Press Release

State Senator Dr. Aisha Wahab Has 16 Bills Signed Into Law

Sacramento, CA — State Senator Dr. Aisha Wahab’s (D-Silicon Valley) had 16 bills signed into law for the 2024 legislative session, the most of any Bay Area Senator.

"I’m proud of the work my team and I did this year to address retail theft, addiction, mental health, workers’ rights, seniors’ rights, and sexual abuse via AI," said Dr. Wahab. “These are all issues important to my district and people across California, and these new laws will increase the health and safety of many vulnerable populations.”

Additionally, Senator Wahab was instrumental in combatting retail theft and crime in California as well as ensuring that the budget cuts to education and social services are limited.

Senior Protection Package
SB 1354 - Protect Seniors At All Costs Act

  • Ensures equitable treatment of Medi-Cal residents and protects against payment source discrimination at Skilled Nursing Facilities.

SB 1352 – Continuing Care Retirement Communities

  • Ensures residents of continuing care retirement communities are informed of all their rights upon signing their contracts.

Public Safety
SB 400 – Peace Officer Termination Disclosures

  • Increases police transparency by allowing departments to proactively share why an officer was terminated; if they so choose.

SB 1317 - Court Ordered Medications

  • Ensures continuation of the existing process for obtaining court orders to administer involuntary medication to those with severe mental health disorders who are detained in county jails

SB 1353 - Youth Bill of Rights Mental Health

  • Adds the right to receive behavioral health services to the existing types of healthcare that a detained or incarcerated youth has the right to receive.

SB 982 - Organized Retail Theft Sunset Removal

  • Will ensure organized retail theft remains a crime to give prosecutors and law enforcement the effective tools they need to combat organized theft.

Workforce
SB 399 – Captive Audience

  • Protects workers' rights by ensuring employees cannot be required to attend meetings regarding political or religious speech.

SB 1321 – ETP

  • Updates labor standards on Employment Training Panel selection criteria, prioritizing high-quality programs, requiring plans for diverse recruitment, and increasing data transparency from the Employment Training Panel.

AI Safety Package
SB 926 – Stop The Online Predators Act

  • Expands current revenge porn law by prohibiting unauthorized distribution of artificially created sexually explicit images with the intent to cause serious emotional distress to the person depicted in the image.

SB 1381 - AI Child Safety

  • Prohibits the possession and distribution of explicit, abusive images of children by clarifying that images created through AI are also prohibited.

SB 981 – Digital Identity Theft Act   

  • Requires a social media platform to provide a more active mechanism for someone to report sexually explicit images they are featured in to the social media platform.

Mental Health
SB 1318 – Child Suicide Prevention

  • Requires policy updates to ensure students experiencing a mental health crisis on school campus receive care from a qualified behavioral health professional.

SB 1320 - Behavioral Health Integrated Coverage

  • Will ensure health plans and insurers establish a process to reimburse providers for mental health and substance use disorder treatments that are integrated with primary care.

Women and Youth
SB 575–Child Marriage Data Integrity

  • Collects crucial data needed to craft informed and effective policy on the issue of child marriage, and increases transparency in the state-sanctioned minor marriage process instituted by SB 273.

SB 1356 - Gender Perspective Training

  • Expands the scope of existing judicial training programs to more broadly cover gender bias.

Housing
SB 1357 – HACA Transparency

  • Requires the Housing Authority of Alameda County (HACA) to increase transparency regarding their programming, and improve the function of their website for consumers.