For Immediate Release - Senator Anthony J. Portantino 2019 Legislative Accomplishments

Sacramento, California–Senator Anthony J. Portantino’s (D–La Cañada Flintridge) has finished a very successful 2019 legislative session with a positive and productive result for the residents of the 25th Senate District and for the State of California.  The Senator authored and sent 15 bills to Governor for action, with nine bills signed into law.  In addition, Senator Portantino had several important budget proposals included in the adopted 2019-2020 budget. He ended the session by helping to facilitate the adoption of a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between California and the Republic of Armenia which included the creation of the first trade desk in the Capitol city of Yerevan.  As Chair of the Senate Appropriations Senator Portantino played a key role in the Legislature’s strong 2019 legislative year.

            "It is an honor to represent the 25th State Senate District and work to bring more resources to our public schools, keep guns safely locked and out of the wrong hands and endeavor to help our students thrive through the implementation of sound research based public policy.  I was very happy to work collaboratively to support our non-profits and to put an end to the 710 freeway.  Though we have much more to do, I'm pleased with progress we made in 2019." 

Senator Anthony J. Portantino

 

Senator Portantino’s 2019 Legislative Accomplishments

SB 7 - Surplus nonresidential property and State Highway Route 710.

• SB 7 represents the final legislative outcome is the culmination of over 20 years of dedication the Senator brought to opposing the 710 freeway and helping the 710 corridor move past the freeway's threat.  It follows through on a promise that the Senator made to the activists, non-profits, and tenants in the 710 corridor when he helped negotiate the end of the 710 tunnel in December of 2016 as well as providing relief to tenants and non-profits.

 

SB 61 – Firearms: Transfers.

 

• SB 61 limits the purchase of a center-fire, semi-automatic firearm to one per month and prohibits the sale of this high-powered weapon to anyone under 21.  This bill continues Senator Portantino’s long history of sensible gun control.  With the recent shootings in Poway and Gilroy  we want to insure our communities are safe and firearms are not getting into the wrong hands.
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SB 172 – Comprehensive Firearms Storage.

 

• Another sensible gun control reform, SB 172 proposes to resolve the problem of improper storage of firearms in homes and in residential care facilities.  The vast majority of accidental firearm death, suicide and senseless acts of violence are associated to easy access to firearms.  This bill ensures that firearms are properly stored.

 

SB 328 – Pupil Attendance: School Start Time.

 

• Senator Portantino’s signature bill, SB 328, was signed into law after three ardent years of work by the Senator. SB 328 requires public and charter schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. for high schools and 8:00 a.m. for middle schools.  SB 328 is based on three decades of research that show that teens’ biological makeup isn’t suitable to early morning start times.  This bill will benefit generations of students and will lead to better attendance, better test scores, lower feelings of depression, and fewer car crashes.  The Senator is proud to have led the charge in California becoming the first state in the nation to put our children’s health and safety first.

 

SB 355 - Joint powers agencies: Clean Power Alliance of Southern

                  California: meetings.

 

• SB 355 allows the Clean Power Alliance of Southern California (CPA) to adopt a policy to authorize a designated alternate member of the agency's legislative body to attend closed sessions of the agency. Local agencies belong to a number of JPAs, many of which address technical issues such as insurance coverage and retail electric power procurement.  This bill would permit such unelected alternates to participate in closed session discussions of the Clean Power Alliance.  Such a change would enhance the ability of CPA members to participate in closed session discussions. 

 

SB 376 – Firearms: Transfers.

 

• SB 376 seeks to address the disparity and confusion in the way unlicensed firearms dealers are treated based on the definition of “infrequent.”  It would reduce the number of firearms an unlicensed individual is annually able to sell and the frequency with which they are able to sell.

 

SB 600 - Health care coverage: Fertility Preservation.

 

• As a father, this issue has long been of concern for Senator Portantino and has endeavored for over  a decade to make this happen. SB 600 ensures health insurance coverage for cancer patients and others fighting disease who want the option to protect their fertility. The lack of clarity in insurance coverage regulation causes patients to face the dilemma of choosing between treatment and fertility.  This bill makes it clear that fertility services are a covered benefits so that patients can obtain fertility preservation and then focus on  treatment.  

