Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr. is an American politician currently serving in the California State Assembly. He is a Democrat representing the 59th Assembly District, which encompasses portions of South Los Angeles, the neighborhoods of Florence-Graham and Walnut Park, and a part of Huntington Park.
In the State Legislature, we need to continue working to make our state’s education funding system more equitable, so that students all throughout California can have the same resources in the classroom. Additionally, we need to continue making California’s world-class higher education system more accessible and affordable, so that every student in the state has an opportunity to attend one of our schools.
I believe California must set an example for the country and establish universal health care. In the Assembly, I have been an unrelenting advocate for expanding access to quality, affordable care and reducing healthcare costs. We also need better, more responsive mental health services in California, particularly for our state’s enlarged homeless population.
While we’ve passed recent measures that will help address California’s affordable housing crisis, the cost of living continues to rise sharply. Rents are skyrocketing and gentrification is pushing families and small businesses out of their communities. In the California legislature, we need to double down on protecting renters’ rights and tackling homelessness.
We need to continue to make California’s criminal justice system more fair, just, and transparent, including reducing our state’s overcrowded prison population, combatting the school-to-prison pipeline for so many young people of color and cracking down on excessive acts of violence from law enforcement officials. Additionally, I believe local law enforcement needs to be supported and I will work to provide the necessary resources to tackle violent crime.
The future of our environment is in our own hands, especially given the Trump administration’s outright willingness to double down on dirty fuels and eliminate critical environmental protections. I have worked to protect and conserve our environment in my time in the Assembly, and will continue to do so, including ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to experience California’s green economy.
Public transportation and its infrastructure can have a profound impact on the quality of our lives; I’m proud to have supported the SB 1, the ground-breaking transportation funding bill that will begin the work of creating a 21st Century transportation system in California.
I strongly believe workers’ rights must be upheld and expanded to ensure people can earn a living wage and make their voices heard. I also believe small businesses need to be supported and will encourage new, locally owned businesses against the threats provided by gentrification and corporate expansion.
I have been a longtime ally of women and women’s rights throughout my life, and the #MeToo movement has exposed how much more work we have to do to make our society a safe place for everyone, particularly in the workplace. I support and believe the women coming forward, and will support the efforts being made to strengthen process for sexual harassment complaints.
Reggie Jones-Sawyer has worked tirelessly to respond to this unprecedented health and economic crisis and protect people in the 59th District. When the pandemic first struck, Reggie took action right away to minimize the economic and physical pain caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. From grocery workers keeping our stores stocked to nurses battling the virus, Reggie has helped deliver for frontline workers and working families during the crisis by:
Allocating $100 million to purchase vital PPE for hospitals
Hand delivering PPE to small clinics running low on supplies
Making COVID-19 testing more accessible
Helping struggling families access financial benefits
Protecting renters & homeowners by fighting for an eviction moratorium
Restoring hundreds of millions of dollars in proposed funding cuts to community health clinics
Extending millions of dollars in additional stimulus funds to undocumented people
Providing over $100 million of community banking support to help small business access capital
Helping students navigate the COVID-era learning environment by ensuring no cuts to schools and providing $5.5 billion to manage COVID closure impacts
But the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the failures of our existing social safety net, which has made our response to the public health crisis much worse than it otherwise would be. While some of this support for the working families in the 59th District depends on better leadership in Washington, there’s clearly so much more to do in Sacramento, including:
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Extending the statewide moratorium on evictions and foreclosures indefinitely and provide greater emergency rental assistance
Creating a truly universal healthcare system that provides health care as a right, regardless of income or employment
Providing greater aid to immigrant communities, who are likely to again be left out of the next federal aid package
Extending California’s boosted unemployment insurance and assistance to small businesses
The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought about an unprecedented economic crisis. Millions continue to be unemployed, while critical federal financial benefits are set to expire.
As a former shop steward and labor leader, Reggie is deeply committed to economic justice and strongly believes the rights of working people must be upheld and expanded. At a time when the health of workers is threatened like never before and jobs are incredibly scarce, this is more critical now than ever. Reggie believes that investing in the middle class and ensuring the wealthy pay their fair share need to be a priority. Also, Reggie is supporting small businesses during this crisis and will continue to fight for more funding for locally owned businesses that are already confronting the threats of gentrification and corporate expansion.
That’s why in the Assembly, Reggie has fought to create an economy that works for everyone not just those at the top by raising wages, protecting the rights of working people, expanding critical services, and supporting small businesses.
