Officially Chartered by the National Federation of Republican Women and the California Republican Party
From the Desk of Lydia Kanno, CFRW President June 27, 2025
SB 79 - OVERRIDES LOCAL CONTROL TO FORCE HIGH-DENSITY HOUSING NEAR TRANSIT STOPS
ISSUE:
Senate Bill 79 (Wiener – San Francisco) is a sweeping state mandate that overrides local zoning laws to force high-density housing within a half-mile of virtually any transit stop, regardless of community input or infrastructure readiness. The bill allows transit agencies to control development on land they own or have easements on, bypassing local planning and public input.
CONCERNS:
- The bill gives unelected state officials and transit agencies the power to greenlight development without voter consent.
- Transit agencies would gain planning powers typically reserved for city councils and planning commissions.
- The bill grants transit agencies unchecked land use authority, allowing them to dictate height, density, and design on land they own or control via easements.
- Cities’ long-term planning tools, like general plans, are rendered meaningless under this proposal.
- Strips away local control, forcing communities to accept high-rise development without public consent.
BACKGROUND:
California’s housing crisis has been driven by decades of overregulation, sky-high building fees, and government-imposed delays, not a lack of land. Yet instead of cutting red tape, state lawmakers have declared war on single-family zoning, pushing dense urban development as a one-size-fits-all solution. Recent laws like SB 9 and SB 10 stripped away local control, allowing up to 10 units per parcel in residential neighborhoods, regardless of what communities want.
SB 79 is the latest attempt to override local decision-making in the name of climate policy. Critics warn this top-down push for urbanization punishes suburban and rural communities, threatens infrastructure capacity, and sidelines voters, all while doing little to actually lower housing costs or increase supply where it’s most needed.
Groups Supporting SB 79: Bay Area Council (Co-Sponsor), California YIMBY (Co-Sponsor), Greenbelt Alliance (Co-Sponsor), SPUR (Co-Sponsor), Streets for All (Co-Sponsor), AARP, CalBike (California Bicycle Coalition), California Apartment Association, California Community Builders, Housing Action Coalition, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, East Bay Leadership Council, YIMBY Action, and others.
Groups Opposed to SB 79: California Cities for Local Control, California Contract Cities Association, California Policy Center, California State Association of Counties, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, and nearly 100 cities and towns across California, as well as other organizations.
BILL STATUS:
SB 79 was passed by the Senate and is now in the Assembly for consideration. The bill will be heard by the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on July 2, 2025.
ACTION OPTIONS:
Submit a Letter of Opposition to the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee this week
Learn how to write a Letter of Opposition
Watch a video tutorial on how to submit the letter to the committee
Read the letter from California Policy Center
Contact Housing and Community Development Committee members and ask them to vote no on SB 79:
- Matt Haney (Chair): Assembly District 17
- Joe Patterson (Vice Chair): Assembly District 05
- Anamarie Ávila Farías: AD 15
- Jessica M. Caloza: AD 52
- Robert Garcia: AD 50
- Ash Kalra: AD 25
- Alex Lee: AD 24
- Sharon Quirk-Silva: AD 67
- Tri Ta: AD 70
- David J. Tangipa: AD 08
- Lori D. Wilson: AD 11
- Buffy Wicks: AD 14
Contact your Assemblymember and ask them to vote no on SB 79
https://www.assembly.ca.gov/assemblymembers
TALKING POINTS:
- Threatens single-family and multifamily neighborhoods, including historic districts
- It hands decision-making power to unelected state bureaucrats and transit agencies, undermining local democracy
- Allows upzoning in single-family and multifamily neighborhoods, in which over 80 percent of Californians live
- This one-size-fits-all policy fails to account for local infrastructure, public safety, and community character
- SB 79 is coercive, not constructive—California’s housing crisis will not be solved by sidelining local voices
https://www.assembly.ca.gov/assemblymembers
Following a years-long surge in illegal immigration, the Trump administration is poised to challenge a longstanding but legally fraught practice: counting illegal aliens in the U.S. census
By Benjamin Weingarten, RealClearInvestigations June 26, 2025
President Trump tried to end the practice during his first term, but President Biden overturned his predecessor’s policy before it was implemented. Now, buoyed by red state attorneys general and Republican legislators, the second Trump administration is determined “to clean up the census and make sure that illegal aliens are not counted,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller said last month.
What Miller didn’t mention are the political implications of the administration’s move. It could have significant political implications because the census count is used to apportion House seats, determine the number of votes each state gets in the Electoral College for selecting the president, and drive the flow of trillions of dollars in government funds.
