project delivery
“The transportation crisis in California affects each and every part of our state. If we don’t step up and solve it, our economy will decline and the people we represent will suffer,” said Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount). “Transportation funding has traditionally been a bipartisan issue and our goal is to work across the aisle to come to a comprehensive solution.”
“We have been working closely with Assemblyman Frazier for more than two years on a variety of concepts to provide the resources local governments need to fix our roads and bridges,” said Kiana Valentine, Legislative Advocate for the California State Association of Counties. “It’s no secret that our vital infrastructure is crumbling and we’re at a tipping point. We urge the Governor and Legislative Leadership to keep their promise to advance this vital legislation early in the 2017 session.”
Once the 2017-18 Legislative Session begins, AB1 will be referred and heard in policy committee.
Frazier represents the 11th Assembly District, which includes the communities of Antioch, Bethel Island, Birds Landing, Brentwood, Byron, Collinsville, Discovery Bay, Fairfield, Isleton, Knightsen, Locke, Oakley, Pittsburg (partial), Rio Vista, Suisun City, Travis AFB, Vacaville and Walnut Grove.
Allen Payton contributed to this report.
Read MoreCounty Honors Residents Who Embody the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Do you know someone whose work and presence in the community exemplifies the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Now is the time to submit your candidates for consideration as the Contra Costa County Humanitarian and Student Humanitarian of the Year. The deadline to have your candidate considered has been extended. County residents are encouraged to submit online nominations of community and student leaders no later than midnight on Wednesday, December 14, 2016.
Each January, the Board of Supervisors recognizes a community member as well as a student leader whose dedication to others embodies the essence and spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Those selected as winners will be presented with their awards during the County’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ceremony on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. The public is invited to the ceremony and commemoration, which takes place in the Board of Supervisors Chamber at 651 Pine Street in Martinez. The event begins at 11:00 a.m., followed by a complimentary buffet lunch. Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Diana Becton will be the keynote speaker, speaking on the concept of civil rights work that still needs to be done in our country.
The 2016 Humanitarian of the Year was Terri Porter, known for advocacy on behalf of underserved youth. The student pick was Davis Bullock, then a senior at Cal High, who not only battled cancer himself, but took on the cause of helping others also fighting the disease. We encourage you to share the stories of those in your community who have inspired you, and whose efforts embody the legacy of Dr. King.
For more information, a look back at previous celebration videos or to submit a nomination, visit the County’s website at www.ContraCosta.CA.gov.
Read MoreVolunteers and Donations Needed for this Holiday Effort to Help Those in Need
A small issue like last minute renovations at New Hope International Church, the location that Christmas for Everyone has called home for the past 30 years, didn’t stop founder Mary Perez from working around the clock to make sure everyone still received the warmth of Christmas.
The event on December 25, 2016 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. will be held at the new location at 701 Escobar St, Martinez, CA 94553 (former Bowrack building).
A non-profit organization, Christmas for Everyone helps serve people in need during the holiday season in Contra Costa County. The goal of Christmas for Everyone is that no one spends Christmas holidays alone or in need. For the last three decades the organization has provided thousands of Bay Area residents with free meals, groceries, haircuts, gifts, clothing and entertainment. Transportation is also provided to the host location, along with meals delivered to the homebound.
“It’s truly a blessing to be able to help others during the holidays year after year. I would like to thank building owner Al Turnbaugh owner of the building and current leasee Ian Bremner for donating the use of the Escobar location to us. Without it we may not have been able to make it to our 31st consecutive year,” said Mary Perez.
Perez added, “Not only do we need many volunteers on Christmas Day, but from December 2- 24, we will also need volunteers at the 701 Escobar location to help make phone calls (can do from home), hang posters, sort clothes and decorate.”
Additionally, donations of clothing and new presents can be dropped off until December 20 at:
701 Escobar, Martinez, CA
Monday – Friday 11am – 7pm
Saturday 11am – 5pm
Sunday 12pm – 5pm
US Bank, 659 Main St, Martinez, CA
Monday –Thursday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Friday 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Additional information, anyone wishing to submit monetary donations or sign-up as a volunteer may do so via ChristmasforEveryone.com.
