Housing

Scott is a nationally recognized leader on progressive housing policy. Scott has been willing to challenge our broken housing status quo and take on politically controversial but needed proposals to make housing more abundant and affordable. As Chair of the Senate Housing Committee, Scott has tackled California’s housing crisis head-on and passed groundbreaking legislation to accelerate the approval of new homes and legalize apartment buildings and affordable housing in many parts of California where only single family homes were allowed. Thanks to Scott’s legislation in this area, thousands of affordable homes have been approved in San Francisco in the past few years, and even more are on the way. Scott will continue to help lead the conversation on housing and bring progressive, transformative legislation to the table to fix our state’s housing crisis.

Legislation

• SB 35 (Author: Wiener), SB 423 (Author: Wiener), SB 828 (Author: Wiener), and SB 765 (Author: Wiener): Streamlining and expediting housing approvals, including affordable housing, and ensuring strong housing goals that actually meet our state’s housing needs. Scott authored these three housing bills to expedite housing approvals and ensure that all communities are building housing. SB 35, SB 423 and SB 765 streamline housing approvals in communities that aren’t meeting their housing goals, and SB 828 requires reality-based housing goals based on anticipated future needs. In combination, these laws are doing two things: first, they are streamlining a large amount of subsidized affordable housing for low-income people, both in cities and suburbs. (San Francisco, in particular, is aggressively using this legislation to streamline a large amount of affordable housing). Second, these laws are forcing some of the most exclusionary suburbs in the state, such as Cupertino, to allow significant new housing.
• SB 4 (Author: Wiener): Yes in God’s Backyard. SB 4 makes it easier for faith institutions and nonprofit colleges to build affordable housing. The law permits affordable housing for lower-income families on excess land regardless of local zoning restrictions.
• SB 10 (Author: Wiener): Allows local governments a streamlined path to zone infill neighborhoods for gentle, missing middle density — up to ten units per parcel — if they choose.
• SB 886 (Author: Wiener): The Student and Faculty Housing Act. SB 886 streamlines and accelerates student and faculty housing production for public universities across the state and increases the supply of housing so more students and faculty can live on campus.
• SB 234 (Author: Wiener; bill adopted as part of the budget): Creates a $100 million forgivable loan program to fund new housing, or acquire existing housing, for transition age youth between ages 16 and 26.
• SB 593 (Author: Wiener): Removes barriers to replacing more than 5,800 units of low- and moderate-income housing in San Francisco that were demolished in the 1950s-70s period of redevelopment, also known as “urban renewal.”
• SCA 1 (Authors: Allen/Wiener): SCA 1 repeals Article 34 of the Constitution, a racist provision passed in 1950 that requires all publicly funded housing to be approved on the ballot. No other type of housing is subject to this requirement, and the purpose of Article 34 is to make it hard or impossible to place low-income housing in majority white communities. We need more housing of all varieties in California — including publicly funded housing — and this constitutional amendment will help. The amendment will appear on the November 2024 ballot.
• SB 50 (Author: Wiener; bill failed): SB 50 overrides exclusionary low-density zoning by legalizing apartment buildings and affordable housing near public transportation and near job centers. SB 50 will help remedy the effects of low-density zoning, which has exacerbated income and racial segregation. It will help California reduce its 3.5 million home shortage, allow affordable housing to be built in many more parts of California, and address the impacts of climate change by allowing more people to live near transit and near where they work, thus reducing commutes and greenhouse gas emissions.
• SB 48 (Author: Wiener; bill adopted as part of the budget): SB 48 streamlines approval of navigation centers, so that the obstruction we saw at the Embarcadero never happens again. Under SB 48, these critical homeless-serving facilities, which help people transition off the streets, will be easier and faster to get approved and implemented.
• SB 918 (Author: Wiener): Homeless Youth Act. Scott partnered with Larkin Street Youth Services and other homeless youth advocates to pass SB 918, which sets up a structure to ensure the state focuses on the unique needs of homeless youth. Two-thirds of California counties have no youth-specific homeless programs, and SB 918 will help fix that problem. In connection with this legislation, we’ve obtained tens of millions in state funding specific for homeless youth.
• AB 1436 (Author: Chiu; co-author: Wiener): Eviction moratorium legislation for those impacted by COVID-19. The bill would prohibit a landlord from charging a tenant, or attempting to collect from a tenant, fees for a late payment of COVID-19 rental debt.
• AB 1482 (Author: Chiu; co-author: Wiener): Statewide rent cap and just cause eviction requirements. Scott co-authored this important tenant-protection legislation, which caps annual rent increases at 5% (plus the rate of inflation) for most of California’s housing supply, and which is the most aggressive in the country.
• SB 329 (Author: Mitchell; co-author: Wiener): Banning discrimination by landlords against Section 8 voucher holders. SB 329 finally aligns California with other states by prohibiting landlords from refusing to rent to Section 8 voucher holders. Low-income residents who receive housing assistance need housing, and SB 329 will help.
• SB 2 (Author: Atkins; co-author: Wiener): Permanent source of funding for affordable housing. SB 2 imposes a recording fee on certain real estate transactions, with funds dedicated to affordable housing. SB 2 will generate billions in new state funding for affordable housing.
• SB 3 (Author: Beall; co-author Wiener): Affordable housing bond. SB 3 placed a $3 billion bond on the ballot, which voters subsequently passed, for affordable housing construction and preservation.
• SB 1206 (Author: de Leon): Homeless housing bond. SB 1206 placed a bond on the ballot, which the voters subsequently passed, to significantly expand available funds for housing for homeless residents.