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IN SACRAMENTO, REGGIE HAS ADVANCED ECONOMIC JUSTICE BY:
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Increasing Wages and Enhancing Critical Services
Supported increasing the state minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Championed the establishment of the state Earned Income Tax Credit targeted to help support the state’s poorest working families. This credit now covers over three million California households.
Championed the repeal of the maximum family grant rule in CalWORKS, which denied aid to children who were born while their parents were already receiving state assistance.
Co-authored legislation that created a system of overtime for agricultural workers.
Co-authored legislation that expands access to safe consumer loans up to $7500. This legislation targets communities of color and other that are un-banked or under banked with limited credit histories.
Co-authored legislation that helps provide broadband internet connectivity throughout the state, as internet access is critical to our education, health care and economic well-being.
Authored legislation that makes it easier for counties to pay for home Internet and phone services for low-income individuals.
Secured hundreds of millions to expand access to child care both in-home and pre-school for California families.
Protecting Workers and Consumers Rights
Authored legislation that strengthens workplace protections for employees of cannabis businesses.
Authored legislation that protects foster minors from adverse consumer credit reports in their name.
Authored legislation that ensure cannabis businesses employees receive proper workplace safety training, protecting both employees and consumers.
Authored legislation that allows workers to return to work post-retirement for a temporary amount of time without losing retired health benefits from their previous employer.
Authored legislation that strengthens human resource protection for state employees.
Authored legislation that empowers social workers to provide feedback on county policies or regulations that endanger the health and safety of children without fear of retribution.
Supporting Small Business Development
Supported over $125 million in funding for community banking loans for small businesses
Authored legislation that supports advertisement revenue generation for certain local arenas and other sports complex developments.
Supported the extension of the California Competes program that awards tax credits to small businesses in the state to encourage their growth.
These are unprecedented times in more ways than one. The protests that followed the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police have been historic. Now more than ever, Americans are seeing the dangers of a country that has the world’s largest prison population and police departments that default to violence, with Black and Latino people being the primary victims.
Protesters are calling for an end to police brutality and people are starting to realize that the way we make neighborhoods safer is by providing people with basic necessities, including affordable housing, stable jobs, accessible health care, and quality schools, not by investing more in the criminal justice system.
As Chair of both the Assembly Public Safety Committee and the Select Committee on Ending the School to Prison Pipeline, Reggie been at the forefront of pioneering criminal justice reform in California. Throughout his time in the Assembly, Reggie has helped enact countless laws that have improved our criminal justice system by curtailing mass incarceration, ending the school to prison pipeline, ensuring police accountability, and promoting restorative justice.
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IN SACRAMENTO, REGGIE HAS ADVANCED ECONOMIC JUSTICE BY:
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Encouraging Alternatives to Incarceration & Ending Cash Bail
Joint authored law that moves California away from money bail to a risk-based assessment system.
Wrote a law that prevents plea bargains from making a defendant waive potential benefits of future changes in the law.
Authored a law eliminating a mandatory minimum jail requirement for certain low-level drug crimes, instead allowing for judicial discretion.
Co-authored legislation that gives judges the ability to strike a prior felony conviction to avoid a 5-year sentence in the interest of justice.
Wrote a law that requires a court to provide community service instead of fines.
Authored legislation to create a pilot program that decreases incarceration and connects more misdemeanor offenders to supportive services.
Authored legislation that eliminated mandatory jail time for certain low level misdemeanors.
Authored legislation that improved the fairness of the bail system by allowing courts to review staff reports and recommendations in making bail determinations.
Authored legislation that enabled individuals convicted of felonies to seek expungement if their crime is now a misdemeanor.
Authored legislation that requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide transitional services to individuals who have been exonerated.
Authored legislation that allows those sentenced to county jail for felonies to be eligible for work furlough programs.
Ensuring Police Accountability
Chaired the first policy committee to hear and co-authored legislation that revises the standards governing the appropriate use of force for law enforcement.
Co-authored legislation that makes police officer records available for a Public Records Act request if they are related to firing a weapon, deadly or serious force, sexual assault or dishonesty by the officer.
Authored legislation that eliminates the requirement for individuals convicted of a certain drug offense to register with local law enforcement, more effectively deploying law enforcement resources.
Authored legislation that clarifies law to protect Californians against unreasonable seizure of their vehicle.
Authored legislation that places additional notice requirements when law enforcement seizes a firearm.
Authored legislation that prohibits law enforcement from detaining a crime victim or witness solely for an actual or suspected immigration violation.
Co-authored legislation that requires law enforcement to provide notice to a minor and their parents prior to designating the individual as a suspected gang member or associate.
