California lawmakers are still in hot water after some chose to attend a lavish bipartisan conference in Hawaii, while the state’s residents face job losses, travel restrictions and curfews as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rise.
The four-day conference in Maui focused on reopening the U.S. economy at a time when millions of Americans are out of work – with potentially more job losses or layoffs on the way depending on the trajectory of the ongoing outbreak and local guidelines.
However, many were quick to criticize the optics of lawmakers’ decisions to attend – as California, in particular, implements stricter coronavirus-related guidelines in an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus.