Interviewed by Karen Cahill and Laura Cardenas
Mentoring of women in the political process
- Assemblywoman Limón was elected Vice Chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus.
- Hosted appointment workshops for state boards and commissions focusing on getting more women appointed.
- Monique makes herself available to present to women in leadership on how to pursue a path like hers.
- 38 out of 120 members of Congress are now women. Not at parity, but at highest number for California yet.
Staff diversity
- Staff changes every year but continues to be diverse in both gender and ethnicity.
- 4 out of the 5 of District 37 office positions are held by women. In Sacramento office, 6 out of 9 are women.
Medicare for All
- Assemblywoman Limón voted to increase affordability of coverage by instituting a state individual mandate penalty, providing additional subsidies for Covered California’s individual market enrollees, and expanding Medi-Cal to low-income undocumented young adults. California is the first state to include undocumented adults in full Medicaid benefits and the first to provide subsidies to middle-class consumers not eligible under the ACA.
- She is supportive of models that include single-payer healthcare for all. She is watching what is happening on the federal level.
- Voted on expanding covered CA services to up to age 27.
- Monique is looking at how the state can expand care for all with federal subsidies.
Reasonable Gun Laws
- Assemblywoman Limón voted in favor of 14 laws addressing gun safety and firearm sales since 2017. The specific bills can be found at: https://a37.asmdc.org/issue/gun-safety-firearm-sales
- Monique notes that California’s neighboring states don’t have strong laws, so even though California laws are some of the strictest and most comprehensive in the nation, guns come in from out of state. Because of this the issue needs to be a Federal one.
- Monique worked on getting legislation passed that disallows arming teachers.
Patterns, Trends, and Challenges Ahead: New challenges
- The misalignment between the Federal government and California on so many issues, for example, clean air standards, is a big challenge for us.
- Utilities and power outages are a big challenge for the state.
- Homelessness must be better addressed.
How Can SBWPC Assist?
- Partnering with other organizations to have informational forums on important issues or candidates. It is surprising that people think they are fully informed after reading one article. Educate the electorate; work with other organizations to educate voters.
SBWPC Letters of Support for Legislation
- SBWPC’s letters of support are effective for her as our representative. She is very appreciative of our efforts here.
Other Information to Share with SBWPC
- Assemblywoman Limón had an incredibly big year:
- Monique saw her California Financing Law (AB-539) passed by a very bipartisan vote of 60-4. She worked hard to cross the aisle and get this through, and she was the lead author on the bill. This bill will greatly reduce predatory lending.
- She got AB 378 passed. This bill provides family childcare providers with a pathway to unionize. The childcare workforce is predominantly women of color and their pay averages out to less than minimum wage. This is not a bill simply helping babysitters, but rather it is a bill addressing childcare, childhood education, and childhood health.
- She worked hard to open access to public beaches.
- Assemblywoman Limón was very politically brave this year and there is a price to be paid for political courage. People may be angry, and some support may be lost, but Monique was willing to stand up for the causes that she and her constituents believed in.