Lorena Lowdowns

Lorena's Lowdowns

October 2016

Monday, October 10, 2016


Dear Friends,

It’s an exciting and hectic time of year. My colleagues and I wrapped up another busy legislative session in which hundreds of bills were considered. We’ve now received the governor’s final decisions, many of which we are happy to celebrate and others which remind us that our work is far from over. Check out our BILLBoard inside for updates on our legislative efforts, including landmark protections supporting farmworkers and janitors that have now been signed into law.

As always, our team enjoyed participating in neighborhood events in every corner of the district, working with constituents on community issues and distributing our free, reusable AD 80 grocery bags. Inside, you can see some of the many places we visited this festival season. We love connecting with you, hearing your legislative ideas and assisting you in any way we can.

I’m proud of the powerful ways that the 80th District continues to be a model of embracing and celebrating diversity. Please join me for our inaugural Latino | Filipino Fiesta—a special celebration of the overlapping Hispanic Heritage and Filipino American History months and our district’s commitment to diversity, equity, unity and cultural understanding. This event is free and open to all members of the public. Bring your friends and family, and enjoy a community resource fair, free food, live entertainment and the presentation of our 2016 Latino & Filipino Leader Awards. You can find more details on this event on the back cover. See you there!

In this Issue:

Sincerely,

Signature
Assemblywoman,
80th District

Lorena's Lowdowns

August 2016

Monday, July 25, 2016


Dear Friends,

The first half of our 2016 legislative session ended with a flourish, with 18 of our bills moving through the Senate. You can read more about our bills inside and we will continue our efforts when we return to session.

I was also pleased to help pass a balanced, on-time state budget that addresses many of my top priorities: establishing major new funding for childcare services and creating 9,000 new slots for early childhood education; eliminating the Maximum Family Grant to stop penalizing children in families receiving CalWORKS; making college more accessible by improving funding and slots for California students at UC and CSU campuses; and setting aside an extra $2 billion in our rainy day fund to help us prepare for hard times in the future.

Here in the 80th District, we are excited to welcome our third annual class of Junior Legislators to our office this month. These local high school students from across the region are participating in an intensive, month-long program to learn about the legislative process, develop their own bill ideas and produce community service projects. At the end of the program, I’m always excited to hear the students pitch their innovative bill ideas as part of their graduation.

Please stay in touch and contact our office with any questions or concerns. I hope to see you soon.

In this Issue:

Sincerely,

Signature
Assemblywoman,
80th District

Lorena's Lowdowns

July 2016

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Dear Friends,

Though the Legislature’s summer recess is right around the corner, we’ve kept a hectic pace.

In the Appropriations Committee, we reviewed 470 bills — the most since 2007. Just over half received approval and many are now continuing forward in the state Senate.

I was also fortunate to serve on the Legislature’s Budget Conference Committee, where we forged tough compromises that resulted in another on-time budget for California. This budget addresses our housing affordability crisis, delivers new major investments in child care programs, helps our kids get a strong start, and makes it easier for parents to get back to work and provide for their families.

Between it all, our team had a great time celebrating the success of so many residents of the 80th Assembly District; we’ve supported local janitors in their fight for justice and safety from sexual violence, promoted cultural equity through community festivals, and participated in much more that you can read about inside.

Please stay safe this summer. I hope to see you soon.

In this Issue:

Sincerely,

Signature

Assemblywoman,
80th District

Lorena's Lowdowns

June 2016

Friday, May 20, 2016


Dear Friends,

It’s been a hectic month in the Capitol with hundreds of bills making their way through the Assembly Appropriations Committee, covering every topic imaginable. You can find updates inside this newsletter on the progress  of our own legislation, including efforts to reduce the costs of basic necessities for working families, improve public safety, enhance workplace safety protections, reduce human trafficking, expand voting rights and more.

In between all our work in Sacramento, I was happy to join representatives from Facebook for an exciting small business event here in the district, where I honored outstanding small businesses with hundreds of local business leaders. I was also fortunate to join students and faculty from our 2016 80th Assembly District adopted school as they received a $5,000 grant to support their health initiatives in City Heights. Check out information on our small business honorees; get the details about the great work at our adopted school, and read about many of our other recent community events inside.

This month, we’re also welcoming our 2016 group of local interns from High Tech High in Chula Vista. We always have a great time with local young people, who are passionate about the legislative process and are already growing into effective future leader for the community. It’s wonderful to add these students to our team!

Please stay in touch. I hope to see you soon.

In this Issue:

Sincerely,

Signature
Assemblywoman,
80th District

Lorena's Lowdowns

May 2016

Thursday, April 21, 2016


Dear Friends,

 It’s been a historic month for California, starting with the Governor signing new legislation that will raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next several years. Shortly after, he signed legislation to significantly expand paid family leave to better help low-income working people care for their family members if they’re sick or injured. I was proud to co-author both of these bills, and I’m excited for what may be still to come.

We were also reminded in April of how much further we still have to go when we marked Equal Pay Day, highlighting the wage gap between women and men in the workplace. In California, women make just 84 cents on the dollar compared to men, and for Latinas, the lost income over a career is more than $1.6 million – five times worse than women overall. I was proud to co-author the nation’s toughest rules to take on this problem last year, but clearly we have more to do.       

Finally, we’re looking forward to our 3rd Annual Small Business event in the district. This year, Facebook will come to help local small business owners improve their use of social media and reach new customers online.

