We met (virtually) with the staff of Senator Feinstein

Last week, ISF met with Jim Lazarus (state director for Sen Feinstein). To observe social distancing rules and protect all involved from coronavirus infection, we met virutally via Zoom meeting.

Our conversation focused on the topic on everyone’s mind these days - what Congress is doing to mitigate the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. ISF strongly urged the Senator to defend workers rights and not bailout CEOs in the stimulus bill, as stated in our earlier open letter to all of our MoC’s.

The Senator has committed to support a bill which puts the workers first and also properly funds hospitals and medical staff, who are on the frontlines of battling this epidemic. In fact, she voted twice against the Republican stimulus bill (which includes half a trillion dollars with no strings attached in funds for corporations) in the Senate.

Sen Feinstein’s staff updated us on their ongoing efforts working with various agencies in CA to ensure that the hospitals and staff are better prepared to deal with the pandemics (getting enough masks, ventilators) and addressing the needs of the homeless population – the most vulnerable in our state.

We also discussed 2020 Census operations and how they are impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. Sen Feinstein is very invested in making sure all Californians are counted and is reaching out in various ways -including unconventional ones, such as encouraging social media posts from celebrities with large followings to raise awareness on the importance of participating in the 2020 Census.