Caucus News

Press conference Tuesday, April 3, at 2 p.m. in State Capitol Room 1190

SACRAMENTO –Sens. Ricardo Lara and Holly J. Mitchell will hold a press conference tomorrow to discuss four new bills that reform juvenile and adult criminal sentencing – just months after Gov. Brown signed six major reforms into law.

SACRAMENTO ­– Yesterday afternoon, Governor Jerry Brown announced his appointment of Debbie Lumpkin of Los Angeles, as Deputy Inspector General for Diversity and Small Business Development in the Office of Audits and Investigations, at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). The Office of Audits and Investigation is responsible for services that assist management in accomplishing Caltrans’ objectives, setting priorities and improving accountability.

San Francisco –  Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) released the following statement after a developer announced they will invoke SB 35, a streamlining bill authored by Senator Wiener, and in doing so create 2400 units – including 1200 units of affordable housing – in Cupertino. The project is located at the Vallco shopping center, where a developer has been blocked for years from moving a mixed-use project forward. A previous iteration of the project proposed only 800 housing units, which means SB 35 is leading to triple the number of housing units in Cupertino.

SACRAMENTO –Senate President pro Tempore Emeritus Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) released the following statement today on the heels of a vote by the Orange County Board of Supervisors to join the Trump Administration’s lawsuit to dismantle the California Values Act: 

“The county that gave us Prop 187 more than two decades ago is at it again with another unconstitutional attack on our immigrant communities.  I am confident the courts will reject this challenge to SB 54, just as they roundly rejected Prop 187. 

SACRAMENTO –Senate President pro Tempore Emeritus Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) released the following statement today on the heels of a vote by the Orange County Board of Supervisors to join the Trump Administration’s lawsuit to dismantle the California Values Act: 

“The county that gave us Prop 187 more than two decades ago is at it again with another unconstitutional attack on our immigrant communities.  I am confident the courts will reject this challenge to SB 54, just as they roundly rejected Prop 187. 

Eureka, CA – Senator Mike McGuire and Humboldt County Supervisor Virginia Bass are bringing together an impressive group of statewide experts, health professionals, local leaders and addiction specialists to hear about progress being made to combat the ongoing opioid crisis on the North Coast.

SACRAMENTO—Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins and Senator Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), chair of the Senate Select Committee on the Census, issued the following statement in response to the Trump administration’s decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 United States Census:

“The Trump administration’s decision to ask residents about citizenship in the 2020 Census will make that census less accurate, result in federal funding cuts to services for Californians and inequitable electoral representation for a decade.”

SACRAMENTO—Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins and Senator Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), chair of the Senate Select Committee on the Census, issued the following statement in response to the Trump administration’s decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 United States Census:

“The Trump administration’s decision to ask residents about citizenship in the 2020 Census will make that census less accurate, result in federal funding cuts to services for Californians and inequitable electoral representation for a decade.”

Reflecting a recently released study in the American Journal of Public Health on the history of forced sterilizations in California and the disproportionate impact on women and Latinas, Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) has introduced legislation that would fund a state program to compensate survivors who were involuntarily sterilized during their institutionalization at a state mental hospital.

Sacramento, California – On March 20, 2018, Senator Portantino, D – La Cañada Flintridge, directed a letter to the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District urging them to not support the Cadiz Water Project. Senator Portantino believes that the district should not invest in an environmentally insensitive groundwater mining project.