Mental Health & Addiction

Whether or not we personally suffer from challenges with mental health and addiction, we are all impacted by these crises. Mental health crises spiked during the pandemic and have continued to affect our community, and we’ve seen a record high of fatal overdoses with no end in sight. As Chair of the Senate Mental Health Caucus and the Senate Select Committee on Mental Health and Addiction, Scott has worked tirelessly to pass groundbreaking mental health and addiction laws. From the mental health parity law he authored – ensuring mental health is covered to the same extent as physical health – to advancing access to medical cannabis, to advancing the first-ever California legislation to decriminalize psychedelics all the way to the Governor’s desk, Scott isn’t afraid to take bold action. That’s why the California Marriage and Family Therapists recognized him as the 2020 Legislator of the Year.

Legislation

• SB 855 and SB 225 (Author: Wiener): This legislation makes California a national leader in mental health and addiction treatment coverage. It’s part of a growing movement to reverse the stigmatization of mental illness and addiction. SB 855 dramatically expands access to mental health and addiction care by requiring insurance companies to cover all medically necessary care, not just crisis care. Currently, insurance companies all too often deny coverage for mental health care before someone is in crisis. But we need to help people before they’re in crisis, and SB 855 will make that possible for millions of Californians. SB 225 requires providers to offer this coverage in a timely manner.
• SB 858 (Author: Wiener): Updates and increases penalties for health plans that violate state law in denying or delaying insurance coverage.
• SB 859 (Author: Wiener): Ending the epidemics. Requires California Health and Human Services, in coordination with the Chief of the Office of AIDS (OA), to establish and implement a Master Plan to get to zero new HIV, HPV, and STI infections.
• SB 1004 (Author: Wiener): Expanding mental health resources for young people. Most mental health issues manifest during teenage or college years, yet we do very little to intervene early and prevent these problems from spiraling into major mental health crisis and chronic homelessness. SB 1004 ensures that state funding from the millionaire tax focuses on intervening early and preventing major mental health issues among young people.
• SB 1045/SB 40 (Author: Wiener): These two pieces of legislation create a new conservatorship tool to help the most debilitated people on our streets get the help they need: people with severe mental health and addiction issues who are dying and who are incapable of accepting voluntary services. It’s inhumane to allow these residents to unravel and ultimately die on our streets. These two laws, in combination, will allow San Francisco’s Department of Public Health to place these individuals in crisis into a six month conservatorship in order to get them the help they need, get them healthy, and eventually transition them into permanent housing. The Mayor and Board of Supervisors are currently implementing this state law.
• SB 238 (Author: Wiener; bill pending): Youth Mental Health Access Act. SB 238 removes barriers to youth accessing mental health treatments by requiring that any private insurance treatment denials be automatically referred to the state’s existing Independent Medical Review process.
• SB 513 (Author: Wiener; bill pending): Reducing Recidivism Through Therapy Act — Rehabilitates California’s incarcerated population and reduces California’s high recidivism rate by providing access to therapy to all incarcerated Californians.
• SB 57 (Authors: Wiener; bill vetoed): Safe consumption sites. SB 57 allows San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles to pilot safe consumption site programs. These sites are supervised facilities, with healthcare professionals, where people who are addicted can consume their drugs under supervision in a safe and healthy setting. These sites have been wildly successful where they’ve been implemented in New York CIty, Canada, Australia, and Europe. The results speak for themselves: a majority of individuals ultimately transition into recovery, infections go down, overdoses drop (there’s never been a fatal overdose in one of these sites), crime goes down in the surrounding area, and syringe litter decreases.
• SB 888 and SB 110 (Author: Wiener; bill failed, but State is now pursuing implementation): Substance use disorder services. Allows for expansion of contingency management as a tool of mental health and substance use care.
• Budget Allocation (Authors: Wiener/Ting): Peer Run Warm Line. Scott and Assemblymember Phil Ting obtained robust funding for this hotline where people experiencing mental health challenges can speak with a peer — someone who has also experienced mental health challenges — to get help. We need to stop pushing people into ERs when there are other options, and the Warm Line will help.