Media outlets are welcomed and Mary Perez is available for interviews beforehand. Please contact Gina Zagotta at 415-786-8900, ginazagotta@cariboupr.com
Read More
Restore the Delta, the organization fighting to stop the Delta tunnels is asking citizens also opposed to the tunnels, to speak out at the State Water Resources Control Board meeting on what’s now known as the California WaterFix. The meeting will be held in Stockton at the Civic Auditorium, 925 N. Center Street beginning at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, December 16th. The meeting could run until 8:00 p.m. – as long as there are comments from the public, the Board will hear them.
The opposition group issued the following call to action, last month:
Earlier this year, thousands of Restore the Delta supporters signed a petition urging the State Water Resources Control Board to update outdated water quality standards for the Bay-Delta region. Now we need your action in person.
This outdated 20-year-old Water Quality Control Plan allows more than half the water needed for the delta’s ecological health to be diverted away for unsustainable Big Agriculture on the west and south San Joaquin Valley.
The State Water Resources Control Board is currently in Phase I of updating the plan. We need to make sure that the State Water Board gets it right and is not influenced by special interests. New water quality standards that truly protect communities and species is a proactive step that helps ensure reliable water supplies for all water users of the Bay-Delta. Learn more about water quality here.
We need you to make your comments. The public comment process ends January 17, 2017, and all hearings conclude January 3, 2017. Please limit your oral public comment to three minutes in length.
Here are some important points to make:
1) A permanent reduction of exports must happen to protect the Delta. What is the true efficacy of this update to SJ flow standards if water exports from the Delta are not going to be dealt with? The San Joaquin River must reach Chipps Island in order to restore, protect, and preserve the entire estuary. If unsustainable water exports are not dealt with, we worry that water quality and quantity objectives for the Delta will never be met.
2) We do not want to see a weakening of salinity standards in the South Delta. Water quality standards must be protected for agriculture, drinking water, municipal discharge, fisheries, and ground water recharge.
3) The State Water Board must consider environmental justice communities in terms of drinking water and domestic use. Phase 1 Recirculated Draft SED fails to consider environmental justice communities in chapters 5 and 9 (hydrology/water quality and groundwater).
For other dates and locations, click here to see the State Water Board’s notice.
If you cannot make any of the dates, you can make a written comment by following these instructions:
SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS
The State Water Board will accept both written and oral comments on the proposed Plan Amendment and the SED. Written comments must be received no later than 12:00 noon on January 17, 2017, and addressed and submitted to:
Jeanine Townsend, Clerk to the Board
State Water Resources Control Board
1001 I Street, 24th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814-0100
Comment letters may be submitted electronically, in pdf text format (if less than 15 megabytes in total size) to the Clerk to the Board via e-mail at commentletters@waterboards.ca.gov. Please indicate in the subject line: “Comment Letter – 2016 Bay-Delta Plan Amendment & SED.” You may also submit your comments by fax at (916) 341-5620. Electronic submission is preferred, but not required.
Couriers delivering comment letters must check in with lobby security personnel, who can contact Jeanine Townsend at (916) 341-5600.
Read MoreWhen will our elected officials get the message that they need to fund basic services of government, first out of the tax money they already receive, instead of using them to get us to pay for more and higher taxes?
President Lincoln once said, “The legitimate object of government is ‘to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves’.”
The number one thing fitting that description that we need government to do for “we the people” is to protect our rights – mine from you and yours from me.
So, the first priority of government in America is and always will (or at least should) be public safety, and at the local level, specifically police. In addition, the other aspect of public safety, fire services, should be next on the list, followed by other things we can’t do ourselves or as well ourselves, which are transportation, education, and of course water and sewer service.
Yet, those first four services are what local and state governments use to try to get us to pass another sales, utility or other tax, or a bond issue, which results in higher property taxes. Those services should be paid for out of city, county and state budgets with the money they already get from basic property and sales tax revenue, first. Then, if we can’t afford to pay for the extra things, we like and want out of the budget, that we can provide for ourselves such as recreation, then our elected and other government officials should ask for special taxes for those items.