 

SB 568 - Public holidays: Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

 

• SB 568 helps Glendale Community College offset revenue losses associated with closing on April 24. This date is important worldwide to the Armenian Community as it commemorates the Armenian Genocide.  Unlike K-12 school districts, community colleges were unable to take this special day off.  This created a practical and emotional problem for many families where one child had the day off and the other did not.  This is a common sense fix to that problem. As a long-time friend of GCC and the Armenian American community, Senator Portantino is proud to have taken up the cause and found a solution.

 

 

SB 620 – Recidivism Reduction Through Essential Service Referral.

 

• Brought to our office’s attention by the Pasadena Police Department, SB 62o is an innovative bill that will allow those on supervised release to better access  needed care, job training and services.  This bill allows law enforcement, with permission, to release certain personal information of those reentering society to local non-profits and city or county services.  This allows this vulnerable population to connect with the services they need.  A trial run of this in Pasadena had shown great success and SB 620 will help the entire state.

 

Senator Portantino’s Key Co-Authorships

 

AB 577 - Maternal Mental Health (Principal Co-Author)

 

• AB 557 extends the duration requirement for health plans and health insurers to provide continuity of care for pregnant women to up to 12 months from the diagnosis or from the end of pregnancy if the woman is diagnosed with a maternal health condition.

 

AB 1320 - Turkish Divestment (Principal Co-Author)

 

• AB 1320 provides that the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and State Teachers’ Retirement System shall not make additional or new investments or renew existing investments of public employee retirement funds in any investment vehicle in the government of Turkey upon passage of a federal law imposing sanctions on the government of Turkey for failure to officially acknowledge its responsibility for the Armenian Genocide.

 

AB 1354 - Individualized transition plans for Court School Students

                   (Principal Co-Author)

 

• AB 1354 requires county offices of education (COEs) to ensure that a student enrolled in a juvenile court school for more than 20 school days has an individualized transition plan and access to specified educational records upon release.

 

SB 22 – Rape Kits: Testing (Principal Co-Author)

 

• SB 22 requires law enforcement agencies to either submit sexual assault forensic evidence to a crime lab or ensure that a rapid turnaround DNA program is in place, and requires crime labs to either process the evidence for DNA profiles and upload them into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) or transmit the evidence to another crime lab for processing and uploading.

 

SB 39 – Tobacco Products (Joint Author)

 

• SB 39 would require a tobacco product to be delivered only in a container that is conspicuously labeled as being a tobacco product that requires the signature of a person 21 years of age or older and requires a signature before completing the delivery from a person that has verified to be 21.

 

SB 307 - Water conveyance: Unused Capacity  (Principal Co-Author)

 

• SB 307 requires the State Lands Commission to find that the transfer of the water from a groundwater basin underlying specified desert lands will not adversely affect the natural or cultural resources, including groundwater resources or habitat, of those federal and state lands in order for that transfer to be allowed.

 

SB 541 - School Safety: Lockdown Drills (Joint Author)

 

• SB541 requires the California Department of Education to collect, and local educational agencies to provide, data pertaining to lockdown or multi option response drills conducted at school sites within school districts, county offices of education and charter schools providing instructional services to pupils in kindergarten or in any of grades 1 to 12and requires the CDE to submit a report to the Legislature relative to that data.

 

 

Championed & Adopted Budget Proposals

 

• $1.9 billion in new Proposition 98 funding for the LCFF, reflecting a 3.26-percent COLA.

 

• $493 million for special education allocated based on the number of students 3 to 5 with exceptional needs.

 

• $40.7 million from Prop 51 for Pasadena City College’s Armen Sarafian Building.

 

• $19 million dollars for a rapid rehousing program for California’s homeless college population. This includes $3.5 million for the UC system, $6.5 million for the CSU, and $9 million for community colleges.

 

• $5.5 million for sound walls along the 210 freeway.

 

• $3.5 million for the Arroyo Seco Watershed Restoration Project

 

• $1 million to the City of Glendale for the Glendale Tech Accelerator.

 

• $800,000 to the City of Glendale for regional park connector improvements