LGBTQ Rights

As a gay man who came of age during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis in 1987, Scott Wiener has fought for the LGTBQ community his entire adult life. From playing a key role building the San Francisco LGBTQ Community Center, to serving on boards of local and national LGBTQ organizations, to chairing the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, to passing groundbreaking LGBTQ civil rights legislation to decriminalize HIV, protect LGBTQ youth and seniors, expand healthcare access for transgender people, stop the targeting of sex workers, and ensure California does not honor or enforce anti-LGBTQ hate laws, Scott is an unabashed champion for the LGTBQ community.

Legislation

• SB 407 (Author: Wiener): Requires the Department of Social Services to take additional steps to ensure foster families are affirming to LGBTQ youth.
• SB 107 (Author: Wiener): Provides refuge for trans kids and their families in California so they can avoid criminal prosecution for seeking or allowing gender-affirming care in states like Texas.
• SB 339 (Author: Wiener; pending) - Increases access to the HIV prevention drug PrEP by resolving issues in the implementation of SB 159 (Wiener, 2019), which allowed pharmacists to furnish a limited supply of PrEP without a prescription.
• SB 932 (Author: Wiener): Requires state to collect data on sexual orientation and gender identity for COVID-19 and all reportable communicable diseases, to ensure the LGBTQ community isn’t left out of our healthcare system. This was signed into law in 2020.
• SB 384 (Author: Wiener) and SB 145 (Author: Wiener): SB 384, signed into law in 2017, dramatically reforms California’s broken sex offender registry, which does little to separate LGBTQ sexual acts from actual sex crimes. The registry has long required all convicted sex offenders, including those who committed minor offenses, such as gay men arrested for having sex in the park, to remain on the registry for life. As a result, 1 in 400 Californians is on the sex offender registry, rendering it useless for law enforcement in terms of tracking people who actually present a risk to the community. Moreover, people’s lives have been destroyed due to an inability to get off of the registry after even a minor offense. SB 384 allows sex offenders who aren’t violent predators to petition to be removed from the registry after a period of time in which the person hasn’t reoffended. SB 145, which was signed into law in 2020, reduces discrimination against LGBTQ young people on the registry.
• SB 219 (Author: Wiener): LGBTQ Senior Bill of Rights in long-term care facilities. SB 219 protects LGBTQ seniors living in long-term care facilities. Our seniors face significant discrimination in long-term care. Some are forced back into the closet, some are separated from their partners, and some trans seniors are forced to conform to their birth-assigned gender. LGBTQ seniors are less likely than other seniors to have adult children to advocate for them, and they need legal protection. SB 219 seeks to end this discrimination by mandating specific standards for how these facilities treat LGBTQ seniors.
• SB 357 (Author: Wiener): Safer Streets for All Act – Repeals discriminatory loitering law that targets sex workers and trans women of color.
• SB 179 (Authors: Atkins/Wiener): Allowing non-binary gender markers on government documents. Scott joint-authored SB 179 with Senator Toni Atkins. It streamlines the ability of people to administratively (i.e., without going to court) correct their gender marker on drivers licenses and other government documents and allows, for the first time, people to identify as non-binary on these documents.
• SB 132 (Author: Wiener): Protecting trans incarcerated people. SB 132 ensures that trans people who are in state prison can choose to be housed according to their gender identity, instead of being forced to be housed according to their birth-assigned gender. It also ensures that trans people in prison are treated with respect, including being able to use chosen names and pronouns. Scott introduced the bill in 2019, and spent time over the past year in state prisons meeting with trans people to ensure they have full feedback from the impacted community. This was signed into law in 2020.
• AB 1493 (Author: Gloria; co-author: Wiener): Teacher training. Requires all teachers in California to be trained around LGBTQ cultural competency. Scott is a co-author of this legislation, which passed in 2019 and which will be augmented with new legislation in 2020.

Environment

Climate change is an existential threat to our planet, and Scott has been a climate hawk in the Senate since the day he took office. He supports the Green New Deal and has advocated throughout his career for better public transportation and denser housing near jobs and transit to minimize our carbon footprint. Last year he authored and passed laws to make rooftop solar more accessible and streamline approvals of green transportation projects. In 2023, his first-in-the-nation legislation to hold corporations accountable for their carbon emissions, SB 253, was signed into law.

