California Legislature still meeting despite virus outbreak

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Churches, bars and even Disneyland are closed in California to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But one thing is still open as scheduled: the state Legislature.

The Capitol was closed to the public over the weekend, and lawmakers have canceled all committee hearings, which is where they are most likely to interact with lobbyists and advocates in close quarters. But the legislative sessions resumed on Monday, with no sign of stopping.

That's despite Gov. Gavin Newsom's guidance on Sunday urging the state's 5.3 million people 65 and older to stay at home. That guidance presumably includes the 25 lawmakers in the California Legislature who are 65 and older. At least one lawmaker, 71-year-old Assemblywoman Shirley Weber of San Diego, stayed home on Monday, according to spokeswoman Tiffaney Boyd.

Assemblyman Jose Medina, 66, said he was already on a plane headed to Sacramento on Sunday when Newsom asked people 65 and older to stay home. He attended Monday's Assembly session, saying he thought his constituents would “appreciate that we are still doing the work of the state of California.”

“It's nothing that I would take lightly, and I think that most folks my age and older are taking it seriously," said Medina, a Democrat who represents Riverside. “But it also raises concerns, you know, about how are people going to cope with it given an unknown number of days.”

It was business as usual in the state Assembly, with at least one member wearing a protective mask. In the Senate, lawmakers banished reporters and others from the back of the chamber so they would have enough space to spread out and not sit directly next to each other.

Lawmakers in both chambers retreated into private meetings with their respective political caucuses as they prepared for a possible vote on legislation to spend $500 million “for any item for any purpose” related to Newsom's declaration of emergency on March 4. In the future, Newsom could increase that spending by increments of $50 million as long as he tells lawmakers about it three days in advance. The spending is capped at $1 billion.

A separate bill would make sure public schools that closed because of the outbreak don't lose funding. It would also allocate $100 million to schools for “personal protective equipment” or to pay for “supplies and labor related to cleaning."

State law bans lawmakers from voting on any legislation until it has been publicly available for at least three days. But lawmakers can waive that law if the governor sends them a letter asking them to do so. Newsom did that on Monday.

“Today I write to you to state the obvious: we must rise to the challenge facing our state with every tool at our disposal and without a second of delay,” Newsom said. “We cannot hesitate to meet this moment.”

The California Legislature has rarely closed. In 1919, during a flu pandemic, at least five lawmakers had symptoms and had to be quarantined. Leaders discussed whether lawmakers should stop meeting, but eventually decided to “disinfect the Capitol daily and to keep meeting,” said Alex Vassar, an unofficial legislative historian at the California State Library.

The Legislature did not miss meetings during either of the world wars or in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. In 2001, when a semi-truck crashed into the Senate side of the Capitol, the Senate convened right on schedule about 12 hours later in the Assembly chambers. And last year, when a woman threw her own blood onto the floor of the state Senate in an act of protest on the session's final day, lawmakers reconvened hours later in a committee room to finish their work.

The only time lawmakers did unexpectedly suspend their meetings was in 1862, when a flood consumed most of Sacramento and, legend has it, forced newly elected Gov. Leland Stanford to use a boat to attend his inauguration.

“It is an extremely rare occurrence for the Legislature to stop meeting during the regular session," Vassar said.