Clean air shouldn't be a privilege dictated by where you can afford to live but a right to which we are all entitled.
Kevin de Leon
Our State Senate must lead by example, restore trust and transparency, stop sweeping workplace misconduct under the rug, and do everything we can to protect women who work in and around the Capitol.
Seniority means nothing if you don't do anything with it.
Recycling more plastics can help local businesses and expand jobs while supporting the goals of sustainability.
Clean energy isn't just good for the planet; it's good for consumers' monthly utility bills and for the economy.
I wouldn't have voted for the war in Iraq, which has cost us trillions we could have been spending on a carbon-free economy, affordable college, and single-payer health care.
My whole life, I've been told to 'wait my turn' and 'know my place.'
The infrastructure at Union Station is antiquated. High-speed is going to come in eventually. We need to upgrade that system. Every day the Metro comes in, the Amtrak comes in, and they idle their engines for hours, spewing poisonous toxins - all that crap - into the air.
It's incumbent on all of us to remember our history and not repeat our past sins.
Banning plastic bags so that people use paper bags or imported reusable bags that will end up in local landfills soon thereafter is not the only solution to our plastic bag challenge.
I've been surrounded by strong, hardworking women like my mother all my life.
If we do high-speed rail, the governor has to be intelligent and invest the dollars at the 'bookends' - San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Equity and economic justice are now hardwired into all of our climate policies.
Our communities will become more - not less - dangerous when local police officers are pulled from their duties to arrest otherwise law-abiding maids, busboys, and day laborers for immigration violations.
I don't like to move abstract theoretical policies that, on a white paper, sound good. If I wanted to do that, I'd be a professor.
California is the greatest beacon of opportunity the world has ever known. But we didn't get here through years of political seniority - we built it through acts of audacity.
I think there's no such thing as free trade. I think there has to be fair trade.
Cap and trade is an important tool in California's climate policy portfolio. It sends a price signal to industries to reduce their carbon pollution while generating billions of dollars in revenue for investments in clean transportation and direct pollution reduction.
Many foreign students take their California degrees back to their home countries. They become entrepreneurs that develop products that they sell back to us.
From education to the environment, from high wages to health care to human rights, California is proof that progressive policies put into action improve the human condition of all individuals.
I grew up in the streets of San Diego, and I love this city dearly. I love this city. San Diego is my home. Even though I represent Los Angeles, this is my home.
No one wants dangerous criminals in our communities.
While we need to provide leadership and stability to the world, we should do that through diplomacy.
Yes, we absolutely need to eliminate the single-use plastic bag, but we don't have to eliminate the jobs of hardworking Californians to accomplish this goal.
California lost its way in 1994 with Prop. 187, but that tragic episode gave birth to a new California consciousness - one that will now do everything within its power to protect our diversity and the economic power it has created.
We speak truth to power, and we've never been fooled into believing Donald Trump 'can be a good president.'
California serves as our nation's cutting edge on many fronts.
Foreign relations should involve human rights, workers' rights, and environmental protection.
I wouldn't have voted to prosecute 13-year-olds as adults.
I don't believe that all folks who supported Donald Trump are racist. I think that there was a lot of economic anxiety, there was a lot of economic panic. A lot of deep-rooted economic insecurity. I think what Trump did, you know, very astutely, was he tapped into this vein, and he promised them a job.
My mother passed away young - she died from ovarian cancer at just 54 years old. Her sacrifices for my sisters and I evoke a tribute in her honor each and every Mother's Day.
I don't believe the federal government should be snooping into American citizens' cell phones without a warrant issued by a federal judge. You cannot give the federal government extraordinary powers to eavesdrop without a warrant. It's simply un-American.
I would never vote to allow federal agents to spy on American citizens without warrants.
We will not lift a single finger or spend a single cent to be a cog in the Trump deportation machine, and we won't be complicit in his effort to make American great again by reengineering the legal immigration system.
Domestic workers allow many people with disabilities to maintain independent, productive lives and live in their own homes - not in institutions.
We carved it in stone: no matter the place of your birth or the hue of your skin, you can live in California in safety, dignity, and, yes, sanctuary.
I believe that every family - it doesn't make a difference who you are or where you come from - deserves to have quality healthcare. It is a universal right. It's not the exclusive privilege of the elite and the wealthy.
As Democrats, we will never be fooled into believing that if we are patient enough, that Donald Trump could be a good president.
It is erroneous and profoundly irresponsible to suggest that up to three million undocumented immigrants living in America are dangerous criminals.
When people see the healthful impact this is having and all the hard hats constructing, their minds may change about high-speed rail.
Police chiefs know a thing or two about public safety.
Drafting local police into Trump's immigration crackdown undermines public safety and is a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars.
Unlike Washington, the California legislature has proved that cooperation is both possible and essential to successful policymaking, while stubborn absolutism will have you trailing head lice in popularity polls.
Dependence on oil from volatile foreign markets undermines our economic security and threatens our national security. Moreover, that addiction is producing toxic air and a public-health epidemic.
There isn't enough renewable fuel in the world to crack our growing addiction to foreign oil. We need to decrease miles driven and increase engine efficiency.
Lawmakers must stand up for companies that choose public safety over profit margins.
No corner of our society has been left unscathed by the horrors of gun violence. To end it, we'll need to bring together the best from each corner, taking what works from government, the private sector, and our local communities and crafting common-sense solutions to gun violence.
Addressing budget issues is usually a balancing act in which cuts are weighed against revenue increases to find the best solution for the state.
There's always more employers can do to protect their employees.
I wouldn't have supported invoking Taft-Hartley to help George Bush end a strike.