Legislation

• SB 253 (Author: Wiener): The Corporate Climate Data Accountability Act. SB 253 is a first-in-the-nation measure requiring large companies operating in California to report their greenhouse gas emissions to the public. This bill will ensure corporate transparency and open the door for bold climate leadership.
• SB 288 and 922 (Author: Wiener): Streamlining sustainable transit projects. SB 288 will reform CEQA requirements for sustainable transportation and safe streets projects to speed up the approval processes for climate-friendly projects. SB 922 extends the sunset for the provisions of SB 288.
• SB 379 (Author: Wiener): Requires California cities to provide online, instant solar permitting to streamline remote installation and inspection of residential solar and solar-plus-storage systems.
• SB 700 (Author: Wiener): Expanding subsidies for clean energy storage systems. This major legislation creates a large subsidy/rebate program so that residents, businesses, public schools, and other public facilities can install energy storage systems. Energy storage is a key part of California’s clean energy future. This program will make it more affordable to install energy storage systems and will help spur innovation in the industry so that it becomes even more affordable, reliable, and available in the future.
• SB 458 (Author: Wiener): Mobile recycling redemption pilot program. Recycling centers around California are closing down due to a collapse of the recycling industry. San Francisco is no exception, with about 80% of our recycling centers having closed. Yet, it was illegal for the City of San Francisco to implement a mobile recycling program, where recycling redemption trucks cycle around the city on a fixed schedule so that people can redeem their recyclables. SB 458 legalized mobile recycling redemption, and San Francisco is moving forward with its pilot program.
• SB 54 (Author: Allen; joint author: Wiener): Phasing out single use plastics. Scott is a joint author of this legislation, which will move California toward a future without single use plastics. Single use plastics are strangling our oceans and other waterways, harming wildlife, and leaving a chemical trail throughout our environment. We need to transition away from plastics and toward a more sustainable future.
• SB 966 (Author: Wiener): Expanding water recycling. California has a structural water shortage, and our state does not do nearly enough water recycling. SB 966 requires a statewide policy to make it easier for cities to adopt on-site water reuse programs for people’s homes, for businesses, and for schools and other public buildings.
• SB 467 (Author: Wiener, bill failed) - Halts the issuance or renewal of permits for hydraulic fracturing (fracking), acid well stimulation treatments, cyclic steaming, and water and steam flooding starting January 1, 2022, and then prohibits these extraction methods entirely starting January 1, 2027.
• SB 378 (Wiener; bill failed): Holding PG&E accountable for its mass blackouts. SB 378 will require PG&E to compensate people and businesses for damages they sustain during planned blackouts and prohibits PG&E from charging customers for service during these blackouts. The legislation also bans PG&E from lobbying against public power and other alternative approaches to power delivery. Scott has already announced that in 2020 he will pursue legislation to force PG&E to become a publicly owned utility.
• SB 332 (Authors: Hertzberg/Wiener): Phasing out ocean discharges by water utilities. California needs to aggressively increase water reuse. Currently, our water utilities discharge treated wastewater into the ocean. SB 332 would have required utilities to phase out this practice by instead recycling the wastewater, but it stalled due to intense utility opposition. Scott believes this is a bill that needs to pass, and is optimistic that it will eventually do so.

Transportation

Plain and simple, Scott Wiener is a devoted public transportation nerd. As a 25+ year daily rider of San Francisco’s public transit systems, Scott is a staunch advocate for alternative, sustainable methods of transportation. We need significant investments in our bus, rail, ferry, and bike systems to combat climate change and keep up with our carbon emission reduction goals. His work in this space includes securing over $1 billion annually for public transit investments in California, generating hundreds of millions in new funding for Muni, streamlining bus and bike lane approvals, and helping lead the fight to prevent our transit systems from collapsing financially post-COVID.

BART, Muni, and other systems are facing an imminent fiscal cliff that would require massive service cuts that would primarily impact low-income commuters. While Scott was successful in advocating for additional funding in this year’s State budget, we still have a significant gap to make up to ensure the long-term viability of our Bay Area transit systems. Senator Wiener is convening a working group in the coming months to find solutions to this critical issue.

Legislation

• SB 288 and SB 922 (Author: Wiener): This law will help get our economy and our response to climate change back on track by jumpstarting and speeding up sustainable transportation projects like light rail and bus lanes, safe streets infrastructure like protected bike lanes and pedestrian safety projects, innovative conversion of streets to pedestrian use, and electric bus charging stations. It does so by adding these projects to the list of environmental sustainable projects exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act or CEQA. Unfortunately, people sometimes obstruct environmentally sustainable projects by abusing the CEQA process. SB 288 will significantly cut down on those abuses and ensure these climate-friendly projects can be approved much more quickly. SB 288 is also an economic recovery law that makes it easier to roll out public infrastructure investments more quickly to create jobs. SB 922 extends the provisions of SB 288 until 2030.
• SB 339 (Author: Wiener): Gas Tax Alternative Pilot – extends California’s Road Charge Pilot Program, providing a potential future source of transportation and road funding.
• SB 127 (Author: Wiener; vetoed by the Governor): SB 127 would have forced Caltrans to make state-owned roads (e.g., 19th Avenue, Van Ness Avenue, Park Presidio Boulevard, Lombard Street, Sloat Boulevard) friendly to and safe for cyclists and pedestrians. It was the California Bicycle Coalition’s top priority bill. Unfortunately, Governor Newsom vetoed the bill, after it received large majorities in both houses of the Legislature, but Scott is committed to the issue and will not give up.
• SCA 6 (Author: Wiener; bill merged into broader bill): Lowering voter threshold to pass transportation infrastructure measures. Senate Constitutional Amendment 6 would have lowered the voter threshold for local transportation funding measures (e.g., for public transportation and bike and pedestrian projects) from 2/3rds to 55%. The idea was ultimately merged into a broader proposed constitutional amendment, ACA 1 (Author Aguiar-Curry; co-author: Wiener) covering all local infrastructure funding measures, including transportation measures. Scott is now a co-author of that broader measure.
• SB 1 (Author: Beall; co-author: Wiener): Massive transportation funding increase. SB 1, which Scott and others passed in 2017, is the largest transportation funding measure in California history. Through an increase to the gas tax, vehicle registration fees, and the diesel gas tax, it raises over $5 billion annually for road repairs, freeway repairs, and public transportation. Scott advocated strongly to increase the share of the measure dedicated to public transportation, and ultimately was able to increase the public transit share to nearly $1 billion annually in new transit investment.

