Rebecca Bauer-Kahan was elected to the State Assembly in 2018 to represent the 16th Assembly District. She immediately made her mark on the legislature when she was selected by her colleagues to serve in the Assembly leadership as Assistant Speaker pro Tempore and Chair of the Select Committee on Women's Reproductive Health – the first committee of its kind in the nation.

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In the Assembly, Rebecca has focused on issues that reflect our community's values and delivering resources that our region desperately needs. In just a few months of service, she authored 13 pieces of legislation, all which received bipartisan support, including bills to strengthen gun safety, protect victims of sexual exploitation, provide better access to health care, improve the environment and more. She also secured millions for local projects.

Before serving her community in the Assembly, Rebecca was an accomplished attorney, environmental advocate, community volunteer, law professor and mother. As an attorney, Rebecca specialized in ensuring major corporations complied with environmental laws and regulations by leading internal investigations to improve their environmental practices, while maintaining profitability. She also oversaw and grew her office’s pro bono program to include civil rights, immigration, homelessness and domestic violence.

Rebecca is the granddaughter of refugees, who came to the United States to escape the Holocaust. They were able to secure a sponsor, a stranger who made a great sacrifice to allow them to survive – and thrive. Their experience has shaped Rebecca's perspective, inspiring her to help others in her own community. That included coordinating the legal services effort at SFO on behalf of the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) to assist refugees and immigrants impacted by the Trump Administration’s travel ban.

Rebecca is a proud Bay Area native and a product of public schools. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University Law Center. She and her husband, Darren, live in Orinda with their three young children.

Dear Neighbor,

Since I was elected to the State Assembly, it has been an incredible honor to represent you and fight for our community. I am so proud of what we have been able to accomplish in that short time.

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I originally ran for the Assembly to make our community better, to stand up for what’s right and to work on solving some of our community’s – and our state’s – most pressing issues. And I have done that by bringing my passion for solving problems to get things done on the issues that matter most to our families and delivering for our community.

After being sworn in, I immediately rolled up my sleeves and got to work for our community. I was honored to be selected by my colleagues to serve in the Assembly leadership as Assistant Speaker pro Tempore.

In the Assembly, I have focused on issues that reflect our community's values and delivering resources that our region desperately needs. And I have worked across party lines to put our community before politics and get things done – in fact, every bill I proposed in my first year received bipartisan support.

Some of my top legislative priorities include:
 

• Protecting women's health and a woman's right to choose by serving as the Chair of the Select Committee on Women's Reproductive Health – the first select committee in the nation dedicated to women's reproductive health
   

• Securing millions in funding for local projects, including local parks and recreation programs, local environmental programs and more
   

• Helping local governments earn more funding from competitive state transportation grants so our region is able to get our fair share of state transportation funding
   

• Working to fund our public schools by bringing California's education spending up to the national per pupil average or higher (AB 39)
   

• Strengthening gun safety laws by prohibiting anyone who goes through a court-ordered mental health from possessing a firearm while in the program (AB 1121) and modernizing the process that oversees the transfer of firearms in estates or trusts (AB 1292)
   

• Protecting victims of human trafficking from retribution by protecting their privacy when seeking professional help (AB 1735) and preventing the sexual exploitation of our youth by ensuring court-ordered visitation monitors are required to go through background checks before interacting with children (AB 1175)

• Ensuring Californians have more access to quality, affordable health care by streamlining the open enrollment period for Covered California (AB 1309)
   

• Protecting children and adults alike with severe food allergies from health risks by requiring food servers to understand of allergens and cross-contamination issues by authoring a bill in honor of Natalie Giorgi, who died at 13 years old after being exposed to a deadly allergen at summer camp (AB 1532)
   

• Making college more affordable for certain California students by removing income exclusions which penalize families on CalWORKs (AB 807)
   

• Helping small farmers succeed, reducing water consumption and protecting drinking water by codifying a program to provide small farms with grants to convert to micro-irrigation systems (AB 1086)
   

• Providing key protections for the nearly 100,000 California students who attend online for-profit and out-of-state schools by requiring these schools comply with state accreditation requirements (AB 1344)
   

• Protecting the environment, including increasing penalties who illegally dump garbage (AB 1216) and working to electrify and modernize California's ports (AB 1594)
   

• Streamlining the development process for certain transportation projects with higher quality construction and design, as well as managing costs by authoring a bill to improve transportation construction projects around the state (AB 1475) ​

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And I am still focused on the key issues, including:

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• Ensuring our children get a top-level education from pre-k through college by fully funding our public schools and guaranteeing universal pre-school so that every child has the opportunity to succeed
   

• Protecting the environment and battling climate change
   

• Fighting the Trump Administration's immigration policies, including ensuring state resources aren't used for actions like caging children and dividing parents and children
   

• Working to improve transportation options, finding traffic solutions and investing in our crumbling infrastructure, including fixing our roads, working to make BART more reliable and safer, creating more BART parking, and working to connect the Central Valley and the Tri-Valley to the rest of the Bay Area
   

• Protecting a woman’s right to choose
   

• Increasing access to quality, affordable health care
   

• Keeping our families and children safe by making California a model for the nation on gun violence prevention
   

• Assuring balanced budgets, while protecting key state programs
   

• Helping small businesses thrive and growing our local economy
   

I look forward to continuing to work with you to make our community better.

Sincerely,

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Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan