Our society is dominated by artificial scarcity. A housing shortage that’s driven the cost of living through the roof in California. A healthcare shortage of prescription drugs and affordable healthcare bankrupting too many families who fall ill. A clean energy shortage driving up energy costs and threatening our response to climate change.

These shortages reflect choices our leaders have made: choices to tolerate delays, to prioritize process, to allow special interests too much power. To fix them, we need leaders who make different choices.

‍Senator Scott Wiener fought for abundant, affordable homes before that language existed to describe it, and his pioneering housing work forms the blueprint for the Abundance Agenda. His work helped change the national conversation on housing and streamlined tens of thousands of homes across California.

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Scott believes Democrats must focus intensively on making government work to deliver results for Americans. That means reforming broken processes and upgrading our institutions so that when government makes a promise, it can quickly deliver.board of directors of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization.

Timeline of Scott’s Housing Work:

In 2012, Scott fought to streamline overgrown CEQA process preventing housing from being built in San Francisco.
In 2013, Scott became the first San Francisco Supervisor in history to upzone his own district when he authored legislation to allow residents of the Castro and surrounding neighborhoods to build accessory dwelling units (“ADUs” aka in-law units) on their property.
In 2016, Scott ran as a proud YIMBY for California Senate and won.
In 2017, Scott authored and passed SB 35, California’s first major housing streamlining law in decades. It was the first bill he authored as a State Senator.
In 2018, Scott authored and passed SB 828, directing the state to set higher housing production targets based on actual data. These targets are legally binding, and cities are steadily incorporating them into zoning plans across California.
In 2018, Scott authored SB 827, which would have upzoned areas of the state around public transit and job centers. It became a central focus of the Governor’s race before dying in the Legislature.
In 2019, Scott tried again with SB 50, which became a kitchen table topic of discussion across California.
In 2022, Scott authored and passed SB 886 to streamline production of student housing.
In 2023, Scott authored and passed SB 4 to streamline production of housing on land owned by faith institutions.
In 2023, Scott authored and passed SB 423, which strengthened SB 35 streamlining, particularly for mixed-income developments.
Now, Scott is authoring the biggest legislative change to CEQA ever proposed, SB 607, preventing years of paperwork for tens of thousands of potential projects.
Now, Scott is authoring legislation, SB 677, to strengthen our landmark housing streamlining laws to deliver even more homes.
Now, Scott is authoring legislation, SB 79, to finally upzone to allow multifamily homes near major public transportation stops.

Scott has also passed successful laws to produce an abundance of clean energy, public transportation, and healthcare in California:

Clean energy

In 2022, Scott authored and passed SB 379, which streamlined the development of solar by requiring cities to implement app-based immediate permitting for simple solar and storage systems.
In 2018, Scott authored and passed SB 700, which provided rebates to electricity customers for the installation of home and business energy storage systems. At the time, SB 700 was the largest investment in energy storage in California history, and the storage it installed helped prevent rolling blackouts during later climate disasters.
Scott is working right now to streamline heat pump installations across the state.

Transportation

In 2020, Scott authored and passed SB 288 into law, streamlining and exempting from CEQA rapid bus and light rail projects, bicycle and pedestrian projects, and EV charging infrastructure.
In 2022, Scott authored and passed SB 922 to strengthen SB 288.
Scott is now authoring a bill to make this CEQA exemption permanent.
Scott is authoring legislation to expedite permitting for public transportation projects, including High Speed Rail, which often have to seek permits from numerous cities and utilities and thus get slowed down significantly. SB 445 puts an enforceable shot clock on these permits.

Technology

In 2018, Scott authored and passed SB 822, the strongest net neutrality protections in the country. Scott stood up to party leaders and defeated major corporations like AT&T to defend a safe internet accessible to all
Scott is fighting right now to pass legislation to create CalCompute, a public AI research and compute cluster to accelerate responsible AI development.

Healthcare

In 2019, Scott authored and passed SB 159, a first in the nation law that allowed pharmacists to furnish the HIV prevention drug PrEP without a prescription. The law has been replicated in states across the country.

In 2020, Scott authored and passed SB 855, a landmark law requiring health plans to cover mental healthcare on par with medical and surgical care.
Scott is working to deliver lower prescription drug prices by reining in the prescription drug middlemen (PBMs) throttling the industry..
Scott is working to hold health plans accountable for erecting mammoth bureaucracies to support denials of medically necessary healthcare..