Public Safety

San Francisco is a world-class city, and our best days are yet to come. But current conditions on our streets have left people feeling unsafe and rightfully wanting better for our city.  When people are allowed to unravel — injecting in public, harassing people on the street or at a business, being severely drug-intoxicated by a school or as kids walk past — both the people struggling on our streets as well as the surrounding community are put at risk. Unless we intervene, we'll continue to see these conditions, and our city will struggle to recover. Our approach as a city will always prioritize treatment and recovery first, but the impact of this crisis on the surrounding community also requires a public safety response. Scott believes the best way to keep San Franciscans safe is to:

• Bring those who are severely drug-intoxicated in public to a clean and safe environment to sober up and be offered treatment. These spaces get people off the street and increase their likelihood to accept treatment.
  Scott has worked to expand these spaces, securing funding for meth sobering sites and twice passing statewide legislation to allow safe consumption sites, despite opposition that ultimately led to the measures' veto.
• Send people who refuse sobering centers or treatment programs to drug court. Being severely intoxicated on the street and refusing to go somewhere safe and clean is not acceptable, and we must enforce existing laws. People who are significantly debilitated and do not have the power to make decisions for themselves may need guardianship from a loved one or from mental health professionals, known as a conservatorship.
  Scott has worked for years to modernize and expand California’s outdated conservatorship laws. He currently serves as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Mental Health and Addiction.
• Continue fighting to expand access and increase funding for mental health and addiction treatment. It’s too hard for people to access care — we need to direct more resources to our addiction and mental health systems to help them better deal with this crisis.
  During his time in the Senate, Scott passed the nation’s strongest mental health parity law, which requires insurance companies to direct more resources to treatments for mental health and addiction. This year, the Legislature and the Governor are working on a proposal to massively expand the capacity of California’s mental health facilities.

Criminal Justice Reform

Systemic racism plagues our criminal justice system. Scott has been a consistent advocate for reimagining our criminal justice system, and has fought time and again for progressive criminal justice reforms. Whether ending mandatory minimum drug sentences in California, fighting for common sense policies to limit police use of lethal force, or enacting tough reforms to stop sending innocent people to prison, Scott has taken bold stances on tough issues and helped usher in change.

Legislation

• SB 97 (Author: Wiener): Righting Wrongful Convictions Act — Smooths the process by which the wrongfully convicted can prove their innocence and overturn wrongful convictions.
• SB 513 (Author: Wiener; bill pending): Reducing Recidivism Through Therapy Act — Rehabilitates California’s incarcerated population and reduces California’s high recidivism rate by providing access to therapy to all incarcerated Californians.
• SB 467 (Author: Wiener): End Wrongful Convictions Act – Ensures expert testimony used as admissible evidence in court has sound logic and methodology, and provides the opportunity to challenge wrongful convictions.
• SB 1106 (Author: Wiener): Fresh Start Act – Helps people clear their record and reenter society — such as getting a job and housing — even if they can’t pay restitution fines.
• SB 73 (Author: Wiener): Repeals certain mandatory minimum jail/prison sentences for drug offenses and provides judges with more discretion to order probation and other alternatives to incarceration.
• SB 357 (Author: Wiener): Safer Streets for All Act – Repeals discriminatory loitering law that targets sex workers and trans women of color.
  
• SB 592 (Author: Wiener): The Fair Juries Act widened the jury pool to any tax filer (as opposed to just registered voters and drivers’ license/identity card holders). This legislation ensures a more racially and socioeconomically diverse jury pool, and thus leads to fairer juries.
  
• AB 3070 (Author: Weber, co-author: Wiener): Will address unlawful discrimination in the selection of juries by using an objective test to determine whether discrimination — through implicit or explicit bias — has occurred. This was signed into law in 2020 by Governor Newsom.
  
• SB 855 (Author: Wiener): Requires private insurance companies to cover non-emergency mental health and substance use disorder treatment, including medication-assisted treatment (MAT) like methadone. We need to get people the help they need before they reach a crisis point, not after, and we need to ensure mental health and substance use treatment are fully funded. Far too many people, including people living on our streets, suffer from untreated substance use and mental health issues, and according to a 2016 study, around half of police killing victims were people with a disability or mental illness. That is completely unacceptable and we need to do better to get people the help they need, and to ensure the right people are responding when they are in crisis. This was signed into law in 2020.
  
