On March 11, 2025, Inland Action met with Ron Fong, President and CEO of the CA Grocers Association.
Ron joined the CA Grocers Association as President/CEO in 2008 and is enjoying his seventeenth anniversary with the Association. CGA is California’s largest grocery association and serves 300 retail members and over 250 suppliers. Ron oversees the association’s strategic direction and staff which manages departments in government relations, communications, and business conferences. Some highlights of Ron’s tenure at CGA include: 2020-21 Governor Newsom appointee to two important task forces: (1) The Covid Task Force on Economic Recovery and (2) CA’s State Community Vaccine Task Force. Just last year, he was named in “C-Suite Level Magazine’s Top 10 CEOs” and the Sacramento Business Journal’s “CEO of the Year” for helping to defeat Prop 32, the minimum wage bill. Prior to coming to CGA, Ron was chief lobbyist for the CA Credit Union League for 12 years.
Ron’s presentation focused on the importance of advocacy. Unlike the Federal Government, our State Government moves very quickly. From January – February 15, 2025, over 2,000 bills were brought forward. Of the 2,000, over 50% came to the Governor’s desk and Governor Newsom signed 85% of those. Within the legislation, 1/3 of the members are new to this work with a supermajority Democrat.
Areas of focus in 2025 include:
- Department of Insurance Regulations – Insurance Reform
- SBX1 – 1 & SBx1 – 2 – Protecting Californians from Federal government policies.
- SB 18, AB 936, SB 411 – Protecting CalFresh benefits and addressing food insecurity
- AB 1018, AB 566, AB 1355, AB 410, AB 446 – Regulating the tech space
- AB 722 & AB 820 – Homelessness