Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins Discusses California's Response To COVID-19

Speaker 1: 00:00 Here's governor Gavin Newsome today. Speaker 2: 00:02 Individuals through the extraordinary behavior, millions of you, uh, because you have practice physical distancing, the stay at home orders, you have bent the curve in the state of California. Uh, the models have changed because of your behavior. Speaker 1: 00:18 Newsome said state leaders will focus on six key measures and easing life in California back toward normal. First, expand testing for COBIT 19 who has the disease and who has already had it. Second, vigilant protection of the most vulnerable seniors. Those with underlying conditions, the homeless jail inmates. Third, hospitals need to be able to handle surges and infections as restrictions on the stay at home order our East, especially with beds and personal protection equipment. Fourth, continue working with academia and research institutions including the UC system and scripts here in San Diego on treatment therapies and a vaccine. Fifth reader off floor plans at businesses and then all public facilities including schools to ensure needed physical distancing. And sixth, have the capacity to reinstate more vigorous controls on public movement. Should we see a surge in Corona virus infections? The governor said he shares all Californians anxiety on getting back toward normal, getting the economy going again, but it may be necessary to toggle back and forth from less restrictive measures to title ones. He said as we head toward an ultimate vaccine and herd immunity against this deadly disease. Earlier today I spoke with state Senate president pro tem Tony Atkins of San Diego about lifting California's COBIT 19 restrictions and the state's response to the pandemic. Here's that interview. Well, governor Newsome says he's working with Oregon and Washington on a regional plan to lift the coronavirus restrictions. What sort of indicators are you looking out for in order to consider easing restrictions on reopening parts of the economy? Speaker 3: 01:58 Well, I think it's going to be a direction from our healthcare experts. Uh, the public health issue is I think key. I mean, even our federal reserve chair, Jerome Powell, the California legislative analyst's office, gave headache. Both have said that the virus is going to dictate, uh, where we go as it relates to the economy. So I imagine they will be following, you know, those directives. And that's what I'm looking to Speaker 1: 02:25 now. The president says he has ultimate authority on when to reopen the economy. You think it's up to the president or the States? Speaker 3: 02:32 Well, I think our governor has provided excellent leadership on this. Uh, I ha and I, I know that he is looking to the healthcare and the medical experts. He's working daily, uh, with those folks and, and I trust his ability to, uh, lead California in the right direction. Speaker 1: 02:50 And we're looking at a regional plan here as the governor outlined yesterday, uh, with Oregon and Washington. We've seen six States do a similar a in the Northeast. Uh, do you think the shared regional approach, uh, will be a tougher for the president? Should he want to override this a state approach than an individual state plan might be? Speaker 3: 03:11 You know, I think because as we see what continues to happen across the country, uh, we will realign ourselves, uh, hopefully together in the same direction. I think, you know, I give a lot of credit to, to, uh, our governor and his ability to work with the federal administration. We are going to need to work together going forward because you know, the stimulus that Congress and the and the federal administration, the president has advanced is critical for us at the state level. We may be a nation state that California is going to count on that kind of support. So I feel optimistic. We will find a way to come through this then out of this together because I know the president may be listening to a, some in the business community, they're anxious, we are all anxious. Uh, but our anxiety has not, we have got to not let our anxiety give way to coming back too soon, too quickly because the impact of that economically as well as as health wise could actually be devastating to us. Speaker 1: 04:15 Now this week, a state Senate subcommittee, it's going to be begin work to examine state spending on Corona virus. Describe the work of this new committee. What's its mission statement as it were? Speaker 3: 04:25 It's a special budget committee, uh, made up of the chair of the budget committee, the sub chairs and our Republican counterparts. Uh, so there will be a hearing in Sacramento that focuses mostly on what resources have been spent to date the governor under emergency declaration powers and the budget that we allocated on March 16th one point $1 billion. It's to evaluate how those resources have been spent, what we need to do going forward and how we tailor our