In the News

December 08, 2020

BY ERNESTO FALCON
The California Legislature finished the 2020 session without doing anything to address broadband access in response to the pandemic. While the California Senate sent much-needed legislation to the Assembly, it was not allowed to move forward from there. That meant no help for the more than 1 million students lacking sufficient Internet access to engage in remote education, or for the countless other Californians relying on their home access to engage in remote work. This year, Senator Lena Gonzalez, the original author of EFF’s sponsored legislation S.B. 1130 to convert the California Internet infrastructure program, is back with a new bill to take action this year, after close work with many of her colleagues.

December 06, 2020

Harry Saltzgaver, Executive Editor

State Sen. Lena Gonzalez will introduce a bill Monday in the California Senate to create a way local governments can finance high-speed broadband connectivity to areas where it doesn't exist now.

"The COVID-19 Pandemic has exacerbated the deeply entrenched digital divide, which has left many lower income, Latino, African American, and rural communities without access to high-speed broadband services," said Gonzalez, a Democrat representing the greater Long Beach area, in her fact sheet about the bill.

October 27, 2020

Sacramento, Calif. – Senator Lena A. Gonzalez (D- Long Beach) chair of the Senate Special Committee on Pandemic Emergency Response and Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino) chair of the Senate Education Committee will co-chair a joint oversight hearing on Monday, October 26, 2020 at 1:00pm. This oversight hearing will examine the level and quality of access that students in California have had to distance learning instruction, as well as whether they have had access to fast and reliable internet during the COVID-19 pandemic. Testimony and information on these subjects will be provided by education leaders, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the California Public Utilities Commission and telecommunications stakeholders. Knowledge obtained through this joint oversight hearing will help guide the development of new measures to address internet connectivity and remote instruction inadequacies impacting students all around the state.

October 09, 2020

On Wednesday, the Senate Special Committee on Pandemic Emergency Response convened an oversight hearing on workplace health and safety issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. The hearing featured two panels with the first focused on state activities related to prevention, outbreaks, and enforcement activities from representatives of the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), California Division of Occupational Health and Safety (Cal/OSHA), and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). The second panel featured perspectives from essential workers and employee labor unions.

October 07, 2020

Sacramento, Calif.- Today, Senator Lena A. Gonzalez (D- Long Beach) will chair the first in a series of Senate oversight hearings by the Special Committee on Pandemic Emergency Response since the end of the California legislative session. The oversight hearing will shed light on workplace health and safety issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on sectors with essential workers. The hearing’s findings will be used to help prevent future outbreaks and develop accountability measures for those employers who haven’t followed state public health and safety guidelines during the pandemic.

September 26, 2020

Samuel Garrett-Pate, Equality California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Today, Governor Newsom signed SB 1255 –The Equal Insurance HIV Act by Senator Lena Gonzalez (D- Long Beach) and the Senate Committee on Insurance. The Equal Insurance HIV Act will end the unjust practice of insurance companies discriminating against HIV-positive individuals. For more than thirty years insurers have been allowed to deny life and disability income insurance coverage based solely on a positive HIV test and this bill now signed into law is a significant step forward to reflect the advancements in medical treatments for people living with HIV and to ensure HIV positive individuals and their families have access to life and disability income insurance.

September 24, 2020

By Harry Saltzgaver, Executive Editor  

Lena Gonzalez has had a most unusual welcome to the California state Senate.

Gonzalez jumped from representing the First District on the Long Beach City Council to a state Senate seat in 2019, after Ricardo Lara won election as the state Insurance Commissioner. With support from Lara and her former boss Mayor Robert Garcia (when he was First District councilman), she easily defeated Jack Guerrero, 70%-30%, in the June 4, 2019, special election.

September 08, 2020

Por: Lena A. González / Especial para La Opinón 07 de Septiembre 2020

Nuestro país y nuestro estado siguen en crisis. El impacto de COVID-19 se ha sentido en todas partes: desde nuestros hogares hasta nuestros hospitales, desde nuestras tiendas hasta nuestras escuelas; la vida cotidiana se ha transformado para todos.

September 02, 2020

Lawmakers in California have approved a bill that would prohibit life and disability income insurance providers from denying coverage to HIV-positive individuals. 

The Equal Insurance HIV Act, sponsored by Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), passed the Senate 39-0 after being unanimously by the State Assembly as part of a larger omnibus bill.

August 21, 2020

Khmer Girls in Action, a nonprofit active in the Long Beach Cambodian community for 23 years, has been selected as the 2020 California Nonprofit of the Year by Senator Lena Gonzalez.

“On behalf of our members, alumni, board & staff, Khmer Girls in Action would like to thank Senator Lena Gonzalez for this recognition!” Associate Director and founding member, Sophya Chum, said. “It is an honor to continue to work alongside leaders who advocate for the health and well-being of women, youth and our communities.”