Combatting the School to Prison Pipeline
Authored legislation that creates the Schools Not Prisons Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund as a voluntary income tax return donation. Funds go as grants to nonprofits for the purpose of funding academic and career readiness programs that break the school to prison pipeline.
Authored legislation that removes references to "at-risk" or "high-risk" youth in the education and penal code, replacing them with "at-promise" to recognize the potential of each child.
Introduced and authored legislation that encourages schools to detail the appropriate roles and responsibilities of certain school staff including police officers on campus.
Authored legislation that would ensure that continuation school was not used as an alternative to expulsion and that no student groups are disproportionately sent to continuation schools.
Co-author of legislation that requires the development and adoption of model curriculum in ethnic studies for high schools.
Investing in Communities, Not Criminal Justice System
Authored legislation that provided over $50 million in grant funds to community organizations providing trauma-informed diversion programs to justice-involved youth in lieu of them being arrested.
Co-authored legislation that establishes the California Cannabis Equity Act of 2018 that creates grants for cities and counties to help fund pathways into the cannabis industry for communities affected by the war on drugs, especially communities of color.
Secured over $50 million in budgetary funds for youth diversion, specifically programs that provide supportive services (education, rehabilitation opportunities, job training) to justice-involved youth instead of referring them to county probation.
As the nephew of one of the Little Rock Nine who first desegregated American public schools, Reggie knows intimately the importance of a quality education. That’s why throughout his life, Reggie has fought to defend and uplift our public schools.
But California public schools are still recovering from the last recession and decades of cuts, and now face the budget consequences of our current economic catastrophe. And inequality in education access to quality education remains rampant, and deeply racialized.
In the Assembly, Reggie has fought to ensure a high-quality public education is available to every California student by investing in the most underserved schools, fully funding public schools, ending the school to prison pipeline, and guaranteeing free public colleges and universities.
If re-elected, Reggie will fight to provide our schools with the funding necessary to navigate this unprecedented time and will continue to make our state’s education funding system more equitable so that students all throughout California can have the same resources in the classroom. Additionally, Reggie knows we need to continue making California’s world-class higher education system more accessible and affordable, so that every student in the state has an opportunity to attend one of our schools.​
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IN SACRAMENTO, REGGIE HAS ADVANCED EDUCATION JUSTICE BY:
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Enhancing K-12 and Trade School Funding
Protected LA schools from cuts during COVID-19 crisis and provided $5.5 billion to help schools manage impact of COVID closure.
Championed an overhaul of our K-12 education funding system to benefit underserved schools by providing additional funds to schools serving English learners, low-income students and students in foster care.
Supported greater funding for special education, including $1.5 billion to help special needs students manage impact of COVID closure.
Increased career technical education funding
Fighting for Free Public College
Introduced legislation that, if passed, will create a workgroup to set California on a path towards free college.
Championed making the first two years of community college free for full time students
Consistently supports an increase in Cal Grants to make college more affordable.
Combatting the School to Prison Pipeline
Authored legislation that creates the Schools Not Prisons Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund as a voluntary income tax return donation. Funds go as grants to nonprofits for the purpose of funding academic and career readiness programs that break the school to prison pipeline.
Authored legislation that removes references to "at-risk" or "high-risk" youth in the education and penal code, replacing them with "at-promise" to recognize the potential of each child.
Introduced and authored legislation that encourages schools to detail the appropriate roles and responsibilities of certain school staff including police officers on campus.
Authored legislation that would ensure that continuation school was not used as an alternative to expulsion and that no student groups is disproportionately sent to continuation schools.
Ensuring Equity in the Classroom
Co-author of legislation that requires the development and adoption of model curriculum in ethnic studies for high schools.
Authored legislation that restricts the ability of schools to place students in courses without any real classroom content. This was in response to a lawsuit against seven school districts that found students of color, especially English Learners, were disproportionately placed in classes titled “home” or “work-experience” but did not have any true classroom content, robbing students of their education.
Authored legislation that requires the Department of Education to take steps to ensure that foster students and their families are aware of their educational rights.
Authored legislation that requires teachers at all schools, including charter schools, to be checked annually to ensure that they hold the proper credentials to teach the course to which they are assigned.
Authored legislation that protects student victims when reporting abuses by school employees.
Co-authored legislation that protects the health of school children by providing safeguards around vaccinations and attendance in public schools.
Los Angeles is a city of immigrants. Our unparalleled diversity has always enriched our region and made us one of the greatest places in the world.
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In the Trump era, immigrants all over the country are under constant threat of deportation and other abuse. But the problem didn’t start with Trump. America’s immigration system has long been deeply flawed, predatory and exploitative of certain communities.
