Lieu Unveils Legislative Package

Sacramento , CA – Today, Assemblymember Ted W. Lieu (D-Torrance) completed his 2006 legislative package.

“I am proud to present our legislative package for the upcoming year,” said Lieu. “The bills included, which cover themes ranging from education to public safety to environmental and health issues, are the result of both our observations of issues that need addressing, but also the thoughts and concerns we have heard from constituents and other community groups. I look forward to working on this legislative package and making it a success for both the 53rd Assembly District and the State of California.”

The following bills have been introduced by Assemblymember Lieu:

AB 1900 will clarify and strengthen current California sex offender laws by closing five loopholes in the law.

“It is important that we do everything we can to make sure our children are safe from sexual predators,” said Lieu, father of two young children. “With AB 1900, we are one step closer to making our community a safer place to live, work, and raise a family.”

AB 1950 will enable school districts to teach financial literacy in economics courses, including instruction on how to protect personal finances from identity theft.

AB 1965 will protect military members and their families by establishing limitations on payday loans to military families. This bill will require payday loan companies to follow a strict set of rules and regulations when following up with members of the armed forces who have outstanding loan advances, including deferring any collection activity against a member who has been deployed, or their spouse.

“Many payday loan companies have already started applying practices that are protecting the young men and women who serve in our military,” said Lieu, who is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and previously served on active-duty. “However, AB 1965 will ensure that every payday loan company will be held to the same standards—standards that clearly protect our military from being taken advantage of by payday loan companies and having their credit damaged beyond repair.”  

AB 2015 will expand the South Coast Air Quality Management District Board from 12 to16 members, to allow local cities in the South Bay and West LA to receive better representation.

“AB 2015 will allow our communities to play a greater role in improving one of our most precious natural resources, namely, clean air,” said Assemblymember Lieu. “By allotting additional representation to local cities we can more accurately and effectively meet the needs of all of South California’s residents.”

AB 2032 will increase California’s Research and Development Tax Credit from 15% to 18%.

AB 2033 will extend the Joint Strike Fighter tax credit for five years.

AB 2090 will restore a one-year sentence enhancement for drug trafficking on an ocean front beach or public park which was previously repealed by a sunset clause in 2003.

“AB 2090 is just one step we can take to ensure that drugs do not affect the most vulnerable members of our society -- our children,” said Lieu. “Drugs like methamphetamines contribute to identity theft, burglaries, and an overall deterioration of our communities.”

AB 2126 simplifies the law to better meet the needs and expectations of California families dealing with a divorce.

AB 2160 will improve our environment by establishing model, voluntary residential green building guidelines.

AB 2360 will ensure that only a licensed professional, medical facility or educational research facility can own and/or operate an ultrasound machine.

“There is a potential for harm when an untrained person operates this medical device,” said Lieu. “An ultrasound machine should only be used under a doctor’s supervision and at his or her discretion.”

AB 2420 would require that state-collected data is disaggregated into additional Asian Pacific Islander (API) ethnic groups. AB 2420 would expand the number of API ethic group categories as well as align these categories with API data reported in the federal U.S. Census. This bill will increase the state data collection to include Hmong, Tongan, Thai, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, Indonesian, Taiwanese, and Fijian to the current API ethnic group categories.

“In order to fully understand the diversity of Asian Pacific Islander communities, it is critical that data is collected for different API ethnic groups,” said Assemblymember Lieu. “Contrary to the image of Asian Pacific islanders being a homogeneous group, API communities come from a variety of cultural, historical, and socio-economic backgrounds. Comprehensive data collection is one of the many steps to accurately identify the community’s needs.”

AB 2600 will extend the sunset allowing alternative fuel vehicles to drive in HOV lanes and provides incentives for research, development, investments and expansion of infrastructure for alternative fuel vehicles.

AB 2626 will ensure that supervisors in prisons will receive the same retirement package as the guards they oversee.

AB 2988 will allow the evaporation of hydrocarbon separator water, which is generated in the hydrocarbon dry cleaning process, instead of dumping it into the sewers.  Currently, only perchloroethylene (PERC) separator water can be evaporated, but more dry cleaners are using hydrocarbon as an alternative to PERC.

In addition, Assemblymember Lieu has introduced several “spot” bills, which make no substantive change in the law. These spot bills will be used for issues that arose too late to receive substantive language before the introduction deadline last week.

Assemblymember Lieu represents the 53rd Assembly District, which includes the cities of Torrance, Lomita, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, El Segundo, the communities of Playa Del Rey, Marina Del Rey, Westchester, Venice, and Mar Vista , and portions of West Los Angeles.