Days after voting against fellow Democrats on a party-line gas bill, Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains of Bakersfield, has lost one of her committee assignments.
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon announced his decision on Thursday to remove Bains from the Business and Professions Committee. A spokesperson for Rendon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The freshman lawmaker will continue to sit on three other committees: Aging and Long-Term Care, Accountability and Administrative Review, and Revenue and Taxation.
While she did not respond to a request for comment, Bains defended her vote in a tweet.
“Stand alone if you must, but always stand for the truth,” Bains wrote. “As the lone Democrat to oppose the new gas tax, I will never throw my constituents under the bus. I will continue to fight for lower gas prices and a stronger Kern County.”
Siding with 18 Republicans, Bains was the sole Democrat to vote against the Assembly’s approval of Senate Bill X 1-2, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Tuesday.
The bill, which passed the House by a vote of 52-19, mandates that any oil company operating in California must submit data to a newly created division within the California Energy Commission.
With this data, the state hopes to investigate oil refiners for potential price gouging, as a part of a wider effort to combat high gas prices.