Senator Leland Yee
Senator Leland Yee has introduced legislation that would recognize October 2009 and every October thereafter, as Filipino American Histroy, in recognition of the first recorded landing of a Filipino in America on October 18, 1587, at Morro Bay, CA.
Senate Passes Filipino American History Month Legislation
Monday, July 13, 2009
Senator Yee authors resolution to recognize accomplishments of Filipino Americans
SACRAMENTO – The California State Senate has unanimously approved legislation to officially recognize the accomplishments of Filipino Americans. Senate Concurrent Resolution 48, authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), will declare October as Filipino American History Month.
“It is imperative that we continue efforts to promote the accomplishments of Filipino Americans,” said Yee, whose district includes one of the largest Filipino communities outside of the Philippines. “For far too long the role of Filipinos in our national history has been ignored. Through SCR 48, we help ensure that our children learn about this important history.”
The earliest documented proof of Filipino presence in the continental United States was the date ofOctober 18, 1587, when the first “Luzones Indios” set foot in Morro Bay, California. The Filipino American National Historical Society recognizes the year of 1763 as the date of the first permanent Filipino settlement in the United States in St. Malo Parish, Louisiana. Today, California is home to over half of the Filipino population in the United States.
In 2007, Yee successfully passed Senate Joint Resolution 5, urging Congress to pass the Filipino Veterans Equity Act and to fully restore benefits stripped from Filipino WWII veterans by the 1946 Rescission Act.
Senator Yee has long advocated for the Filipino veterans. In 2004, then Assemblyman Yee led the effort to prevent Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Los Angeles) from eliminating the California Veterans Cash Benefit Program from the State budget. While the Governor proposed cutting the $226 per month benefit, Yee successfully fought to make sure the Veterans Program was reauthorized in the budget approved by the Legislature. Yee has also authored legislation to add the role of Filipinos in WWII to the high school social studies curriculum.
This year, Yee is authoring SB 242 to protect language as a civil right. In addition to authoring several bills regarding language access, Yee has consistently fought for the Filipino community and helped recognize the accomplishments of Filipino Americans.
In March 2006, Yee honored the contributions of Larry Itliong at a ceremony in San Francisco. Itliong, along with Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, started the farm worker movement. Yee has led various efforts to assist the Philippines after devastating earthquakes, typhoons and mudslides.
In March 2005, Yee honored the late San Francisco community activist, volunteer, and environmentalist Tess Manalo-Ventresca as the 12th Assembly District Woman of the Year.
In 2001, when the airport screeners were laid off, Yee was an outspoken supporter of the workers and his office provided resume and interview tips, and participated in job fairs to help get the workers back on their feet.
SCA 48 will next be considered by the State Assembly.
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Contact: Adam J. Keigwin,
(916) 651-4008
Leland Yee (Chinese: 余胤良; pinyin: Yú Yìnliáng, born November 20, 1948 in China) is a California State Senator in District 8 which includes the western half of San Francisco and most of San Mateo County. Prior to becoming state senator, Yee was a California State Assemblyman, Supervisor of San Francisco's Sunset District, and was a member of the San Francisco School Board. In 2004 Yee became the first Asian American to be appointed Speaker pro Tempore, making him the second highest ranking Democrat of the California State Assembly.
Leland Yee immigrated to San Francisco from Taishan, Guangdong, China when he was three years old and later became a naturalized United States citizen. His father served in the U.S. Army. Yee attended San Francisco's Mission High School and earned a bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley a master's from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in Child Psychology from the University of Hawaii. Leland Yee met and married his wife Maxine in 1972 and together they raised four children who attended SF public schools. He currently lives in San Francisco's Sunset District.
Political career
School Board
Yee was elected to the San Francisco school board in 1988 and served two four-year terms on the School Board including one as Board President.
District 4 Supervisor
Leland Yee became Sunset Supervisor in 1996. As District 4 supervisor Yee was appointed to chair of the Finance Committee where he helped establish the "Rainy Day" budget reserve and introduced General Obligation Bond Accountability Act. He was re-elected to the board of Supervisors in 2002. Yee also hired Ed Jew, who later became a supervisor, as his volunteer community liaison in 1996.
District 12 Assemblyman
Leland was elected to the California State Assemblyman in November 2002 to represent the 12th Assembly District.