It seems for too long they’ve had things backward in this state and at our local level, as well. A perfect example is the recent effort to pass another tax increase for the East County Fire Protection District, that the people just voted down, again. From the ones I’ve spoken with, it appears the elected officials in that district are getting the message, as instead of thinking of a third way to get the voters to give them more money, the officials will work to reallocate the money the cities, county and special districts already receive and reprioritize them to provide the much needed fire service in that part of the county.
It’s time all of our elected officials got the message and recognize that we’re taxed enough already, and they need to reprioritize their budgets to provide us what their government agencies were formed for in the first place, before trying to pay for other things which aren’t a fundamental requirement and don’t need to be provided by our government. I’ll repeat that – our government.
While it may mean fewer city or county services, so be it. That’s what we want and should get. Just like budgets for your home or business, if you don’t have enough to meet the basics – food, clothing, shelter, utilities and medical care – then you don’t take a trip to Tahiti or splurge on anything else.
Again, if we want the extras then ask us for a special tax for those items, instead. Quit using the highest priorities of government to extract more of our hard-earned money that’s dwindling in our pockets. So, meet our needs, first and if there’s extra money left over, then pay for the wants. It’s pretty basic and simple, folks.
Read MoreVietnam-era helicopters to do flyover above Cal-State East Bay Concord to kick-off event
On December 7th, Mount Diablo’s Beacon will be relit by survivors of Pearl Harbor. We invite you to attend the ceremony to pay tribute to the lives that were lost and honor our surviving veterans of Pearl Harbor.
The Sons & Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, Chapter 5 are pleased to co-sponsor this 53rd Annual National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Ceremony with Save Mount Diablo.
“The Beacon lighting is a tribute to those individuals that lost their lives at Pearl Harbor”, says Earl “Chuck” Kohler, one of the few remaining survivors in Contra Costa County.
However, the ceremony is also an opportunity to honor the survivors. When those who experienced Pearl Harbor are gone, the history is lost with them.
The Beacon on Mount Diablo was originally installed and illuminated in 1928 to aid in trans-continental aviation. It is one of the four guiding beacons installed along the west coast by Standard Oil of CA and is the only one known to still be operational.
![Pearl Harbor survivors push the button to light the beacon atop Mt. Diablo last year.](http://contracostaherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Pearl-Harbor-survivors-push-the-button-to-light-the-beacon-atop-Mt.-Diablo-last-year-300x200.jpg)
Pearl Harbor survivors push the button to light the beacon atop Mt. Diablo last year. Courtesy of Save Mt. Diablo.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Beacon’s light was extinguished during the West Coast Blackout, for fear it may enable an attack on California. It stayed dark until Pearl Harbor Day 1964, when Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of Pacific Forces during World War II, relit the Beacon in a commemorative ceremony and suggested it be illuminated every December 7th to honor those who served and sacrificed.
Since that day, Pearl Harbor Veterans and their families have gathered every December 7th to see the Beacon light shine once again.
The Beacon now shines brighter than ever since it underwent an extensive restoration process in 2013 (thanks to a campaign led by Save Mount Diablo) to ensure it continues to shine for many more years. The Pearl Harbor Survivors would like to know that the Beacon will shine long after they are gone.
The Beacon is lit at sunset and shines all night on this single evening each year.
SUMMARY
What: Save Mount Diablo, the Sons & Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and California State Parks will light the “Eye of Diablo”, the Beacon atop Mount Diablo to memorialize Pearl Harbor Day. As the number of Survivors has decreased over the years, the number of people attending the ceremony in honor of these heroes has increased, including many sons and daughters vital to organizing the service.
When: Wednesday, December 7th, 2016, Ceremony at 3:45 pm, Beacon Lighting at 5 pm
Where: The ceremony will be held in the Oak Room of the Library Building at the California State East Bay Concord Campus, 4700 Ygnacio Valley Road, Concord, CA 94521.
Directions: http://goo.gl/maps/jXhcW
Access: Parking is available on Campus and the ceremony will be held in the Oak Room (with extra seating in the Redwood Room)
SPECIAL NOTICE: Vietnam Helicopters will be kicking off the lighting with a fly-by over CSU EB Concord and Mount Diablo. Any Aviation News Units should contact Mark Maupin for flight path and time: (925) 876-1572 Maupin@vietnamhelicopters.org,
For more information about the Beacon Lighting Ceremony: please visit http://www.savemountdiablo.org/activities_events_beacon.html
Read More
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), Caltrans, the Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM) and the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) invite the public to a pair of open houses in Richmond on Thursday, Dec. 8 and in San Rafael on Friday, Dec. 9 to learn more about the Interstate 580 Access Improvement Projects now beginning construction in the heavily traveled Richmond-San Rafael Bridge corridor.
