Press Releases
SALINAS, CA – Today, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (CA-20) co-introduced legislation to help streamline the donation of food by farmers to food banks across the country to help confront the growing food insecurity related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Farm to Food Bank Enhancement Act will provide $25 million for states to expand or establish new Farm to Food Bank Projects as part of The Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP. The federal funding will be used to cover up to 100 percent of harvesting, processing, packaging, and transportation costs for covered commodities.
SALINAS, CA – Today, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (CA-20), Congressman Jason Crow (CO-06), and Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (IL-14) introduced legislation to create a Health Force and a Resiliency Force to help respond to and combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The Health Force would recruit, train, and employ Americans to expand our public health workforce to combat the virus and strengthen America's longer-term public health response.
SALINAS, CA – Today, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (CA-20) and Congressman Don Beyer (VA-08) unveiled a proposal to improve the newly created Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
SALINAS, CA – Congressman Jimmy Panetta (CA-20), Congressman TJ Cox (CA-21), and Congressman Jim Costa (CA-16) sent joint letters to National Institute of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins and California Governor Gavin Newsom, requesting that funding prioritization be given to research on how COVID-19 has affected essential workers in the food industry, especially farmworkers, farmers, and employees of food processing plants.
SALINAS, CA – Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-20) sent a bipartisan letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom calling for the state to use its allocation from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Coronavirus Relief Fund to assist small and local governments on the front lines fighting COVID-19. He was joined by Representatives Salud Carbajal (D-CA-24), Paul Cook (R-CA-08), Jared Huffman (D-CA-02), Doug LaMalfa (R-CA-01), and Mike Thompson (D-CA-05).
SALINAS, CA – Today, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) led 41 of his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives in calling on House and Senate leadership to increase funding for the National Guard to support food banks during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
SALINAS, CA – Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) sent a bipartisan letter to House and Senate leaders addressing the lack of COVID-19 relief funding for small and midsize counties. Other signers of the letter include Representatives Paul Cook (R-Apple Valley), Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara), Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael).
SALINAS, CA – Today, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) announced that he co-introduced the Strengthening UI for Coronavirus Impacted Workers and Students Act to expand unemployment insurance for American workers. The legislation is sponsored by Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05) in the House and by Senator Reed (D-RI) in the Senate.
SALINAS, CA – Today, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) announced the distribution of $1,694,028 in federal government grants for federal housing programs in California's 20th Congressional District to help respond to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The funding for these grants is from the recently passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Admin Fee Regular and Mainstream Voucher Program.
SALINAS, CA – Today, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) joined 87 of his colleagues in sending a letter to the Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos opposing the Administration's decision to block Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), and undocumented students from eligibility for the $6.3 billion emergency assistance for students in