Press Releases

SACRAMENTO – Governor Jerry Brown has just signed a bill authored by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) to help expedite the environmental review process under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), California’s landmark law for evaluating and mitigating the environmental impacts of development projects.

SACRAMENTO – As momentum grows for stronger family leave policies across the nation, a California Legislative Women’s Caucus priority bill to provide job-protected new parent leave for up to 2.7 million more Californians has passed off the Assembly floor on a bipartisan 52-19 vote. The bill now heads to the Senate for a final vote.

SACRAMENTO – A bill jointly authored by Dr. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) and Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) to ensure autopsies are conducted only by licensed physicians and forensic autopsy reports are accurate and unbiased passed off the Senate floor today on a 38-1 vote and is now headed to the Governor.

Jackson is jointly authoring SB 1189 following the discovery in 2015 that a number of autopsies were done at the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s office by non-physicians while the then-Medical Examiner, Dr. Jon Smith, was on vacation.

SACRAMENTO – A bill by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) to help disabled veterans who are transitioning from military service into a new career working in California’s public schools passed off the Assembly floor today on a bipartisan, 65-0 vote and is now headed to the Governor.

Senate Bill 1180 will give disabled veterans who are new school employees additional sick leave in their first year of employment so they can attend medical and VA appointments to treat their disability.