Sacramento, Calif. – Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) released the following statement regarding The Fossil Fuel Divestment Act (SB 252) becoming a two-year bill...
Sacramento, Calif. – Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) released the following statement on the 2023-24 state budget proposal released by Governor Gavin Newsom today..
Sacramento, Calif. – On Monday, July 10, 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that will enhance California’s job training pipeline, community benefits, and jobs standards in state and federal infrastructure programs. The Governor was joined by the joint authors of Senate Bill (SB) 150: Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), Senator Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), Senator Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles), and Assemblymember Luz Rivas (D-San Fernando Valley)...
Sacramento – California Senators Durazo (SD 26), Smallwood-Cuevas (SD 28), Gonzalez (SD 33), and Cortese (SD 15), and Assembly Member Luz Rivas (AD 43) introduced Senate Bill 150 to enhance California’s training pipeline, community benefits, and quality jobs standards for billions of dollars of federal infrastructure construction and manufacturing investments.
Sacramento, Calif. – On May 18, 2023, Senator Lena Gonzalez’s (D-Long Beach) SB 556, The Oil and Gas Pollution Accountability Act, to hold oil and gas companies accountable for the health harms they cause in communities, was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee, meaning the bill will not be advancing through the legislative process this year. Under SB 556, oil and gas companies would have been presumptively liable for causing cancer, asthma, preterm and high-risk births for people living within 3,200 feet of an oil well.
Sacramento, Calif. – On April 19, 2023, Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) legislative colleagues, unions, workers, public health advocates, and community members came together to champion SB 616 Paid Sick Days for All Working Californians ahead of the bill’s hearing in the Senate Labor, Public Employment & Retirement Committee. In 2014 legislation was enacted to require employers to provide three paid sick days to employees who work 30 or more days within a year from the commencement of employment. SB 616 would increase the amount of paid sick leave required even further, from three days to seven. The bill passed the committee with a 4-1 vote.
Sacramento, Calif. – On February 16, 2023, Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) introduced Senate Bill 674 The Refinery Air Pollution Transparency and Reduction Act, to strengthen the state’s refinery fence-line monitoring program. The bill would help protect the health of communities living near refineries by establishing standard fence-line air monitoring requirements, including quarterly emissions reports and root cause analyses of any threshold exceedances. SB 674 would also expand the definition of refineries to include biofuel refineries and auxiliary facilities.
Sacramento, Calif. – Today, February 15, 2023, Senator Lena A. Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) was joined by the California Labor Federation in announcing Senate Bill 616 which would expand California’s landmark paid sick leave law to ensure all working Californians in the public and private sector can use seven days of paid sick leave each year.
