SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ The weekend before California shuttered its Capitol building, Senate leader Toni Atkins spent hours on the phone _ taking the roles of a student learning from epidemiologists and a legislator discussing with colleagues how the country's most populous state should respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
Like many lawmakers from New York to Washington state, Atkins and her fellow Sacramento legislators find themselves in uncharted territory.
Legislative sessions are on hold. Sweeping initiatives are shelved. State budgets are already squeezed by massive spending on COVID-19.
On March 19, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide stay-at-home order in a bid to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. There is no end date on the order. Some public health experts believe such measures would need to be in effect for many months to be effective.
California's Legislature is scheduled to reopen April 13, but with lawmakers practicing social distancing, it's not clear that will happen.
This leaves California's legislative leadership with an unusual challenge as budget deadlines draw near: How do you hold public hearings to discuss spending priorities and vote on bills when people aren't supposed to gather? Do other legislative priorities take a back seat to the coronavirus?
On Tuesday, Newsom's budget director sent a letter to state agencies saying they "should have no expectation of full funding for either new or existing proposals" because of deteriorating economic conditions tied to the spread of the virus. Atkins, a Democrat from San Diego, talked to California Healthline's Samantha Young about how the Legislature can move forward.
Her comments have been edited for length and clarity.