• ACA 1 (Author: McCarty, co-author: Wiener): Placed Proposition 17 on the ballot. Proposition 17, which passed in November 2020, restored the right to vote for people who are on parole.
  
• SB 58 (Author: Wiener; bill vetoed): This bill decriminalizes personal possession and use of small amounts of a few plant-based psychedelics – all of which are non-addictive and proven to be safe – and creates a path for facilitated group use. Psychedelics have shown great promise in treating mental health and substance abuse. And they can be lifesaving for our veterans, many of whom live with PTSD. The bill is supported by a coalition of veterans, first responders, and health professionals. Though the bill was vetoed, Governor Newsom has requested the Legislature pursue a bill next year to regulate the therapeutic use of psychedelics, and Scott plans to do so.
  
• AB 2542 (Author: Kalra, co-author: Wiener): California Racial Justice Act. Signed into law in 2020, this law will ensure that California doesn’t convict or give a sentence to a defendant based on race, ethnicity or national origin.
  
• SB 923 and SB 938 (Author: Wiener): SB 923 helped bring California into the 21st century by adopting modern eyewitness identification standards so that innocent people aren’t misidentified and convicted, often on the basis of racial bias. Before COVID-19, Scott authored SB 938, which would have amended the standards used for evaluating expert testimony and forensics in court pre- and post-conviction. “Expert” testimony is very broadly defined — the bar is very low for what an “expert” can use as a source to back up their testimony — and we see junk science in our courts being used in testimonies all too often.
  
• SB 233 (Author: Wiener): Protecting the health and safety of sex workers. SB 233 bans use of condoms as evidence of sex work (for arrest or at trial) and bans law enforcement from arresting sex workers for sex work or drug possession if the sex worker is reporting a violent crime. Without these groundbreaking legislative protections, sex workers can (and do) get arrested based on possession of condoms, thus making it less likely they will carry condoms, and refrain from reporting violent crimes for fear that they will be arrested for sex work or drug possession. SB 233 is an important reform, and, we hope, a step torward full decriminalization of sex work.
  
• SB 136 (Author: Wiener): Repeal of one-year sentence enhancement. SB 136 repealed the most common sentence enhancement (which lets a judge increase a sentence beyond the prescribed range based on prior convictions), affecting tens of thousands of inmates in California. This enhancement has been a driver of mass incarceration, and its repeal will reduce California’s rates of incarceration and give people a chance to get out of jail and back on their feet. Passing this repeal legislation was a huge fight with law enforcement, but we were able to get it across the finish line.
  
• SB 239 (Author: Wiener): HIV decriminalization. SB 239 repealed a list of HIV-specific felonies that were adopted in the 1980s and 1990s. These draconian and unfair laws singled out people living with HIV for uniquely harsh criminal treatment, much harsher than other deadly infections such as Ebola. These felonies particularly targeted women of color and sex workers, turning misdemeanor prostitution charges into felonies. Trans women of color who engage in sex work were perhaps the most targeted. These felonies also trapped HIV-positive people in abusive relationships, with partners or human traffickers threatening HIV-positive people with prosecution if they left the relationship (“If you leave, I’ll call the police and tell them you never told me you’re positive.”). Repeal of these felonies was a long-time priority for a broad coalition of LGBTQ, HIV, public health, sex worker, women, civil rights, and immigration advocates. For the three years before Scott was elected, the coalition could not find a legislator to author the legislation. Scott authored it in his first year in office, and was able to pass it and get it signed into law.
  
• SB 384 (Author: Wiener) and SB 145 (Author: Wiener): SB 384, signed into law in 2017, dramatically reforms California’s broken sex offender registry, which does little to separate LGBTQ sexual acts from actual sex crimes. The registry has long required all convicted sex offenders, including those who committed minor offenses, such as gay men arrested for having sex in the park, to remain on the registry for life. As a result, 1 in 400 Californians is on the sex offender registry, rendering it useless for law enforcement in terms of tracking people who actually present a risk to the community. Moreover, people’s lives have been destroyed due to an inability to get off of the registry after even a minor offense. SB 384 allows sex offenders who aren’t violent predators to petition to be removed from the registry after a period of time in which the person hasn’t reoffended. SB 145, which passed in 2020, reduces discrimination against LGBTQ young people on the registry.
  
• SB 923 (Author: Wiener): Modernizing eyewitness identification standards. SB 923 brings California into the 21st century by adopting modern eyewitness identification standards so that innocent people aren’t mis-identified and convicted. Scott’s team worked closely with the Innocence Project on the bill, which was opposed by law enforcement but passed into law.
  