Thursday, December 8, 2016 | Friday, December 9, 2016 |
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. | 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. |
Richmond City Hall, 450 Civic Center Plaza | San Rafael City Hall, 1400 Fifth Avenue |
Third Lanes
To reduce congestion on eastbound Interstate 580, MTC and its partners are working to convert the right shoulder to a third freeway lane from the Sir Francis Drake Blvd. on-ramp in Marin County to the Richmond Parkway/Point Richmond exit in Contra Costa County. Project elements include reconfiguring the Main Street on-ramp from San Quentin Village with a retaining wall to improve the traffic merge with the new lane; replacing pavement on the bridge approaches to accommodate heavier traffic loads; and relocating a retaining wall in Richmond to achieve safe sight distances for vehicles traveling in the new right lane. The third eastbound traffic lane is scheduled to open in the fall of 2017.
![Artist's rendering of the planned bicycle/pedestrian path on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. courtesy of MTC.](http://contracostaherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/R-SF-Bridge-bike-walk-path-final-300x153.jpg)
Artist’s rendering of the planned bicycle/pedestrian path on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Courtesy of MTC.
Bicycle/Pedestrian Path
To provide a bicycle/pedestrian link between Marin and Contra Costa counties, the agencies will establish a path on the north side of Interstate 580, with concrete barriers to separate bikes and pedestrians from westbound freeway traffic. These include a moveable barrier on the upper deck of the bridge that will allow Caltrans to conduct maintenance work during short closures of the path. Construction work on the moveable barrier project is expected to begin in the spring of 2017, with completion slated for the spring of 2018.
Lane & Ramp Closures
Lane and ramp closures necessary for construction activity will take place mostly in late night and early morning hours, but some closures may extend until 8 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Each Open House will be an informational meeting at which members of the public can review project plans, talk with project team members and provide input.
MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. Caltrans owns, operates and maintains the state highway system, including seven Bay Area toll bridges. TAM is the congestion management agency and the transportation sales tax authority for Marin County. CCTA is the congestion management agency and the transportation sales tax authority for Contra Costa County.
See the video on the bridge improvements project, below.
For more information on the project click, here.
Read More![Congressman DeSaulnier (middle) with 2016 Congressional App Challenge participants (from left to right) Ray Altenberg, Ross Altenberg, Jasmine Steele, and Michael Chou.](http://contracostaherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/DeSaulnier-students.jpg)
Congressman DeSaulnier (middle) with 2016 Congressional App Challenge participants (from left to right) Ray Altenberg, Ross Altenberg, Jasmine Steele, and Michael Chou.
Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (D, CA-11) announced Jasmine Steele of Danville as the winner of the 2016 Congressional App Challenge for California’s 11th District. Jasmine Steele, a student at San Ramon Valley High School, designed and created “Allergy Blast,” an app that provides a platform to easily and quickly share allergy and medication information. The app is meant to help children, seniors, or those with special needs who may wish to inform schools or caregivers of this important information.
“I am proud of the innovative young programmers in our district who participated in this year’s app challenge. I congratulate Jasmine on the design of her creative and potentially lifesaving app, and look forward to seeing ‘Allergy Blast’ represent Contra Costa County on display in the United States Capitol,” said Congressman DeSaulnier.
The runners-up included Matt Moss of Alamo, Michael Chou of Danville, and Ray and Ross Altenberg of Moraga with their teammate Alan Brilliant from San Mateo.
The panel of judges for the competition were: Muktesh Mishra, Senior Software Engineer, Capital One; Shaun Webb, Product and POC management, Capital One and Sudha Jamthe, Part-Time Instructor, Stanford Continuing Studies, Technology.
The Congressional App Challenge is a competition aimed at encouraging U.S. students to learn how to code by creating their own applications to highlight the value of computer science and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. This is the second year DeSaulnier has hosted the Congressional App Challenge for the Eleventh District. More information about the Congressional App Challenge can be found here.
