Oversight in Prop 64 has led to taxes that are crippling programs that provide free medical cannabis to financially disadvantaged people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, and other life-threatening conditions
June 11, 2019
Sacramento – Today, Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) bill to exempt compassionate care programs, in partnership with licensed retailers, from paying state commercial cannabis taxes when they are providing free medical cannabis to financially disadvantaged people living with serious health conditions passed the Assembly Business and Professions Committee with a 16-0 vote. It will now head to the Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation for a hearing in the coming weeks. This bill is modeled off of Senator Wiener’s SB 829, which was vetoed by Governor Brown last year.
Senate Bill 233 prohibits the arrest of people involved in sex work when they come forward as a witness or victim of specified violent and serious crimes, as well as prohibiting use of condoms as evidence of sex work.
June 11, 2019
San Francisco – Today, Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) legislation to protect sex workers from arrest for sex work after they report a serious and violent crime, such as rape, passed out of the Assembly Committee on Public Safety with a unanimous 8-0 vote. It will now head to the Assembly floor where it will be voted on in the coming weeks.
In 2018, Senator Wiener authored SB 1045 to give San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego Counties additional tools to conserve individuals suffering from severe mental health and substance abuse issues
June 4, 2019
Sacramento– Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) issued the following statement upon the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ vote to implement Senator Wiener’s Senate Bill 1045, which he authored in 2018. SB 1045 allows San Francisco to conserve people on our streets who are suffering from severe mental illness and addiction and who are not capable of accepting voluntary services. This year, Senator Wiener is authoring SB 40 to ensure that SB 1045 can be effectively implemented.
SB 136 repeals a commonly used and expensive one-year sentence enhancement that is added to each prior prison or felony jail term that an individual has served
May 28, 2019
Sacramento – Today, Senator Scott Wiener’s (D- San Francisco) legislation to repeal a one-year sentence enhancement that is added to an individual’s base sentence for each prior prison or felony jail term served passed the Senate with a 21-11 vote. SB 136 will now head to the Assembly for committee hearings in the coming weeks.
Sponsored by Equality California and the Los Angeles District Attorney, SB 145 puts a stop to LGBTQ youth going on the sex offender registry, when similarly situated straight youth do not.
May 28, 2019
Sacramento– Today, Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) Senate Bill 145, which ends blatant discrimination against LGBTQ youth regarding California’s sex offender registry, passed the Senate on a 24-2 vote. It now heads to the Assembly for committee hearings in the coming weeks.
SB 69 will help improve ocean water quality, restore habitats that sequester greenhouse gas emissions, and protect keystone species.
May 23, 2019
Sacramento– Today, Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) Senate Bill 69, the Ocean Resiliency Act of 2019, which aims to improve and protect the health of the Pacific Ocean off of California’s coastline passed the Senate with a 27-6 vote. It will now head to the Assembly for committee hearings in the coming weeks. SB 69 will restore ocean habitats, such as coastal wetlands, that sequester greenhouse gas emissions; protect keystone species in order to maintain biodiversity; and safeguard the streams and rivers.
SB 132 protects transgender people from the violence that frequently arises from being housed in prison according to their birth-assigned gender instead of their actual gender identity
May 23, 2019
Sacramento– Today, the Senate passed Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) legislation requiring that incarcerated transgender individuals in the custody of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) be classified and housed based on their gender identity - absent specific security concerns - on a 29-6 vote. It will now head to the Assembly for committee hearings in the coming weeks. When transgender people are housed according to their birth-assigned gender, which is currently the typical practice, they are at heightened risk of violence, including sexual violence.
SB 127 will require Caltrans to make roads safer for people walking, bicycling, or using transit when repairing or upgrading state-owned roadways in urbanized areas
May 23, 2019
San Francisco – Today, Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) Senate Bill 127, which will prioritize the creation of ‘complete streets,’ including safer and better designed sidewalks, bikeways, and crosswalks, on state highways that run through cities, towns, and neighborhoods passed out the Senate with a 28-9 bipartisan vote. It will now head to the Assembly for committee hearings in the coming months.
Sacramento– Today Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) made the following statement on the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) seeking to allow taxpayer-funded shelters to discriminate against and turn away transgender homeless individuals:
“Transgender people are at significant risk of homelessness. They deserve to be able to access shelter. It’s despicable to claim tax-funded shelters can turn them away. People are entitled to their religious beliefs. They are not entitled to discriminate, especially with taxpayer funds.”
SB 285 Streamlines CalFresh enrollment by setting clear and accountable statewide enrollment goals, improving ease of access to enrollment for eligible Californians, and eliminating questions deemed unnecessary and that only create obstacles in the enroll
May 22, 2019
Sacramento– This week, Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) legislation to reduce food insecurity passed the Senate with a 38-0 bipartisan vote. It will now head to the Assembly for committee hearings in the coming weeks. SB 285 streamlines CalFresh enrollment by setting clear and accountable statewide enrollment goals, improving ease of access to enrollment for eligible Californians. Over 4.1 million low-income households in California are currently food insecure, and California is among the lowest-performing states to connect households to federal food assistance.