focus on, uh, the immediate needs, uh, and prepare as we do go back, uh, to Sacramento to take up the budget and we are waiting on the governor's may revision to the budget, which will become our workload budget. It's a, we're preparing to alter the way we look at things through the specific lens of what we need to do in the short term related to California's budget, our expenditures today, uh, including the emergency funds, uh, given to the governor and what that may mean in terms of our rainy day fund. Um, you know, we, we went into a, this year with a $21 billion reserve, part of the rainy day fund that voters supported, uh, that we put into place. And we're now at about 17 point $5 billion. So we want to be very, um, focused and specific about how we use those resources. Speaker 1: 05:51 Questions have been raised about the $1 billion deal. The governor announced for a personal masks and PPE lawmakers said that there are very little details provided on the amount and the terms of the purchases. That's something the committee will be looking at. Speaker 3: 06:04 Absolutely. Uh, I think it's one of the reasons we've decided we need to have the committee hearing. Uh, so that we have questions answered. We are getting a lot of those answers from the governor's office. His staff is providing it and you know, we want to give him the flexibility to do this work. It is his charge as governor of the state. And eh, you know, the issue is getting that equipment out to the people on the front lines who need them. You know, and I think that he has shown he's doing that, but we do have a responsibility to, to take a look at it and determine how the money's being spent and where the resources best need to be used. So we'll be taking a look at that on Thursday as well so that the public also gets to see, that's our responsibility. It's oversight, it's transparency and the ability to make sure that the information is getting out there, we can share it with citizens, constituents and the press. Frankly, Speaker 1: 07:00 that was a lesson learned from this pandemic that California needs its own stockpile of PPE and ventilators and other necessary medical items. Speaker 3: 07:08 I think that is true and I think we have had a stockpile of certain types of equipment, but uh, you know, clearly that's going to be one of the charges of a committee that, uh, you know, that we're, that I will be announcing later this week to look specifically at pandemic response, emergency preparedness. And that will be, do we, you know, we have in the past had our own mobile hospitals. Uh, and the question is, do we have those stage North and South and central California where it is? So all of that falls under the office of emergency services. And I think a part of this is going to be what type of, and and to make sure that that equipment doesn't expire. I mean, those are all issues that we're going to need to evaluate going forward. Three, evaluate. Speaker 1: 07:57 And what does the crisis mean for some of your biggest legislative priorities? I read that you're asking for non coronavirus bills to be put on pause. Speaker 3: 08:06 The economics of our state going forward has obviously changed. We had a 350% increase loan last week in claims for unemployment at EDD. So we know that the world is going to change before us. And so some of the pieces of legislation that may have called for new programs, new approaches to things that cost money, we're going to have to reevaluate. And frankly, you know, we don't know what our legislative calendar is going to look like. It's still unclear to us. Uh, we have a May 4th date to return to the Capitol, but you know, we won't know, uh, that's unfolding before us week by week based on what's happening, uh, from, you know, the health care perspective and the virus. So we may have to alter our legislative calendar. Uh, we will not have the ability hear thousands of bills, a couple thousand bills. So our focus will be to look at, um, the critical issues and that is fire prevention and safety. Speaker 3: 09:07 Uh, housing of course critical issue. Uh, what we're going to do in terms of our healthcare system and programs. Uh, clearly our hospitals have been put at the break because they've had to refocus all of their efforts towards a hospital beds for the surge ICU beds and they haven't been doing other surgeries elective and other kind of routine things. So that has, that is going to impact them financially. So everything we do is going to have to be through the lens of is it really necessary? How does it affect California's fiscal situation and the critical issues that we know we face fire healthcare. Uh, obviously we're going to have to continue to work on housing. We were in the midst of a housing crisis that's just going to get worse. Speaker 1: 09:51 A lot of work and a lot of answers to come. While I've been speaking with state Senate president pro tem, Tony Atkins. Thanks very much, Speaker 3: 09:59 Mark. Thank you. Always good to talk with you.