LEGISLATIVE HIGHLIGHTS
AB 20 (Lieber) Disabled Victims of Crime: Extends courtroom protections to the developmentally disabled and cognitively impaired, making it more likely that they will be able to testify effectively. Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 50 (Koretz, Lieber Co-Author) Assault Weapons Ban: Made it illegal to sell, distribute, import, manufacture or possess a .50 caliber assault weapon in California, the first state in the nation to
do so. Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 781 (Lieber) WWII Japanese-American Internees: High School Diplomas: Restored high school diplomas to Japanese-Americans who were interned during WWII. Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 898 (Chu, Lieber Co-Author) Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights: Requires law enforcement to notify a victim if they do not intend to analyze or plan to dispose of DNA evidence before the statue
of limitations. Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 2683 (Lieber) Clean Air: Smog Check: Requires all 1976 and later cars to pass a smog check for their model year, reducing cancer and asthma-causing particulate matter in California’s air by 10+
tons per day by 2015. Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 2777 (Lieber) Environmental Safety: Chemical Spills: Would have instituted protections on the transportation of hazardous chemicals in waterways, similar to protections used when transporting petroleum. Approved by the Assembly.
SB 1319 (Burton, Lieber Co-Author) California Ocean Protection Act: Established the Ocean
Protection Council to coordinate protection and conservation and coordinate sharing of scientific
data. Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 19 and 849 (Leno, Lieber, Laird) The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act:
Defined marriage as a civil contract between two persons, seeking to end discrimination in issuing marriage licenses. AB 19: Approved by Assembly Judiciary. AB 849: Approved by the Legislature, vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.
AB 22 (Lieber) The California Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act: Made human trafficking a felony
in California, made survivors eligible for victim services and created a statewide task force.
Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 32 (Núñez, Pavley, Lieber Co-Author) Global Warming: Set limits for emissions of greenhouse gasses in California. Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 160 (Lieber): Sentencing Commission: Sought to create a non-partisan commission of legal
experts to review California’s criminal codes and right-size our criminal justice system. Approved
by the Assembly and the Senate’s Public Safety Committee.
AB 172 (Chan, Lieber Co-Author) State Preschool Programs: Low Performing Schools: Added
$50 million to strengthen preschool and increase accountability in the lowest-performing schools. Approved by the Legislature and the Governor
AB 221 (Anderson, Lieber Co-Author) Iran Divestment: Prohibited California’s huge public employee retirement funds from making investments in defense or nuclear sectors of Iran. Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 478: (Lieber) Ban on Shackling: Bans the practice of shackling pregnant inmates during labor, delivery and recovery and mandates prenatal and post-partum healthcare. Approved by the
Legislature and the Governor.
AB 515: (Lieber) Workplace Toxics: Sought to strengthen workplace protections against toxic
chemicals that cause cancer and birth defects. Approved by the Assembly.
AB 583 (Hancock, Lieber Co-Author) The California Clean Money & Fair Elections Act: Sought to
allow candidates to obtain public funding if they met requirements and agreed not to not accept
private or corporate funds. Approved by the Assembly.
AB 816 (Lieber) Disclosure of Chemical Use: Sought to strengthen the State’s ability to provide
early warnings on the hazards of toxic chemicals and in an emergency to identify businesses that bought specified toxic chemicals. Approved by the Legislature.
AB 1660 (Pavley, Lieber Co-Author) Energy Efficient Vehicles: Promotes the purchase of energy-efficient, fuel-efficient vehicles by local and state government through an incentive program.
Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 1662 (Lieber) Special Education: Secured $1.3 billion in federal funding and preserved
students’ access to services. Approved by the Legislature and Governor.
AB 1778 (Lieber) Student and Family Privacy Protection Act: Sought to make it easier for
students and families to opt-out of having their private information released to military recruiters
under the No Child Left Behind Act. Approved by the Legislature.
AB 1835 (Lieber) Minimum Wage Increase: Increased the State’s minimum wage from $6.75 to
$8.00, delivering $10B to low wage-earning Californians, predominately women workers.
Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 2634 (Lieber) Supportive Housing: General Plans: Requires cities and counties to include
the housing needs of extremely low income households (e.g., minimum wage earning families, SSI recipients) and households requiring supportive housing in their Housing Element plans.
Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 2813 (De La Torre, Lieber Co-Author) Higher Education: Access to Cal Grants: Expanded
the use of Cal Grants for first-year tuition and fees and doubled the number of Competitive Cal
Grants. Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
AB 2954: (Lieber) San Francisco Bay Restoration. Established the San Francisco Bay
Restoration Authority to raise funds, award grants to help restore and preserve the Bay’s fragile habitats. Approved by the Legislature and the Governor.
SB 840 (Kuehl, Lieber Co-Author) Single-Payer Health Care Coverage: Sought to establish a
universal coverage, single-payer system of healthcare making all California residents eligible
for health care benefits. Approved by the Legislature.