The Healthy Aging Initiative on Thursday, April 22 from 10:00 am to 11:15 am will convene a webinar as part of its Master Plan for Aging (MPA) and related Local Playbook. The webinar will feature representatives from the California Department of Aging (CDA) for a discussion on implementing MPA public health initiatives at the local…
Read More »This week, the California State Senate and Assembly continued to convene policy committee hearings on legislative bills, as well as informational hearings on a number of subjects, including those related to COVID-19. The Legislature will convene again next week before taking a one-week spring recess during the week of March 29. Numerous CHEAC-tracked measures continue…
Read More »The California Can’t Wait (#CACantWait) Coalition, consisting of CHEAC, HOAC, CSAC, RCRC, UCC, SEIU California, and Public Health Advocates, has developed a two-pronged proposal that would begin to reverse the decades-long disinvestment in local public health departments. The coalition’s budget proposal consists of $200 million General Fund ongoing to support local health departments in rebuilding…
Read More »This week, CHEAC was joined by the County Behavioral Health Directors Association (CBHDA), County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA), and the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (CAPH) in declaring racism a public health crisis. As a group, the organizations join local governments around California and throughout the country, including the boards…
Read More »This week, the California Department of Finance (DOF) released its March 2021 fiscal update on COVID-19 direct response expenditures. The report provides expenditure assumptions and cost estimates as of this month compared to the Governor’s 2021-22 Budget estimate released in January. DOF estimates the state’s combined total costs for its COVID-19 response across fiscal years…
Read More »Governor Gavin Newsom and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond on Thursday announced a new partnership between the California COVID-19 Testing Task Force and the California Department of Education (CDE) to deploy up to three million rapid COVID-19 antigen tests at no cost to support the safe return to in-person instruction for staff and…
Read More »To support the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden-Harris Administration on Wednesday announced significant investments to expand access to available COVID-19 testing and treatments nationwide. Below, we highlight these announcements: COVID-19 Testing Expansion: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will invest $10 billion from the American Rescue Plan to ramp…
Read More »The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), under the Biden-Harris Administration, recently announced it would stop applying the Public Charge Final Rule issued under the Trump Administration. Recall, the Trump Administration in 2019 finalized the rule which required individuals applying for or seeking adjustment to an immigration status of visa to establish that they were…
Read More »On Thursday, the United States Senate confirmed California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as the 25th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on a 50-49 vote. Becerra becomes the first Latino HHS Secretary in U.S. history. Following his confirmation, Becerra resigned his position as California Attorney General. Governor Gavin Newsom released…
Read More »This week, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the distribution of $50 million in Community Power Resiliency grants through the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES). The funds released this week were allocated through the 2020-21 state budget and are designed to maintain the continuity of critical services that can be impacted by public safety…
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