AACRE 2007 Legislative Agenda
The 2007 legislative session has ended. AACRE advocated for the following legislative agenda to advance civil rights and equality for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans across California. You can click on our sponsor and priority bills for more detailed information. See whether the bills made it into law.
Expanding and Protecting Language Rights
AB 280 (Coto) establishes a State Seal of Biliteracy for high school students with proficiency in another language. Status: Vetoed.
SB 305 (Ducheny) allows English Learner students to take standards-based achievement test in their primary language, resulting in more accurate assessments of their academic achievement. Status: 2-year bill.
SB 472 (Corbett) requires the Board of Pharmacy to make recommendations for a standard format for the labeling of prescription drug containers, including accounting for the needs of limited English proficient individuals. Status: Signed into law.
AB 512 (Lieber) requires certain residential loans that are negotiated in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean to be translated into the language in which the loan agreement was negotiated. Status: 2-year bill.
AB 590 (Solorio) would expand opportunities for limited English proficient (LEP) parents to become involved in their children's education. Matching grants would be provided to a pilot project of school districts so that they can provide oral interpretation services needed to communicate with LEP parents. This bill is sponsored by AACRE. Status: 2-year bill.
AB 615 (Torrico) would ensure emergency preparedness planning accounts for the needs of limited English proficient individuals so that communities can understand life-saving information. This bill is sponsored by AACRE. Status: 2-year bill.
AB 763 (Saldaña) would require written notices regarding condo conversions to be translated when the original rental agreement was negotiated in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean. Status: Signed into law.
AB 891 (De La Torre) would require that in-language material be provided to the limited English proficient consumers so they can make informed choices about their telecommunication services prior to signing a contract. Status: 2-year bill.
AB 1726 (Judiciary Committee) would ensure language access is provided in civil courts, which govern critical cases affecting Californians such as child custody, child support, housing, and consumer protections. Status: 2-year bill.
Ending Discrimination and Advancing Civil Rights
AB 14 (Laird) would standardize various business establishment and public accommodation nondiscrimination provisions. Status: Signed into law.
AB 43 (Leno) provides marriage equality for any two people who desire to get married. Status: Vetoed.
AB 122 (Solorio) requires candidates to receive information about voter intimidation when running for office. Status: Vetoed.
AB 288 (Price) requires every person convicted of violating voter intimidation provisions to also pay a fine that would be used for conducting voter education campaigns. Status: Signed into law.
AB 394 (Levine) will ensure students are attending safe schools, by outlining a monitoring process to ensure schools are addressing bias-related discrimination and harassment incidents. This bill is co-sponsored by AACRE and Equality California. Status: Signed into law.
SB 382 (Oropeza) allows new citizens to register to vote up until Election Day. Status: Vetoed.
SB 518 (Migden) establishes the youth bill of rights within the juvenile justice system. Status: Signed into law.
AB 614 (Eng) would improve sharing of best practices for reaching limited English proficient voters. This bill is sponsored by AACRE. Status: Vetoed.
SB 777 (Kuehl) would standardize various nondiscrimination provisions in education. Status: Signed into law.
AB 1294 (Mullin and Leno) allows any city, county or district to conduct local elections using instant run-off or ranked choice voting. Status: Vetoed.
Promoting Immigrant Rights
SB 1 (Cedillo) provides eligibility for immigrant high school students to apply for state financial aid, if they meet requirements for attending college with in-state tuition. Status: Vetoed.
SB 28, 30, and 31 (Simitian) provide protections of personal data in the use of radio-frequency identification technology in government-issued identification documents. Status: 2-year bill.
AB 515 (Lieber) requires the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to establish permissible exposure limits for workplace hazardous substances in order to protect workers, especially immigrant workers in low-wage industries, from exposure to toxic levels. Status: 2-year bill.
AB 976 (Calderon) would prohibit localities from requiring landlords to inquire about immigration or citizenship status. Status: Signed into law.
Advocating for APIA Community Needs
AB 295 (Lieu) will ensure state data reflects the diversity of the Asian and Pacific Islander American community by having state agencies collect data for additional ethnic groups, including Hmong, Tongan, Thai, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, Indonesian, Taiwanese, and Fijian. The focus is on the most critical departments affecting health and human services, employment, and civil rights. This bill is sponsored by AACRE. Status: Vetoed.
SB 26 (Simitian) would ensure state data collection includes multi-racial categories. Status: 2-year bill.