Three weeks ago a Los Angeles Times headline proclaimed, "As fentanyl deaths surge in California, lawmakers kill bills that would punish dealers," and in the article Assembly Public Safety Committee chair Reggie Jones-Sawyer admits he "Shelved" bills that were in his committee which would increase penalties for fentanyl dealers because he thinks they'll lead to over-incarceration.
This week, Assembly Republicans forced Jones-Sawyer to act and to schedule special hearings on six of those bills on April 27 by threatening to take the bills out of his committee and to take them up for a vote on the floor, which would put lots of Jones-Sawyers' allies in a tough spot.
If Jones-Sawyer simply allowed the bills to languish and die in committee, his allies in the Assembly would never be forced to vote against something that their constituents might want, or that might actually help their constituents.
After Jones-Sawyer's first tactic, of ignoring the bills, failed, and both Assembly Republicans and families of those who died of fentanyl overdoses got loud in the media, Jones-Sawyer ran a media blitz announcing that he'd hold "Informal" hearings in the fall so all of the stakeholders could take part.
April 19, the Assembly Republican Caucus sent a press release announcing that the next day they'd "Move to withdraw six bills from the Assembly Public Safety Committee and take them up for a vote on the floor, forcing lawmakers to pick a side between protecting Californians from fentanyl poisoning or protecting drug dealers who profit off of the overdose epidemic," then listed the bill number, author, and synopsis.
She cropped out what Assembly Republicans said and inserted her interpretation - that "Assembly Republicans will attempt to force a vote on fentanyl bills tomorrow." Interestingly, that's similar to Jones-Sawyer's framing in a statement he issued shortly after this tweet.
In a move that can only be explained as gaslighting or some kind of dementia on Jones-Sawyer's part, the lawmaker then claimed that he and other Democrats had "Been calling for a comprehensive hearing on fentanyl for nearly two years," and their "Request was denied last year." Then he said that he "Worked with Assembly Leadership to secure a hearing for bills introduced this year before the constitutional deadlines."
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