Recommendation to respectfully request City Council approval of the 2021 Federal Legislative Agenda as recommended by the Federal Legislation Committee.
Thank you. We will go back now up to item number 11, please. Communication from Vice Mayor Richardson, chair of the Federal Legislation Committee, recommendation to approve the 2021 federal legislative agenda as recommended by the Federal Legislation Committee. Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you. I just have a few comments, but I want to ask our staff if we're able to take all three of these on one vote. They're all related. Vice mayor, this is Charlie Parker. And I think, yes, if the clerk. Reads all three of the items and then. If there's any public. Comment on all. Three items. If that's heard before. The action is taken. Yes, you can take them to. Great, great, fantastic. Can we read the other two? Item number 12. Communication from Vice Mayor Richardson, Chair of the Federal Legislation Committee. Recommendation Requests Request City Attorney to draft a resolution in support of Medicare for All, as recommended by the Federal Legislation Committee. And a communication from the Federal Legislation Committee. Again, Vice Mayor Richardson, Chair recommendation to approve the recommendation of the Federal Legislation Committee to support federal legislative proposals. Thank you. So proud to bring these recommendations from the committee forward. They were supported unanimously in the committee level. These are obviously some changes to the agenda, all consistent with our goals around economic development, public safety, public health, sustainable and livable cities. COVID 19 response. And it also is consistent with our Racial Equity Reconciliation Initiative. Initial report. I look forward to continue to work with the committee to identify more resources for Long Beach. We're pretty proud to see the results of the Long Beach Recovery Act. Next, Congress is going to focus on a large infrastructure bill. I've spoken with Lowenthal Waters, Bass, Norma Torres and others. This bill will be much bigger than infrastructure. It will have housing, CDBG support. Large projects like Metrolink and high speed rail. Also green infrastructure projects consistent with cleaning our air. So that will be the next significant order of business. I will expect Congress to pick up on that very soon, expect action in May or June. So that said, I'm happy to make this vote, this recommendation to approve these three items. Kate. There is a motion to approve the items on the floor. And I have a have a second to my councilman's in Davos. Councilman Van de Haas. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to show my support for all three items, but especially for Medicare for All. The COVID pandemic has further exposed just how poorly we can't just how any, you know, art our care health care system has been. Because it seems that insurance nowadays is a luxury when there's actually millions of people that cannot even afford to go see a doctor when they're sick. So I'm very excited that the federal Federal Legislation Committee has proposed a resolution in support of Medicare for All. I think it's the right thing to do. And I think the whole committee for bringing this forward. Thank you. Thank you. And next up is Councilwoman Price. Mr. Mayor, I did have a question for perhaps city staff can help me with this and I can't switch back to my PDF notes from the agenda item, so I don't know what page it is, but I want to talk a little bit about gun control and I am very interested in seeing what legislative proposals are out there. Federal legislative proposals are out there that the city can support or even possibly suggest that address the loophole in the universal background check proposal, because right now that background check proposal applies to retailers and not private sales. And I was recently listening to a piece in NPR about some of the violence that we're seeing in South America and in Mexico with the guns flowing south and these private sales of of a really large amount of arms and. Very dangerous weapons between private parties is not really regulated at all in terms of universal background checks. So are we aware of anything like that? And I know that our Fed large agenda has a very general comment about supporting legislation to control access to guns. And I think maybe it's Dr. Curley on the. On the line. Yes, I am. Okay, great. What do you want to give her an overview of? I know that some of that's in the agenda currently, but you wanted me probably speak to councilwoman prices questions, please. Yes, absolutely. So some of the things that we are recommending in partnership with Long Beach PD is new items around ghost guns regulations and also just more interoperable databases around ammunition cases, things like that. But there are existing items in the legislative agenda related to strengthening gun control laws and requiring background checks on ammunition purchases. You know, I think that we could potentially, if there was an amendment or a friendly to include something more specific around universal background checks that would give us more direction around just how far we'd like to go on that specific item. I would like to offer a friendly that if there is legislation proposed on universal background checks that the city advocate in favor of it and also. Evaluate whether it can apply to private sales as well. Accepted. Thank you. And then the other question I have is, what is there any legislation pending right now regarding assault weapons ban on assault weapons? I mean, it's just that the mass shootings don't seem to be stopping. And I'm just wondering if there's anything pending in the legislation right now on that. I would have to double check exactly what proposals are out there right now. But yes, those are often introduced and then would likely pass the house right now. But I don't know if they would be successful in the Senate currently, but that is definitely something that we could check back on for the details. Yeah, and it could just be either a two from four or if you just send me an email. I'm just curious what current legislation there is regarding banning assault, large scale assault weapons and whether that discussion is is is ripe right now or not. So thank you. And with that, I'm happy to support all the items. Thank you. Thank you, councilwoman. I also have next up is Councilwoman Sara. Well, actually, I think that was just a part of the motion. I do have a just a couple broad, broad comments and as well. First is, I think this is a great agenda for federal agenda. And I want to thank the committee Vice Mayor Richardson for their work on this. I think it's going to be a couple of very big years in Washington, D.C.. I want to also speak to Councilman Price's comments around additional gun control or, you know, gun safety legislation. I think that's really important for us. That debate, obviously, we have supported those issues in the past. There will be additional bills in front of the Congress or ones that will be reintroduced. And so the more that we can be involved in and engage in that conversation, we should be. And I also just want to also just touch on something that Vice Mayor Richardson said as it relates to infrastructure that is going to be a massive recovery bill as well that is now being negotiated and discussed. And so we look forward to being very engaged in that at the federal and local level as that bill is developed. And with that, I think that has answered all the questions. Are there any public comment on this item? Yes. We have Steve Shukla. Good evening again. I urge you support for all three items and would like to thank the Federal and State Legislation Committee of the Council for bringing them forward, particularly H.R. one, the for the People Act, the Medicare for All Act, and in the federal legislative agenda, the focus on implementing the city's Climate Action Adaptation Plan, particularly as we look, as a major said, towards the infrastructure portions of the American recovery plan. You committed the city of Long Beach needs to turn the corner from being a state laggard, state leaders in emissions reduction and particularly achieving net negative emissions by 2030, 2045, 2040, 2050. We're simply too late looking forward to seeing not only these measures, passion, but also seeing how this year how we develop achieving these needed targets. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. Thank you. And with that, we will go and take the the one vote on items 11, 12 and 13. Localities. District one. I. District two. I. District three. I. District four. All right. District five. District five. District six. I. District seven. I. District eight. By. District nine. I motion carries.