Latest Press Releases

(SACRAMENTO) – Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) has issued the following statement in response to the Governor’s May Revision on the state budget:

“The Governor has laid out the only credible framework for achieving a long-term resolution to California’s budget challenges. It will achieve the necessary balance between deep and difficult cuts, and the revenue needed to ensure that the cuts to education, public safety and other vital services are no deeper than they have to be.

SACRAMENTO – Legislation that protects the rights of drivers by regulating “red-light cameras” passed the full State Senate on a bi-partisan unanimous vote of 36-0 in the Senate Bill 29, by State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), would establish statewide standards for the installation and operation of traffic enforcement cameras, and make it easier to challenge unjustified tickets.

(Sacramento) —Senator Alan Lowenthal (D – Long Beach)  along with a coalition of supporters, is urging the California State Senate to pass SB 568,a bill that would require food vendors to provide their food or takeout in a non-expanded polystyrene (a.k.a. Styrofoam™) container after January 1, 2014.

State Senate pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) on Tuesday made opening remarks to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC), as it held an oversight hearing into delays in discipline of teacher misconduct at the State Commission on Teacher Credentialing. 

New governor means new opportunity for bill in response to LPGA’s English-only policy

The California State Senate has approved landmark legislation authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) to prohibit businesses from denying service to a patron because of the language he or she speaks.
Two years ago, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed similar legislation authored by Yee.

Senator Alan Lowenthal (D -Long Beach) has introduced SB 761, which will give consumers a simple, user-friendly mechanism to ‘opt out’ of being tracked online. 

(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Today Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 2X, putting California in the national forefront in its commitment to renewable energy.  The bill authored by State Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) requires private and public utilities to obtain 33% of their electricity from renewable energy resources by 2020, raising the target from the current 20%, while providing the flexibility necessary to meet the higher standard.

Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, along with principal co-authors Assemblyman Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento), Senator Ted Gaines (R-Fair Oaks), and Assemblyman Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) have introduced legislation to prohibit professional sports teams from  entering into a relocation agreement unless that team satisfies any and all financial obligations to the California city from which it moves.

(SACRAMENTO, CA) – State Senator Juan Vargas’ (D-40) Senate Bill 469, the “Small Business and Neighborhood Business Protection Act” passed today (6-3) out of the Senate Governance and Finance Committee at the State Capitol.

(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Senator Fran Pavley’s bill aimed at protecting consumers and business owners from unscrupulous contractors cleared its first hurdle today. SB 454, which will help improve enforcement of and increase compliance with energy efficiency standards for buildings and appliances, passed out of the Senate Energy Utilities and Communications Committee today.