Diversity rules as Yee resumes speaker pro tem role in California State Assembly
Philippine News, 12/15/04
By Cristine Lacerna
SACRAMENTO
The California State Assembly opened its first floor session on December 6 with a strong message on diversity and calls for bipartisanship.
The first day of the 2005-2006 legislative sessions started with the swearing-in of the 80 Assembly members, 24 of whom were newly-elected.
Assemblyman Leland Yee (D, San Francisco) was sworn into his second term as the hand-picked speaker pro tempore. The second highest position in the State Assembly, the speaker pro tempore assumes the role of the speaker of the House in the absence of the elected speaker.
Yee is the first Asian American to ever hold this important post in the state’s 155-year history.
The alarming issue of intrastate human trafficking is one of Yee’s top priorities this legislative year, he told the media at a briefing ahead of his swearing-in for a second term. The selling of young girls into prostitution is of topmost concern, most of these victims being Asian Americans.
Yee said he recently found out that a ring of prostitution had been busted in his own neighborhood in S.F.
He is currently working on legislation to increase the penalty on human traffickers, making such offenders punishable by state laws in addition to the federal laws already in place.
Yee promised to continue to “push meaningful legislation to improve the quality of life for all Californians” in his second term. To honor his swearing-in ceremony, Yee invited 19 monks from the Shaolin Temple in Songshan, China.
The venerable elder of the Shaolin monks, Shi Di Ren, escorted Yee during the swearing-in at the assembly. Yee, who immigrated to San Francisco from China at age four, expressed gratitude to the monks for coming to his swearing-in ceremony.
Sworn-in as well was Van T. Tran, the first-ever Vietnamese American assembly member in the California legislative body. Tran is a Republican representative of Orange County. There are currently seven Asian Americans serving in the State Assembly.
Fabian Nunez (D, Los Angeles) was also formally re-elected and sworn-in as the speaker of the House once more. In his address to the new Assembly, he called the Lower House the “most representative body of the state government, the closest to the people, and the best reflection of California’s vibrant diversity.”
A son of a poor Hispanic immigrant family, Nunez reminded his colleagues that the Assembly is the “people’s house” where the many voices of California have a real chance to be heard.”
To better serve Californians, Nunez issued a challenge to the legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to come up with bipartisan solutions to the problems faced by ordinary Californians today, most notably in health care.
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