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Reggie has always believed in creating a California for all, regardless of citizenship status. That’s why Reggie is proud to have stood up for immigrant communities during the constant attacks from the Trump administration to ensure they have access to the necessary resources and protections. In the Assembly, Reggie has fought to provide critical financial benefits to immigrant communities amid COVID-19 and make California a sanctuary state for all people.
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If re-elected, Reggie will continue to defend immigrants from the constant attacks by the federal government and ensure they have access to critical services during these unprecedented times. As long as Congress repeatedly fails to pass national comprehensive immigration reform, California has the responsibility to take the lead and defend and expand the rights of everyone, regardless of their citizenship status.
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IN SACRAMENTO, REGGIE HAS ADVANCED IMMIGRANT JUSTICE BY:
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Extending Critical Services to Everyone, Regardless of Status
Led effort to push Governor Newsom to establish a state relief fund that has provided economic assistance to undocumented workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Extended millions of dollars in additional 2020 stimulus funds to undocumented people, including $25 million for entrepreneurial training and financial aid for undocumented students at the UC, CSU, and community colleges.
Extended access to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to undocumented people with children under the age of 6, benefiting up to 46,000 Californians.
Championed the expansion of health care coverage to all undocumented children in California.
Co-authored legislation that created a system of overtime for agricultural workers.
Protecting Angelenos from ICE
Supported California’s sanctuary state law that prevents state and local law enforcement agencies from using their resources on behalf of federal immigration enforcement agencies.
Authored legislation that prohibits law enforcement from detaining a crime victim or witness solely for an actual or suspected immigration violation.
Empowering Immigrant Youth
Co-author of legislation that requires the development and adoption of model curriculum in ethnic studies for high schools.
Co-authored a resolution urging Congress to create a pathway to permanent legal status for immigrant youth with Deferred Enforced Departure and Temporary Protected Status.
The world is facing a cataclysmic climate catastrophe. The damage from climate change isn’t in the future, it’s here now. People in Southern California have seen this firsthand in the unprecedented frequency of severe droughts, elevated heat, and severe fires.
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Given Donald Trump’s eagerness to eliminate critical environmental protections and double down on dirty fuels, the future of the planet is in the hands of the states.
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That’s why in the Assembly, Reggie has worked to defend our environment and ensure that everyone, no matter your income, has an opportunity to experience California’s green economy. In Sacramento, Reggie championed investing hundreds of millions in low-income communities to fight climate change and advocated to pass a law that ensures a 100% renewable energy in California by 2045.
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Reggie knows more needs to be done to accelerate California’s transition to clean, renewable energy in a way that empowers working class communities of color, which he will continue to fight for both locally and on the state level if re-elected.
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IN SACRAMENTO, REGGIE HAS ADVANCED CLIMATE JUSTICE BY:
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Advocating for a 100% Clean Energy Future
Advocated to pass a pioneering law that ensures a 100% renewable energy system in California by 2045.
Ensuring Equity in the Green Energy Revolution
Supported hundreds of millions in Cap and Trade funds being targeted to low-income communities to address climate change through public transportation investments, affordable housing, and increased home efficiency.
Co-authored legislation requiring the California Energy Commission to implement outreach programs to minority communities about workshops, training and funding opportunities, providing economic and environmental gains to these communities.
Protecting Air and Water
Co-authored legislation that specifies requirements for toxic air contaminants and implements a statewide strategy to reduce emissions.
Secured ongoing funding to ensure access to safe and clean drinking water.
Reggie believes housing is a human right. That’s why in the Assembly, Reggie’s fought to invest over $4 billion towards affordable housing construction and expanded renters’ protections.
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But while the State Legislature has passed a number of measures to help address our state’s affordable housing crisis, the cost of living continues to rise sharply. Gentrification has also been a complicated and silent killer in the 59th District that is displacing thousands of families and small businesses in the Los Angeles area long before the pandemic. And now, as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, millions in California are facing the anxiety of eviction or foreclosure. It’s clear far more needs to be done.
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While housing insecurity is a complicated, multifaceted problem that doesn’t have an easy solution, in the California legislature, Reggie will continue to fight to protect renters’ rights and tackle homelessness, including amending Costa-Hawkins to enable city governments to enact rent freezes, heighten protections for renters, and prosecute shady landlords who unjustly evict their tenants.
In order to ensure everyone in California can access affordable housing, Reggie also supports a wide variety of measures to accelerate affordable housing production and slow rising rents by canceling rents during COVID, stopping unjust evictions, financing affordable housing projects for homeless and low-income populations, holding landlords accountable who exploit their tenants, and streamlining permitting and approval processes, and offering a density bonus to 100% of affordable housing developments.
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IN SACRAMENTO, REGGIE HAS ADVANCED HOUSING FOR ALL BY:
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Incentivizing the Development of Affordable Housing
Supported an over $4 billion investment in affordable housing construction.
​Fought to ensure $500 million in one-time funds to expand the Low Income Housing Tax Credit in the 2019-2020 state budget.
Enacting Tenant Protections
Fought to protect struggling renters & homeowners during the pandemic by fighting for an eviction moratorium in California for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis.
Supported legislation that prevents landlords from increasing rent by more than 5% annually and provides “just cause” eviction protections to tenants throughout California.
Supported a 2020 bill that would have declared state policy that every individual in California has the right to safe, decent, and affordable housing.
Combating Homelessness & Gentrification​
Launched a plan to combat gentrification centered around educating South LA families and small businesses on how to keep their land and homes in the district.
Everyone deserves a home. But even before the COVID-19 crisis that has displaced and impoverished so many, our region was already in the midst of a dire homelessness crisis. There are many reasons why someone might fall into homelessness, and addressing a problem of this magnitude requires innovative solutions at all levels.
We must combat our homelessness crisis by providing critical services directly to those in need and building permanent affordable housing units now. We need a Housing First policy across the board where supportive services are offered to unhoused individuals to maximize housing stability and prevent returns to homelessness as opposed to addressing predetermined treatment goals prior to providing housing.
Additionally, we need to invest significantly more mental health services for unhoused people and preventing them from living on the streets and reform our criminal justice system to ensure that no one is targeted simply for not having enough resources.
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IN SACRAMENTO, REGGIE HAS WORKED TO COMBAT OUR HOMELESSNESS CRISIS BY:
Delivering Critical Resources to Provide Housing to Homeless Individuals
Supported a 2019 law that invests $900 million in homelessness prevention services and prevents illegitimate appeals to the development of homeless shelters.
Supported 2020 legislation that would require cities and localities to establish plans to reduce homelessness 90% by 2029 and creates a state office to ensure they meet annual benchmarks.
Supported a 2016 law that imposes a $75 fee on real estate transaction documents, excluding commercial and residential sales, to provide funding for affordable housing and homelessness.
Supported a 2015 law that required that any state agency that addresses homelessness to adopt guidelines and regulations to include Housing First policies.
Supported a 2018 law that streamlined affordable housing projects that include supportive housing units and onsite supportive services.
Co-authored legislation that would have created a program to provide matching funds to cities to create innovative and immediate solutions to the problems of homelessness.
Supported a 2020 bill that would have established the California Access to Housing Fund and appropriated $2 billion each year to the Fund to address homelessness.
Fought to provide $20 million for navigation centers to connect individuals experiencing homelessness to permanent housing in the 2017-18 budget.
Worked to provide $500 million in 2018 for one-time for Emergency Homeless Aid Block Grants for local governments to respond to homelessness and $650 million in 2019.
Fought to provide $1.3 billion for Project Home Key and Supportive Housing amid the COVID-19 crisis, which has housed over 14,000 homeless individuals, with Los Angeles alone housing over 3,600.
Worked to provide $300 million in 2020 to help localities fight homelessness, including $125 million in State Funds for the City of Los Angeles to fight homelessness and $65 million for Los Angeles County.
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Ensuring Everyone Can Access Critical Services
Supported a 2013 law that clarified there is no minimum age requirement for CalFresh eligibility and provides information and training for unaccompanied homeless children.
Supported a 2015 law that allows homeless students to remain in their school of origin.
Supported a 2015 law that gave priority for housing at the UC, CSU and California Community College systems to homeless youth, and ensures that campuses develop plans for housing these students during breaks.
Supported a 2019 law that added a representative of the California Department of Education (CDE) to the state Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC) to ensure that those who work directly with homeless students are given a seat at the table.
Supported a 2020 bill that would have created the Governor’s Office to End Homelessness
Ensured that Permitted CalWORKs families receiving a temporary or permanent benefit under the Homeless Assistance Program can receive this benefit annually instead of only once in a lifetime
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Working to end the criminalization of homelessness
Authored a 2019 bill that would have required the DMV to renew the vehicle registration for individuals experiencing homelessness and participating in a Safe Parking Program operated by a city/county
Authored a 2019 bill that would have allowed homeless individuals an opportunity to pay back parking and traffic tickets through community service