Read MoreAccusations it includes fraud, bribery, corruption; requires Senate passage during lame duck session
By Allen Payton
On Wednesday, November 30, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the 21st Century Cures Act (H.R. 34) on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 392-26. The almost 1,000-page bill is designed for medical innovation, additional funding for cancer research, and to combat the nation’s growing opioid and heroin epidemic. But opponents say what the bill includes continues and advances corruption. Plus, they don’t like the fact it’s being considered and voted on by a lame-duck Congress, some of whose members weren’t re-elected in November and will be leaving, soon.
Congressman DeSaulnier (D, CA-11), who represents most of Contra Costa County and voted for the bill, issued the following statement lauding its passage.
“This legislation will help ensure the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have the resources needed to continue important work improving biomedical research and developing innovative treatments. Included in the bill is funding for the Vice President’s Cancer Moonshot, which is essential to continuing the program under the new Administration, as well as funds to combat the growing opioid and heroin epidemic facing our country. While this bill is not perfect, it provides $4.8 billion in new funding to ensure NIH is able to further its work for patients and families relying on research, treatment and recovery options. As a survivor of cancer and a beneficiary of the remarkable progress this country has made in treatment and research, I know all too well the value of these investments and how many lives can be saved as a result.”
According to other news reports, the legislation was introduced by Rep. Fred Upton, R-Michigan and Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., “in hopes of speeding up the discovery, development and delivery of life-saving drugs and devices for diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes. It passed the House 344-77 in July, but later stalled in the Senate. A reworked version was released last weekend.”
Congressman DeSaulnier offered an amendment to the bill, which would have helped improve doctor-patient communication when patients are diagnosed and receiving treatment for severe or chronic diseases. No amendments were included in the final version of the bill. He will continue to work on these important issues.
White House Supports
The bill will now go to the Senate for a final vote and if passed the White House has indicated President Obama will sign it. In a statement, issued Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest praised the passage of the bill.
“This critically important legislation will get states the resources they need to fight the heroin and prescription opioid epidemic. It invests the $1 billion the President has repeatedly said is necessary to help communities that have seen far too many overdoses. It also responds to the Vice President’s call for a Moonshot in cancer research by investing $1.8 billion in new resources to transform cancer research and accelerate discoveries. Plus, it invests nearly $3 billion to continue the President’s signature biomedical research initiatives, the BRAIN and Precision Medicine Initiatives, over the next decade to tackle diseases like Alzheimer’s and create new research models to find cures and better target treatments.
H.R. 34 also takes important steps to improve mental health, including provisions that build on the work of the President’s Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Parity Task Force. It further advances the drug approval process by taking steps like modernizing clinical trial design and better incorporating patients’ voices into FDA’s decision-making processes. Like all comprehensive legislation, the bill is not perfect, and there are provisions the Administration would prefer were improved, but the legislation offers advances in health that far outweigh these concerns. The Senate should promptly pass this bill so that the President can sign it.”
Liberal Opposition
However, not everyone in the Senate is supportive of the bill, including DeSaulnier’s fellow Democrat, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass). She has been generally supportive of the legislation, but will now work against its passage, blasting it for being favorable to the pharmaceutical industry, saying “there’s a lot of bad stuff” in the bill, and called it extortion, and includes “special favors for campaign donors and giveaways to the richest drug companies in the world.”
In a floor statement on Monday night, which can be viewed here, she said that “Big Pharma hijack(ed) the Cures bill. This final deal has only a tiny fig leaf of funding, for NIH and for the opioid crisis. And most of that fig leaf isn’t even real. Most of the money won’t really be there unless future Congresses passes future bills in future years to spend those dollars.”
Warren continued, saying “In the closing days of this Congress, Big Pharma has its hand out for a bunch of special giveaways and favors that are packed together in something called the 21st Century Cures bill.
And when American voters say Congress is owned by big companies, this bill is exactly what they are talking about. Now, we face a choice. Will this Congress say that yes, we’re bought and paid for, or will we stand up and work for the American people?
