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Let's start the New Year strong! Join us as we take a look back at 2024, explore my 2025 bills, and learn about new laws, key deadlines, and upcoming Capitol events.
A Look Back at 2024
In 2024 my office resolved over 400 constituent cases, covering a variety of issues such as unemployment and disability insurance, concerns with driver’s licenses and more.
The district team also organized mobile community office hours, engaging town halls and bustling resource fairs. Signature events included celebrations of Black History Month, Earth Month, Women’s History Month, and Pride, each fostering a strong sense of community.
In addition, I helped secure critical funds in the 2024-25 state budget to protect California's progress including:
- Over $260M for Seniors, Children, and Disabled Programs: Extends CalFresh and SUN Bucks benefits to help families buy fruits, vegetables, and access meals during summer break. Funds a guaranteed income pilot for seniors and assists disabled individuals in accessing benefits and housing support.
- $370M for Good-Paying Jobs and Opportunities: Strengthens the healthcare workforce with expanded nursing programs. Maintains funds for the first goods movement training campus in the nation, which is located in the district’s ports complex. Preserves investments for the California Jobs First initiative to create more jobs, faster and for new and innovative apprenticeship programs.
- Over $1.25B to Address Housing and Homelessness: Delivers support for local governments to address homelessness, fund affordable housing projects, assist encampment residents in finding stable housing, and provide up to six months of rent relief.
- $6.1B for Child Care Programs: Creates thousands of new state subsidized childcare slots, includes funding for state childcare programs, and adds a $9 million one-time increase for diaper and wipe distribution to low-income families.
- $130B Investment for K-12: Enhances support for k-12 core programs such as special education, transitional kindergarten, and nutrition.
- $161B Investment in Healthcare Coverage: Maintains Medi-Cal for adults aged 26-49 regardless of immigration status, enhances sexual and reproductive health services. Introduces wellness coaches in schools and Medi-Cal’s behavioral health system for youth support.
Make sure to watch our end of year recap video, here.
New Laws That Took Effect January 1st
Addressing Retail Theft - Building on the state’s robust laws and record public safety funding, these bipartisan bills establish tough new penalties for repeat offenders, provide additional tools for felony prosecutions, and crack down on serial shoplifters, retail thieves, and auto burglars.
Preventing Gas Price Spikes - The legislation ABX2-1 allows the state to require oil refiners to maintain a minimum inventory of fuel to avoid supply shortages that create higher gasoline prices for consumers and higher profits for the industry. It also authorizes the California Energy Commission to require refiners to plan for resupply during refiner maintenance outages. A signing message can be found here.
Enhancing Family Planning Accessibility - Increases access to essential family planning services (including contraception, pregnancy testing and sterilization, as well as sexually transmitted infection testing) for low-income Californians across the state.
Long Beach Oil Cleanup Fund - Requires California to save more each month to responsibly reduce its share of costs for closing and cleaning up Long Beach's long-running oil operations.
My Next Legislative Package
At the Capitol, the deadline to introduce new legislation is February 21 this year. My team and I are hard at work crafting my next legislative package and so far, it includes two bills aimed at supporting and protecting immigrant families.
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SB 12 – California Immigrant and Refugee Affairs Agency
Introduced
Senate Bill (SB) 12 will establish a permanent, central coordinating agency focused on streamlining services, creating grant programs, engaging stakeholders and more to enhance support for immigrant and refugee families in California.
SB 12 Bill Language
SB 12 Fact Sheet - SB 48 – Safe Access to Schools
Introduced
Senate Bill (SB) 48 will protect students and families, maintaining schools as spaces where everyone has the right to an education. Specifically, the bill aims to keep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents off California campuses by establishing a one-mile radius safe zone around schools, as well as safeguarding against the use of school data for deportation efforts.
SB 48 Bill Language
SB 48 Fact Sheet
Stay Informed: Key Legislative Deadlines and California Senate Updates
On the California Senate Website you can find information regarding your Senator and Senate district, the Senate’s ongoing work, and how you can participate in the legislative process. Below are some key links to help you stay in the know.
Senate Events Calendar (to livestream events)
Stay engaged by watching committee hearings and Senate floor session virtually. Events can be found on the Senate Events Calendar, and are often highlighted on the home page of the California Senate Website as well.
The Daily File is the agenda for the Senate. It contains information such as committee hearing notices and measures eligible for floor actions.
This is a video archive of Senate Floor Sessions and Senate Committee Hearings that have been televised as of September 27th, 2005. You can use the “Search” field by entering in key words such as “floor” for a Floor Session or “budget” for the Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, and it will give you a list of all videos with those key words within the title. You can also narrow your search to a specific date range using the date fields.
Committee information available online includes committee membership, staff, addresses, phone numbers, meeting schedules, and policy jurisdictions. For more information on the Committee Process, you may visit the Legislative Process page.