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The
majority Democratic lawmakers will head back to their districts
having positioned the state in opposition to conservative
policies proposed by the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress and
President Donald Trump on immigration, the environment and other
issues.
"It's a purposeful positioning," said political analyst Sherry
Bebitch Jeffe, a senior fellow at the University of Southern
California. "We have a different political path and a different
ideological path than the Republican-controlled Congress and
White House have."
This year, California lawmakers have strengthened protections
for undocumented immigrants, increased the gasoline tax and
extended a program aimed at compelling businesses to reduce air
pollution, all in opposition to federal policies.
On Friday, lawmakers are set to vote on a bill that would bar
local governments from forcing undocumented immigrants to spend
extra time in jail just to allow enforcement officers to take
them into their custody.
The bill, a compromise from a version that sought to severely
restrict interactions between law enforcement and immigration
officials, does allow communities to notify the federal
government if they have arrested an undocumented immigrant with
a felony record. It also allows enforcement agents access to
local jails.
Trump issued an executive order in January targeting funding for
cities that offer illegal immigrants safe harbor by declining to
use municipal resources to enforce federal immigration laws. A
San Francisco judge blocked the order.
A move by the Justice Department to withhold grant funds from
cities that refuse to allow immigration enforcement agents
access to local jails has been challenged in court by California
and several U.S. cities.
Although California lawmakers have enacted several environmental
protections this year, a measure aimed at weaning the state's
power grid entirely off of fossil fuels by 2045 faltered late
Thursday as utilities opposed it.
California's three investor-owned utilities, Pacific Gas &
Electric <PCG_pa.A>, Southern California Edison <SCE_pe.A> and
San Diego Gas & Electric [SDGE.UL], say the bill does not
protect customers from the cost of switching from fossil fuels.
Senate Democratic Leader Kevin de Leon still planned to push for
the bill, but Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee chair
Chris Holden said it was too late to amend.
The legislature will also end the first half of its two-year
session by taking up a spending package to distribute $1.5
billion in income from the state's cap-and-trade air quality
program, which raises money by selling businesses limited rights
to emit pollutants.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento and Nichola Groom
in Los Angeles; Editing by Richard Chang)
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