Some immigration researchers project that including noncitizens in the census count disproportionately benefits Democratic states with large illegal alien populations. A recent study counters that, based on 2020 census figures, there would have been a negligible shift to the political map had the U.S. government excluded noncitizens from that count. But looking backward, those researchers found, red states would have benefited under the administration’s desired census counting shift. Had authorities excluded such migrants from the 2010 census, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and North Carolina all would have gained one seat in the House, while California would have lost three seats, and Texas and Florida would have each lost one seat – with the total number of Electoral College votes allotted each state changing accordingly.
CONTINUE READING
The Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit against the Orange County Registrar of Voters to ensure accurate voter registration rolls
U.S. Dept. Of Education Finds California is Violating Title IX With Trans Athletes In Women’s Sports DOE has given California 10 days to make necessary changes
By Evan Symon, June 25, 2025 4:35 pm California Globe
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on Wednesday that they have concluded their investigations into Title IX violations in California, finding that both the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) are violating the law by letting transgender athletes, biological males, compete in girls’ sports.
According to the DOE Office for Civil Rights, the California’s Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation have shown discrimination against women and girls on the basis of sex. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 requires schools to ensure equal opportunities for girls, including in athletic activities. California is preventing equality by allowing transgender males in girls’ sports and intimate spaces.
“Although Governor Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions,” explained U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon on Wednesday. “The Trump Administration will relentlessly enforce Title IX protections for women and girls, and our findings today make clear that California has failed to adhere to its obligations under federal law. The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow.”
Both the CDE and the CIF now have 10 days to voluntarily change the practices around allowing transgender males to compete in women’s sports. Should they not comply by July 5th or agree to a proposed Resolution Agreement to resolve their Title IX violations with the OCR, they will face imminent enforcement action. The DOE mentioned multiple consequences as a result, with the primary consequence being referred to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for legal proceedings.
In total, the federal government wants 6 things done in their proposed Resolution Agreement:
(i) The CDE will issue a Notice to all recipients of federal funding (Recipients) that operate interscholastic athletic programs in California requiring them to comply with Title IX. This will specify that Title IX and its implementing regulations forbids schools from allowing males from participating in female sports and from occupying female intimate facilities, and that Recipients must adopt biology-based definitions of the words ‘male’ and ‘female’;
(ii) The CDE will issue a Notice advising Recipients that any interpretation of California state law conflicting with the Department’s Resolution Agreement is preempted by federal law under Title IX;
(iii) The CDE and CIF will rescind any guidance that advised local school districts or CIF members to permit male athletes to participate in women’s and girls’ sports to reflect that Title IX preempts state law when state law conflicts with Title IX;
(iv) CDE will require all Recipients, including CIF, to restore to female athletes all individual records, titles, and awards misappropriated by male athletes competing in female competitions;
(v) To each female athlete to whom an individual recognition is restored, CDE will send a personalized letter apologizing on behalf of the state of California for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination; and
(vi) The CDE will require each Recipient and CIF to submit to CDE an annual certification that the Recipient and CIF have complied with Title IX. Accordingly, CDE will also propose to OCR a Monitoring Plan to ensure that Recipients are fully complying with Title IX.
An issue over transgender athletes
As of Wednesday afternoon, neither the CIF or CDE has released an official statement on the federal action. However, a spokeswoman for the CDE did respond, defending the CDE’s earlier stances and saying there were no plans to change current policies.
“The California Department of Education believes all students should have the opportunity to learn and play at school, and we have consistently applied existing law in support of students’ rights to do so,” said CDE spokeswoman Liz Sanders on the DOE’s findings.
The issue over California allowing transgender students from competing in Women’s sports has been a hot button issue for years, dating all the way back to 2013 when AB 1266 was signed into law by then-Governor Jerry Brown, letting males to participate on female sports teams and to use female spaces. In recent years, this practice has reached federal attention, most recently with the Trump administration pushing to end the practice. This included an executive order banning the practice in February and threating to cut California’s federal funding in May.
The latter action created a major effect, with the CIF drastically altering their transgender athlete policy in less than a day after Trump’s threat. However, transgender athletes were still allowed to compete in their non-biological gender sports, pushing the federal government to ramp up pressure and continue on with investigations. This all led to OCR’s findings on Wednesday.
In addition to the OCR’s findings and ultimatum on Wednesday, the state is also currently facing withheld federal funding and a federal order to remove gender identity from all sex education materials.
The state is expected to release an official response soon.
“VOTE THEM OUT”
Found on CFRW Facebook Page
Please Share
Copyright © 2025 California Federation of Republican Women, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you are a member of the California Federation of Republican Women.
Our mailing address is:
California Federation of Republican Women
Sacramento, CA 95814-2394