I hope to see you soon at one of our community events. And I hope you’ll stay in touch with our office if we can help you in any way.

In this Issue:

Sincerely,

Signature
Assemblywoman,
80th District

Lorena's Lowdowns

March 2016

Tuesday, April 12, 2016


Dear Friends,

We've had an exciting, busy beginning to this year’s legislative session. In addition to officially introducing many of our new bills for the year, I recently took on a new role as Chairwoman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where I started with the first hearing on California’s historic effort to raise the state minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Among our new efforts are bills to combat the sex trafficking of children, reduce drunk driving accidents, protect the privacy of students' information at school districts, ensure equal treatment for immigrants in court, and allow 16- and 17-year olds to vote in their local school board and community college board elections.

We also continued our efforts to end gender bias in workers' compensation with a new hearing in the Select Committee on Women in the Workplace examining the legal and medical failures of our current system.

Here in San Diego, we recently had one of our biggest events of the year – our 3rd Annual Woman of the Year celebration. I'm extremely excited we were able to honor some of the most impressive women of the 80th district, and hope you’ll read more about their contributions to the district inside.

I hope to see you soon in the community, and I hope you'll stay in touch with our office if we can help you in any way.

In this Issue:

Sincerely,

Signature
Assemblywoman,
80th District

Lorena's Lowdowns

January 2016

Friday, January 29, 2016

Dear Friends,

We're excited to be back at work in the Capitol for the new year with big things already in motion for 2016! We've begun work on new legislation to make diapers more affordable for working families, reform our criminal justice system, and offer Double Pay on the Holiday for employees forced to work at big retailers on Thanksgiving.

We've also started work on an ambitious effort to make sure that workers in the "gig economy" at companies like Uber receive the same worker rights and protections as employees everywhere else. As our economy keeps changing, we're going to make sure protections for our workers keep up.

We're also very excited for our 3rd Annual Women of the Year Awards celebration this spring. We're accepting nominations now for the women who are making a difference in our district. I hope you'll check the details inside for ways to nominate deserving SHEroes.

I'm looking forward to seeing you at our upcoming events throughout the region, raising awareness for Human Trafficking Prevention Month, celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., boosting small businesses, and many more. If you see our team out in the community, be sure to say hello!

Sincerely,


LORENA GONZALEZ
Assemblywoman, 80th District

Lorena's Lowdowns

October 2015

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Dear Friends,

The 2015 legislative session came to a close, wrapping up a busy year with a number of big wins and already some plans for next year.

We successfully passed 13 pieces of legislation this year, and we're fortunate that the Governor has already signed our bills protecting immigrants from fraud, helping grocery workers keep their jobs when their stores are sold off in Wall Street-style mergers, allowing homeowners that live in Homeowners Associations to install synthetic turf without fear of being fined, protecting marine life, and simplifying the new paid sick days law for businesses and employees.

It's been a great year, but our work isn't over. I'm committed to continuing our fight to make diapers more affordable for parents who are trying to get back to work, and, after recent troubling investigations, I've joined several other Assemblymembers to begin exploring new ways to keep nail salon workers safe from health risks and exploitation on the job.

I hope you'll join us at our community events in the coming months, and let us know what ideas you have for issues we can address to make the 80th District stronger.

It is an honor to represent and serve you.

Sincerely,

Signature
Assemblywoman,
80th District

Lorena's Lowdowns

September 2015

Friday, August 14, 2015

Dear Friends,

As summer vacations end, the legislature is coming back into session to tackle our remaining work for the year.

We’re continuing to work on implementation of our new paid sick days law, which took effect July 1 and guarantees every private sector worker in California the right to earn paid sick leave. You can learn your rights and responsibilities inside and help us make sure the new rules are being respected.

Our office was excited to host our annual Junior Legislator Program this summer, welcoming a dozen local high school students for an immersive month learning about the legislative process and even developing their own proposals for new laws. You can read more about our Junior Legislators inside, and if you or a student you know are interested in participating, be sure to contact our office for next year’s session!

I look forward to getting back to the Capitol to see through our bills protecting grocery workers, addressing gender bias in the workers' compensation system, helping homeowners in HOAs reduce their water use, improving safety standards for student athletes, and boosting voter registration. And, of course, I hope to see you out in the community soon!

It is an honor to represent and serve you.

Sincerely,

Signature
Assemblywoman,
80th District

Lorena's Lowdowns

Summer 2015

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Dear Friends,

This year’s legislative session has brought exciting opportunities to make the state more responsive to the needs of our communities and help provide more opportunities.

Our team has had tremendous success so far this year, already passing bills protecting against immigration scams and to protect our vulnerable marine habitats, with legislation still moving forward to improve student health, promote workplace fairness, combat gender discrimination, and dramatically expand voter registration. We’re optimistic that our ambitious goals will soon turn into real, positive changes for you here in the community.

Our paid sick days legislation took effect on July 1st. The new law will provide every single private sector worker in California 3 days of paid sick leave, allowing you to see a doctor or take care of a loved one when sick. This is a basic right for all hard-working people, which 6.5 million Californians will have for the first time.

As always, I look forward to seeing all of you soon at one of our events or out in the community. Please make sure to say hello if you see me or any member of our team!

It is an honor to represent and serve you.

Sincerely,

Signature
Assemblywoman,
80th District