Senator Josh Becker

Senator Josh Becker announced legislation today to expand employee ownership of businesses in California by providing education, technical assistance and other supportive resources for enterprises making the transition. Senate Bill 1407, the Expanding Employee Ownership Act, reduces the barriers for businesses seeking to transition to employee ownership and worker-led models, such as employee stock ownership plans, known as ESOPs, and worker cooperatives, or co-ops.

Senator Josh Becker announced a bill today to eliminate all telecommunication fees in California’s county jails and state prisons, a change that would rid incarcerated people and their families of the financial burden that results from connecting by phone, electronic messaging or video calling systems in state and local lockups. “Staying connected with family and friends is integral to the mental health and well-being of all people, but especially incarcerated Californians,” said Senator Becker, D-Peninsula, the author of Senate Bill 1008, the Keep Families Connected Act.

Senator Josh Becker announced a bill today to help unlock funding for affordable housing creation by eliminating onerous misdirected penalties against affordable housing developers in cities and counties that have not complied with state law requiring local governments to have adequate plans to meet housing needs.“We should not punish affordable housing developers who did nothing wrong,” said Senator Becker, D-Peninsula. “There are many penalties on the books right now for cities and counties with noncompliant housing elements.

Senator Josh Becker announced legislation today to establish the Minor League Baseball Players’ Bill of Rights, which would modernize decades’ old and scathingly criticized work conditions for Minor Leaguers. “Baseball is called America’s pastime and Minor Leaguers are just asking for what every American worker wants,” said Senator Becker, D-Peninsula. “These players are asking for fair treatment and the opportunity to make a decent living under decent conditions.

State Senator Josh Becker’s bill to grant the San Mateo County Community College District more flexibility to help students in need cover college costs – including the authority to make their tuition free – cleared its first legislative hurdle today. The Senate Education Committee passed Senate Bill 893 with a bipartisan 6-0 vote, which sends the legislation to the Senate Appropriations Committee for consideration.

Senator Josh Becker announced legislation today to provide stronger privacy protections for Californians from data brokers who harvest and traffic our personal information, largely without our knowledge. Senate Bill 1059 sets stricter annual registration and reporting requirements for data brokers and toughens the penalties for data traffickers who do not comply with the law, including those that do not disclose and detail data breaches, or fail to report they collect information on minors.

SACRAMENTO – State Senator Josh Becker has named tenants’ rights and affordable housing advocate Emily Ann Ramos, a Mountain View resident, the 2022 Woman of the Year for the 13th Senate District.
To mark Women’s History Month and just one day before International Women’s Day, Senator Becker honored Ms. Ramos in a surprise presentation Monday [March 7] during a virtual staff meeting held by Silicon Valley at Home, better known as SV@Home, where Ms. Ramos works as the organization’s Preservation and Protection Associate.

In an effort to repurpose the multimillion dollars’ worth of surplus medications that are discarded in California each year, Senator Josh Becker announced legislation today to make it easier for county health systems to operate pharmacies that can fill prescriptions for indigent patients at no cost by using surplus medications that would otherwise go waste.

Senator Josh Becker announced legislation today to extend California’s Universal Meals funding – which will soon make free breakfast and lunch available to all public school students – to state-licensed daycare providers so they also can provide free meals to children who are too young to attend school. “California’s youngest children cannot be left out of our state’s groundbreaking meals policy to tackle food insecurity among learners,” he said.

Senator Josh Becker introduced SB 948 today to substantially reduce costs for affordable housing projects in the state by enabling affordable housing developers to make the best use of limited financial resources. “We must do everything in our power to address the affordable housing crisis in our communities, including coming up with creative ways to free up existing resources to build more affordable homes,” he said.