California COVID-19 farmworker relief package

•AB 2043: Agricultural Workplace Health & Safety -Ensures enforcement by Cal/OSHA of its COVID-19 guidance, funds a targeted bilingual outreach campaign to educate agricultural workers on Cal/OSHA guidance, as well as COVID-19-related paid sick leave and workers compensation benefits, and directs Cal/OSHA to track and report workplace investigations related to the agricultural industry.

• AB 2165: E-Filing and Rural Access to Justice Act -- Expands the availability of electronic filing to all state trial courts, given that access to courthouses is a problem in many farmworker and other rural communities.

• Request for Temporary COVID-19 Housing for Agricultural Workers -- After formal requests in March and April, followed by a $25 million budget request in May, to expand the administration’s Project Roomkey and Homekey programs, Newsom announced the Housing for the Harvest program in July to provide safe, temporary isolation spaces for sick or atrisk agricultural workers.

• Request for Prioritization of Agricultural Workers for PPE and

COVID-19 Testing -After formal requests in March and April, Newsom announced in May that his administration would be ramping-up testing availability for rural and other underserved communities and again in July that both testing and PPE access would be improved for agricultural workers.

• AB 2164: Telehealth for Rural and Community Health Centers Act -- Expands telehealth services for rural and community health centers, to the benefit of farmworker and other marginalized groups that have difficulty accessing medical care.