SACRAMENTO, CA – Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters) passed, and Governor Brown signed, AB 2348, which creates the California Winter Rice Habitat Incentive Program. Supported by $5 million in the 2018-19 Budget, this program will offset the cost of flooding rice fields in the winter, a practice that improves soil health after the growing season and provides critical wetland habitat for birds and other wildlife along California’s Pacific Flyway.

“Researchers at UC Davis told me about the important environmental benefits winter-flooded rice provides,” said Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry. “Flooding rice fields in the winter helps decompose leftover rice straw and waste grain, which offsets open-burring, creates wetland habitat for birds, and can support nurseries for fish. Incentivizing winter-flooding is supported by environmentalists, hunters, and farmers alike.”

Sacramento, CA – Assembly Bill 2063, by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters), was signed by Governor Brown.  The bill will require a consumer’s ability to pay for home improvements to be determined prior to the signing of a financing agreement to fund those improvements, and before any construction work can start. The bill also makes other consumer protection improvements to the “property assessed clean energy” (PACE) program to ensure that the program can continue without putting homeowners at risk.

SACRAMENTO, CA – Governor Brown signed Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry’s Assembly Bill 2576 into law over the weekend. This proposal, part of Aguiar-Curry’s package of wildfire recovery legislation, is critical to ensure that communities continue to receive timely access to health care when disaster strikes. After finding critical barriers to clinics’ and other health providers’ ability to provide health care and receive reimbursement for health services clinics during and after the devastating 2017 wildfires, Aguiar-Curry introduced AB 2576 to streamline the system.

The roughly 1,300 community health centers in California provide high-quality comprehensive care to 6.5 million people – that’s 1 in 6 Californians.  Community clinics provide the full spectrum of care, from primary care, to dental and behavioral care, and a variety of additional wraparound services to everyone, regardless of ability to pay, immigration status, or individual circumstances. However, when a clinic burns down or is damaged, the current rules restrict health providers from being able to deliver health services in the field.

SACRAMENTO, CA – AB 1772, AB 2380, and AB 2518, authored by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters), were signed by Governor Brown today.  In October 2017, California experienced the most devastating wildfire in state history. 44 Californian lives were claimed, and more than 14,700 homes and 728 businesses were damaged or destroyed, totaling over $12 billion worth of damage.  Wildfires of this magnitude pollute the air and wipe out gains we make reducing California’s carbon footprint. These three bills came about in the aftermath of those devastating fires that destroyed so much of our state and affected many families and communities in Assembly District 4.

“Four of my counties – Lake, Napa, Solano, and Sonoma – were on fire last October. For many, it wasn’t the first time,” said Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry. “It breaks my heart to think about the magnitude of loss families across California are experiencing due to fires. These bills will ensure that California is better prepared to prevent future wildfires, combat them when they do occur, and recover in the aftermath.”