Senator Scott Wiener

SACRAMENTO – Senator Scott Wiener (D- San Francisco) will announce landmark mental health legislation today to require insurance companies to cover all medically necessary mental health care and substance use disorder treatments, not just emergency crisis care treatment. SB 855 is part of a growing movement to reverse the stigmatization of mental illness and addiction.

Sacramento – Today, Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) legislation to hold PG&E and other utilities accountable for mass blackouts and their impacts passed out of the Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee by a vote of 10-1. It will now head to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

SACRAMENTO - Senator Scott Wiener (D- San Francisco) introduced a bill today that would require state agencies to establish and implement a master plan to end new infections of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The diseases disproportionately impact gay and bisexual men, African American men, and young people ages 15-24. Though many effective preventative and treatment tools exist today, these epidemics still persist.

San Francisco – Today, the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to endorse Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) Senate Bill 50. SB 50 eliminates hyper-low-density zoning near transit and job centers, thus legalizing apartment buildings and affordable housing in these locations so that more people can live near transit and near where they work. It also reduces or eliminates minimum parking requirements for new developments. California has a 3.5 million home deficit, equal to the housing deficit of the other 49 states combined.

San Francisco –  Today, San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, and Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín announced their support for Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) Senate Bill 378. SB 378 puts in place reasonable, commonsense mechanisms to ensure that utilities are pursuing planned blackouts with adequate prudence, that utilities aren’t knee-jerk shutting off power to eliminate liability risk, and that the negative consequences of blackouts on local communities are minimized. 

Sacramento –  Today, Senators Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) and Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) legislation to repeal article 34 of the California Constitution passed the Senate with a unanimous vote. It now heads to the Assembly for a vote. SCA 1 is sponsored by Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City of Los Angeles. Added by the voters in 1950, Article 34 of the California Constitution requires cities to submit projects to a voter referendum when public funds are allocated to developing low-income rental housing. No other type of housing is subjected to this requirement.

Sacramento–  Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblymember Todd Gloria’s (D-San Diego) legislation to reduce barriers to accessing HIV preventative medications passed the Assembly with a 65-0 vote. It now heads back to the Senate floor for final sign-off. SB 159 authorizes pharmacists to furnish pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to patients without a physician prescription.

Sacramento –  Today, Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) legislation  to exempt compassionate care programs from state cannabis taxes when they are providing free medical cannabis to people living with serious health conditions passed the Assembly with a 71-0 vote. It now heads back to the Senate for a concurrence vote in the next week. This bill is modeled off of Senator Wiener’s SB 829, which was vetoed by Governor Brown last year.

Sacramento –  Today, Senator Scott Wiener’s (D- San Francisco) legislation to repeal a one-year sentence enhancement that is added to an individual’s base sentence for each prior prison or felony jail term served passed the Assembly with a 41-34 vote. SB 136 is a key driver of mass incarceration in California, given that 11,000 state prison sentences have the enhancement, in addition to an unknown number of county jail sentences. SB 136 now heads back to the Senate floor for a concurrence