• AB 1196 (Author: Gipson, co-author: Wiener): Banned police from using carotid restraints, one of the most commonly used strangleholds. Eric Garner was murdered by police in New York City using a stranglehold. These laws also need greater enforcement, since chokeholds are already banned in many states, but police are not prosecuted for using them. Any bans like this, if passed, must be coupled with enforcement and oversight.
  
• SB 281 (Authors: Wiener/Ting; bill failed): Banning gun shows at the Cow Palace. The Cow Palace fairgrounds, at the border of San Francisco and Daly City, has long hosted gun shows, despite near universal community sentiment that the gun shows should end. After decades of advocacy and vetoed or failed legislation, Scott and Assemblymember Ting were able to place a gun show ban on Governor Brown’s desk in 2018. While he vetoed the legislation, Scott and Assemblymember Ting are pursuing it again. Under pressure from the legislation, the Cow Palace Board of Directors voted to end the gun shows. Scott intends to pass the legislation to ensure that the end of the gun shows is permanent.
  
• AB 931 (Author: Weber): Modernizing police use of lethal force standards. Scott has been a consistent supporter of this legislation which enforces strict guidelines regarding police use of deadly force, including its original 2018 version that was aggressively opposed by law enforcement.
  
• SB 10 (Author: Hertzberg; co-author: Wiener): Bail reform. Scott co-authored and supported the measure to end money bail in California. Money bail means that after an arrest, low-income people who can’t afford to pay are forced to stay in jail, while wealthier individuals can walk free.
  
• SB 271 (Author: Wiener; bill failed): Fair Federal Juries – Expands jury pools in federal courts in California by allowing them to summon jurors using state tax filing lists, making juries fairer and more diverse.
  
• ACA 12 (Author: Levine; co-author: Wiener; bill failed): Repeal of the death penalty.
  
• AB 2054 (Author: Kamlager, co-author: Wiener): Scott shepherded the bill through the Senate where he presented it on the floor. This bill passed the legislature, but was sadly vetoed. It would’ve funded non-armed first responders for situations that police officers would normally be summoned for — including mental health crises, incidents involving substance use, and emergencies with those living on our streets. He fully supports this type of legislation and plans to support it in future legislative sessions as well.
  

Immigration

As the grandson of immigrants who fled pogroms in Eastern Europe, Scott believes every person – regardless of where they were born – deserves to live with safety and dignity. Many seek refuge in our country because of the promise America holds, and we need to ensure our country remains a place where people can seek a new and better life. Immigrants make our country better and stronger. They aren’t the problem; they’re part of the solution. When Trump was elected, Scott sprung into action: he co-authored the law that made California a sanctuary state and wrote the law to stop undocumented immigrants from being harassed if they report crimes and testify in court.

Legislation

• SB 85 (Author: Wiener; bill pending): Supports refugees and those granted asylum by extending the base number of days they are entitled to case management from 90 to 180
• SB 785 and SB 836 (Author: Wiener): Protecting immigrants testifying in court. SB 785 prohibits attorneys from questioning witnesses on the stand about their immigration status unless an attorney first demonstrates to the judge that the question is specifically relevant to the case. We’ve seen various instances in which attorneys have intimidated witnesses by asking them irrelevant questions about their immigration status, particularly since we know that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is in courthouses. Immigrants, as a result, are often scared to go to court, which makes us all less safe. SB 785 ends this problem. SB 836 reenacts the provisions of SB 785.
• SB 54 (Author: de Leon; co-author: Wiener): Sanctuary state legislation. Scott co-authored this important legislation to prohibit California public officials, including law enforcement, from cooperating with ICE to deport immigrants absent extreme circumstances.
• AB 291 (Author: Chiu; co-author: Wiener): Protecting immigrant tenants. AB 291 prohibits landlords from retaliating against immigrant tenants by reporting them to ICE. Scott co-authored the legislation.
• AB 450 (Author: Chiu; co-author: Wiener): Protecting immigrants in the workplace. AB 450 restricts employers from cooperating with ICE in workplace deportation raids.
• SB 6 (Author: Hueso; co-author: Wiener; adopted as part of the budget): Allocates funds for deportation defense counsel.

Universal and Comprehensive Health Care

As someone who has lived with a chronic disease for the past 34 years — and has spent decades navigating our health care system, health care access is a long-time focus and passion for Scott. Health care is a human right, and every American deserves comprehensive health care, regardless of whether or not they are employed. This is more true than ever as we reach the end of a once-in-a-century pandemic. Scott has authored groundbreaking healthcare access bills, and has consistently championed California’s single-payer legislation.

