Daily Journal: A proposed bill requiring law enforcement agencies to not fully encrypt radio communications to ensure public access is now in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, with bill author state Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo, working to ensure passage.
In the News
Politico: The tension between grid reliability and clean energy will be the subject of a hearing this morning in the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Energy Future, chaired by Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park). The subcommittee will hear from energy and clean power experts, including the California Independent System Operator, as it looks for an “initial policy toolkit of renewable solutions to maintain grid reliability.”
KCRA: Senator Josh Becker, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Energy Future, is holding a hearing today to speak about grid reliability during extreme heat events.
Davis Vanguard: SB 922 was passed on Monday by the State Assembly. SB 922 extends and improves upon Senator Wiener’s previous legislation (SB 288, 2020) to expedite bike, pedestrian, light rail, and rapid bus projects by exempting these environmentally sustainable projects from the California Environmental Quality Act .SB 922 is sponsored by SPUR, the Bay Area Council, LA Metro, the California Transit Association and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Assemblymembers Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) and Devon Mathis (D-Porterville) are principal co-authors of SB 922, and Senator Josh Becker (D-San Mateo) and Assemblymembers Tasha Boerner Horvath (D-Encinitas) and Phillip Chen (R-Brea) are co-authors.
Daily Journal: Sacramento lawmakers have the ability to make community college free for thousands of San Mateo County students. State Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo, authored and Assemblymembers Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, and Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, have co-authored Senate Bill 893 which allows the San Mateo County Community College District to use existing local funds to reduce or eliminate the cost of attendance and cover other educational expenses for students in need such as text books, housing and transportation.
Palo Alto Online: The topic of police radio encryption has become increasingly urgent across the state over the past year as more law enforcement agencies have removed public and media access from radio transmissions. A state bill that is currently moving through the Legislature would require all law enforcement agencies to develop alternatives to full encryption by 2024, which may involve giving access to individuals to an online stream of radio communication. Authored by state Sen. Josh Becker, Senate Bill 1000 cleared the state Senate in May and is now in the hands of the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Daily Post: After a 20-month battle, the Palo Alto Police Department is unencrypting its radios to once again allow the public to listen in to police communications, acting Chief Andrew Binder announced yesterday. The long fight for radio transparency spurred state legislation [by Senator Becker] and united the publishers of the city’s two competing newspapers.
Terner Center: The constraints on housing supply are a significant contributor to the current housing crisis. The median price for a home in California sits at $800,000, the highest in the country, and in the last decade, the state has failed to produce enough homes to keep up with job and population...developers of affordable housing projects in California must often contend with state requirements to set aside a large reserve of funding to address the unlikely scenario that a project’s federal rental assistance contract is not renewed. These project-level reserves, which can range from a few hundred thousand to more than three million dollars, invariably sit idle in bank accounts and add significantly to the overall cost of development. Senate Bill 948 (Becker, 2022) would eliminate project-level transition reserves altogether in favor of a more cost-effective statewide “Pooled Transition Reserve Fund” that can be accessed by projects on a case-by-case basis in the event federal assistance is not renewed.”