SACRAMENTO - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)’s Senate Bill 836 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 10-0. It will now be heard by the full Senate. This legislation will extend the safeguards from SB 785 (Wiener, 2018), which protected a person’s immigration status in a public court record, unless the presiding judge determined that immigration status was relevant information. This legislation had a sunset date of January 1, 2022, so it has now expired.
Press Releases
SACRAMENTO - Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)’s Senate Bill 922 passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee by a vote of 4-0 (final vote count is still pending). It will now head to the Senate Appropriations Committee. SB 922 extends and improves upon his previous legislation (SB 288, 2020) to expedite bike, pedestrian, light rail, and bus rapid transit projects by exempting these environmentally sustainable projects from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
SACRAMENTO - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) issued the following statement opposing Assembly Bill 2179, which partially extends California’s COVID-19 eviction protections and rent relief program and which preempts local eviction moratoria in some cities (including San Francisco and 70% of Los Angeles County) but not others:
SACRAMENTO - Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)’s Senate Bill 1106, the Fresh Start Act, passed the Senate Public Safety Committee by a vote of 4-1. It will now be heard by the full Senate. SB 1106 helps people clear their criminal records by ensuring outstanding restitution and restitution fines are not a barrier to expungement. Currently, people across California are frequently denied record sealing and expungement because they are poor and cannot afford to pay outstanding restitution and restitution fines.
SACRAMENTO – Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 1336, which establishes a carryforward tax credit for commercial cannabis retailers. Due to the high taxes levied on the legal sale of cannabis, commercial prices often cannot compete with the illicit market, leading recreational users and patients alike to purchase unregulated products and leaving small, legal businesses to suffer.
SACRAMENTO - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) has introduced Senate Bill 1144, the Safe and Efficient Water Act. SB 1144 requires public schools and state agencies to complete a water quality and efficiency assessment on their facilities. This bill ensures our public schools and state agencies have safe, drinkable water. Far too many school children and other California residents currently lack access to clean water.
SACRAMENTO - Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) released the following statement on the California Supreme Court ruling that UC Berkeley must freeze its enrollment to 2020 levels, effectively requiring them to rescind 5,000 potential offers:
“It’s tragic that California allows courts and environmental laws to determine how many students UC Berkeley and other public colleges can educate. This ruling directly harms thousands of young people and robs them of so many opportunities. We must never allow this to happen again. We must change the law. And we will.”
SACRAMENTO - Senator Scott Wiener released the following statement after Governor Greg Abbott of Texas announced that he would direct child protective services to investigate parents of trans kids for prosecution:
SACRAMENTO - Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 1106, the Fresh Start Act, which helps people clear their criminal records by ensuring outstanding restitution and restitution fines are not a barrier to expungement. Currently, people across California are frequently denied record sealing and expungement because they are poor and cannot afford to pay outstanding restitution and restitution fines. Restitution debt is often the only thing holding someone back from clearing their record and finding a job and housing.