(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus, strengthening minority rights to challenge state and local ballot initiatives that deny their ability to equally impact the political process.

Ting’s Assembly Bill (AB) 2646 extends structural equal protection, a principle established by the United States Supreme Court, to California law.  It will enable minorities to challenge discriminatory laws on the basis that they restructure the political process in ways making it inherently more difficult to enact future policy changes on issues of primary concern to them.

(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus, simplifying the Cal Grant application process in order to help thousands of high performing students from low income families receive financial aid for college.

"Today's action restores fairness to our state's largest financial aid program," said Ting."These reforms make it easier for students to apply for aid by streamlining the application process. All qualified students must get the aid and the education they deserve. By making the program operate more efficiently, we can prevent thousands of students from falling through the cracks and take pride in positioning them for greater success in life."

(SACRAMENTO, CA) –Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus, to prioritize affordable housing construction on surplus lands owned by local governments.

"The lack of affordable housing is changing the identity of our communities," said Ting. "San Francisco is ground zero for working people being driven from their homes. Now, we have more tools available to confront this exodus by making it easier to develop surplus lands owned by local governments into affordable housing."

GOV. BROWN SIGNS BILL TO PROTECT RIGHTS OF LIMITED ENGLISH SPEAKERS

(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus, to protect the rights of Californians with limited English proficiency by strengthening how they can report language barrier problems with state government.

“All Californians deserve to be part of our civic process whether they speak English or not,” said Ting. “By creating better ways for state agencies to be held accountable for their treatment of English language learners, we can better protect the rights of all Californians. Unfortunately, language barriers are so pervasive now that many Californians cannot even articulate when problems exist.”

(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus, to help California provide culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare to millions of Californians with limited English language skills.

“This is a great victory to ensure that language access does not become an obstacle to health care access,” said Ting.  “Health care access depends on the ability to communicate with care providers.  Now, we will have the tools we need to identify and resolve communication barriers so that our medical professionals can communicate in the languages of our communities.”

(SACRAMENTO, CA) –Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation yesterday authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus, to help prevent syringe sharing, a leading cause for HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, by allowing adults to purchase an unlimited number of syringes at pharmacies without a prescription.

“It has taken many years to win this fight but California will finally start treating syringe access as a public health issue,” said Ting.  "We dithered while the rest of the nation aggressively expanded access to save lives and tax dollars.  That makes this victory both exciting and overdue.  This is a landmark reform for California.”

(SACRAMENTO) Assemblymembers Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus, and Shirley Weber (D-San Diego) sent a letter to the California State Board of Education signed by 24 other lawmakers urging more transparency and accountability in the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The State Board votes on final regulations for the expenditure of these funds today, which were established to benefit low-income students, English language learners, and foster youth. A copy of the letter to the State Board of Education is available here.

Contacts: Anthony Matthews (Ting), tel. (916) 319-2019 or Joe Kocurek (Weber), tel. (916) 319-2079

(SACRAMENTO, CA) – The California State Legislature passed a bill authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus, allowing for the adoption of new bikeway designs and easing local bikeway construction.

Assembly Bill (AB) 1193 passed the State Assembly with a 57-15 vote, following a 29-5 vote in the State Senate earlier this week.  The bill now goes to Governor Jerry Brown for final action.