Legislation

• SB 770 (Author: Wiener): SB 770 takes concrete steps towards universal health coverage in California. SB 770 directs the California Health and Human Services Agency (HHS) to consult with the federal government in order to determine the necessary details of a federal waiver application for a universal healthcare system, such as a single payer system.
• SB 90 (Author: Wiener; bill vetoed): Insulin Affordability Act — Caps the out-of-pocket cost of insulin at $35 for a 30-day supply for CalCare recipients and bans health plans from imposing a deductible on insulin prescription drugs. The bill was unfortunately vetoed, but Senator Wiener is committed to continue fighting for straightforward, fast-acting measures to lower the costs of essential healthcare, including insulin.
• SB 855 (Author: Wiener): This legislation makes California a national leader in mental health and addiction treatment coverage. It’s part of a growing movement to reverse the stigmatization of mental illness and addiction. This new law is even more important in light of the COVID-19 crisis, given the significant mental health and addiction challenges that increased isolation, illness, job loss, and grief pose to people everywhere — many of whom have never struggled with mental illness or addiction before. And a new study predicts that COVID-19 could cause up to 154,000 “deaths of despair.” SB 855 dramatically expands access to mental health and addiction care by requiring insurance companies to cover all medically necessary care, not just crisis care. Currently, insurance companies all too often deny coverage for mental health care before someone is in crisis. But we need to help people before they’re in crisis, and SB 855 will make that possible for millions of Californians.
• SB 932 (Author: Wiener): Requires state to collect data on sexual orientation and gender identity for COVID-19 and all reportable communicable diseases, to ensure the LGBTQ community isn’t left out of our healthcare system. This was signed into law in 2020.
• SB 159 (Author: Wiener): Expanding PrEP and PEP access. SB 159 is first-in-the-nation legislation that allows pharmacists to provide PrEP and PEP — two powerful anti-HIV preventatives — to people without a physician’s prescription. Far too few people who need PrEP are on it, due to various financial and logistical barriers, as well as continuing stigma. Communities of color and rural communities are particularly likely to lack access. One barrier is lack of access (or lack of timely access) to physicians, another is that some physicians are hostile to these HIV preventatives and resistant to prescribing it. By allowing people to go to their neighborhood pharmacy to access PrEP and PEP, without first having to find a physician and perhaps wait months for an appointment, SB 159 will dramatically expand where people can access PrEP and PEP and will make it much to gain that access. SB 159 also bans insurance prior authorizations for PrEP and PEP, which can delay obtaining them.
• SB 34 (Author: Wiener): The Dennis Peron and Brownie Mary Compassionate Care Act ensures access to medical cannabis by low-income people. SB 34 allows “compassion programs” — which donate medical cannabis to low income people, including people living with HIV, veterans with PTSD, and low-income families — to continue to exist. Given the cost of retail cannabis, many low-income residents cannot afford their medicine and thus either go without it or resort to the dangerous illicit market. Compassion programs are essential for their health. California’s legalization of cannabis imposed significant taxes on these programs, which was gradually killing them off since they have no revenue. SB 34 exempts these programs from state taxes and allows them to continue to provide people with their medicine.
• SB 858 (Author: Wiener): Updates and increases penalties for health plans that violate state law in denying or delaying insurance coverage.
• SB 70 (Author: Wiener; bill pending): Improves access to medication by limiting the circumstances in which health plans can change a patient’s medication for financial, rather than medical reasons.
• SB 1021 (Author: Wiener): Capping drug co-pays. Even if someone is fortunate enough to have insurance, drug copays can be prohibitively expensive and can effectively deny people access. SB 1021 reinstates and expands a strict cap on drug co-pays. SB 1021 also stops insurance companies from forcing people onto multi-pill PrEP regimens, which are less effective.
• SB 142 (Author: Wiener): Expanding lactation access in the workplace. New mothers returning to work are frequently met with very inadequate spaces to lactate, even being forced to express milk in a bathroom, broom closet, or their car. As a result, too many mothers, particularly lower income mothers, are forced to choose between breastfeeding their baby and returning to work. This choice — between breastfeeding and a family’s economic security — is a choice that no one should have to make. SB 142 enacts strong standards for lactation facilities at work, including a private room or space, a table and chair, an electrical outlet, and a nearby refrigerator.
• SB 1464 (Author: Wiener; adopted as part of the budget): Expanding dental care to people with special needs. People with developmental disabilities or cognitive impairments frequently need much more complex dental treatment than other people. For example, they may need more time with a dentist, multiple visits, or multiple people present. Yet, Denti-Cal only paid for one short, non-complex dental visit. As a result, these individuals with special needs frequently went without dental care and thus developed severe oral health problems. SB 1464, which Scott’s team was able to pass as part of the budget, funds the needed complex care for people with special oral health needs.
• SB 271 (Author: Wiener): Ensuring entertainment workers can access state-provided disability and family leave benefits. Entertainment workers frequently work outside of California on temporary assignment, which can preclude them from accessing their state-provided benefits. SB 271 ensures that these workers have full access to the benefits for which they’re paying via payroll deductions. SB 271 was a priority bill for the California Labor Federation and IATSE.
• SB 562 (Authors: Lara/Atkins; co-author: Wiener; bill failed): Scott co-authored this single-payer healthcare legislation, which passed the Senate but did not pass the Assembly.