Medical breakthroughs come from increasing investments in basic research. Right now, Congress is choking off investments in the NIH. Adjusted for inflation, federal spending on medical research over the past dozen years has been cut by 20%. Those cuts take the legs out from under future medical innovation in America. We can name a piece of legislation the “cures” bill, but if it doesn’t include meaningful funding for the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, it won’t cure anything.”
Her reasons for opposing the bill include her argument that “this funding is political cover for huge giveaways to giant drug companies.” She stated it would “legalize fraud” and “cover up bribery,” and, in her usual practice of partisan attacks, also said it would “hand out dangerous, special deals to Republican campaign contributors.”
Warren said that “this Cures bill that would shoot holes in the anti-fraud law. Make it easier for drug companies to get away with fraud.”
Another accusation she made is “the Cures act offers to sell government favors. It delivers a special deal so people can sell…treatments without meeting the FDA gold standards for protecting patient safety and making sure these drugs do some good.”
Warren gave a list of other reasons she opposed it.
“The Cures Act – a bill that was supposed to be about medical innovation – has a giveaway to the gun lobby,” she said. “The bill cuts Medicare funding. It raids money from the Affordable Care Act. It takes health care dollars that should have gone to Puerto Rico. It makes it harder for people with disabilities to get Medicaid services. There’s a lot of bad stuff here.”
“It is time for Democrats – Democrats and Republicans who should be ashamed by this kind of corruption -to make it clear who exactly they work for. Does the Senate work for big pharma that hires the lobbyists and makes the campaign contributions or does the Senate work for American people who actually sent us here,” Warren concluded.
Conservative Opposition
Some conservatives are also opposed to the bill, but not all for the same reasons as Warren’s. The conservative Heritage Foundation gave four reasons they oppose the bill, calling it a “Christmas Tree, loaded with handouts for special interests.”
On their website, they wrote, “Congress has taken this legislation, which was initially a 300 page bill, and turned it into an almost 1,000 page omnibus health care spending bill. The negotiators have added pieces of a mental health bill, makes changes to Medicare Part A and B, another bill making significant changes to the federal foster care system, a “cancer moonshot” requested by Vice President Biden, additional funding for opioid abuse prevention, etc., in addition to the NIH funding and the FDA funding, for a grand total of over $6.3 billion dollars. In Washington terms, backroom negotiators have turned the Cures bill into a Christmas Tree, loaded with handouts for special interests, all at the expense of the taxpayer. Therefore, conservatives should oppose the 21st Century Cures Bill for four main reasons.
First, the bill’s “pay-fors” rely on budget gimmicks, and even worse, the new spending is not subject to the budget caps. Second, NIH and FDA do not need additional funding. Instead, they need to spend the money they already have on critical research instead of wasteful projects. Third, Congress has no business considering an almost 1,000 page omnibus health care spending bill during the lame duck session. Fourth, and finally, the process has been questionable and the bill will likely be closed to amendments.
An email to DeSaulnier’s office asking for his comments on Warren’s statements opposing the bill was not responded to before publication time. Please check back later for any updates.
A vote by the Senate on the bill is expected to take place early next week. For the complete text of the bill, please click here.
Read MoreThe Contra Costa Health Services issued the following announcement at 5:44 p.m.:
Update on Public Health Investigation of Incident in Antioch
Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS) has now identified two additional people who fell ill soon after eating food from a Thanksgiving charity event in Antioch.
All people who became ill developed symptoms within 24 hours of ingesting food served at the charity event and we don’t expect to see new cases.
These two newly discovered people didn’t seek medical attention and have recovered. There are now 19 total people known to have fallen ill—including three people who died—after eating food served at the Antioch American Legion auditorium, 403 West Sixth St., on Thanksgiving.
Anyone with leftover food from this event should not eat it and throw it away. Anyone who ate food from the Thanksgiving Day event and is now feeling sick should immediately contact their medical provider and also call CCHS at 925-313-6740.
Tests of biological samples from the reported cases came back negative for 21 foodborne diseases, including salmonella, E. coli and norovirus. CCHS is sending samples to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) to test for other agents that are common but testing is not locally available. Results from the CDC tests may not be available for months.
Our Public Health and Environmental Health divisions continue to work in collaboration on the ongoing investigation