In his first year in the Legislature, he was appointed to the Speaker’s leadership team as the Assistant Speaker pro Tempore. In 2004 Yee became the first Asian Pacific American to be appointed Speaker pro Tempore in the California State Assembly and was elected President of the National Asian Pacific American Caucus of State Legislators.
State Senator
On June 6, 2006, Yee defeated his opponents Mike Nevin and Lou Papan to win the Democratic nomination for the California State Senate, representing the 8th District. In the final vote tally certified on June 27, 2006 by San Mateo County Chief Elections Officer Warren Slocum, Yee gathered 51.9 percent, Nevin received 35.4 percent and Papan took 12.7 percent of the vote. Since Jan. 1, Nevin spent $887,562.80 of campaign contributions, Yee spent $673,372.59 and Papan ran a modest campaign, spending just $289,862.64. He was elected to the California State Senate in the November 7 2006 election by a landslide of 77.5% of votes cast. With San Francisco and San Mateo County having a high Democratic base Yee was elected as Senator for the 8th District on November 7, 2006. This was a notable election making him the first Chinese-American elected to the California State Senate in 156 years. Yee replaced Jackie Speier, who left office due to term limits. As State Senator, Yee passed 11 bills chaptered into law.
In 2008, in a surprising twist of events in the LPGA English language controversy, Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco and Assemblyman Ted Lieuof Los Angeles were able to help rescind the LPGA Tour Commission’s suspension-penalty policy. Both officials publicly challenged the legality and galvanized community attention to the LPGA’s policy in August 2008 when it was released, which resulted in revision of policy by the end of 2008.
Controversies
Allegations of shoplifting and prostitution
On December 19, 1992 Leland Yee was spotted walking out of a KTA Superstore in Hawaii County with a small bottle of "Tropical Blend Tan Magnifier oil" in his front short pocket. He was subsequently stopped by a store security officer who summoned the local police. Yee was booked on suspicion of petty misdemeanor shoplifting but the case was closed in 1993 without prejudice.
Yee has also been pulled over by SFPD three times under the suspicion that he was cruising for prostitutes in the Mission District of San Francisco. All three times, he was questioned by police and let go with no charges filed.
Video game controversies
In 2005, Yee criticized Rockstar North for the Hot Coffee Mod in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and claimed that the ESRB knew about it in advance and criticized them for not rating it "adults only".[7] The controversy resulted from the Hot Coffee mod created by PC users of the game using hacking tools to create a mod to play a mini game which was otherwise inaccessible to players. In response, to the Rockstar removed the content used for the mod. That same year, Yee passed California Assembly Bills 1792 & 1793, a video game bill that criminalizes sale of videogames rated M to children under 18 and require retailers to place M-rated games separate from other games intended for children. Yee's bills passed in part to mass media concentration on the speculative link between video game violence and real world violence, as well as several support of concerned parent groups. The bill was signed into law on October 7th, 2005 and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) filed a lawsuit 10 days later. After the bill passed, it was ruled to be unconstitutional by Judge Ronald Whyte. The adverse ruling required the state to pay $324,840 to the ESA in legal fees. The ruling was then appealed by Governor Schwarzenegger in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court.
On April 12, 2007 Yee criticized the US Army’s program to will spend $2 million in tax dollars to sponsor the Global Gaming League. Yee claims the military individuals on the site who are "desensitized to real-life violence through the online violent video games."
On August 29, 2007 Leland Yee criticized the ESRB for not disclosing what content was removed from Manhunt 2 to re-rate the game from an AO rating for violence to the ESRB Mature rating. Yee asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the change in rating. In response, ESRB president Patricia Vance stated the details for a product that has not yet been released will not be disclosed.
Editing Wikipedia
On September 4, 2007 it was revealed using WikiScanner that IP addresses registered to computers in the California Senate office had made changes to its Wikipedia entry favoring Leland Yee. It was reported that they removed the 1992 shoplifting allegations and the video game controversies sections.
Opposition to Schwarzenegger healthcare plan
On January 23, 2008 during a committee meeting, Leland Yee announced his opposition to the health care plan sponsored by Governor Schwarzenegger and supported by a majority of Democrats in the California State House and Senate, while opposed by a majority of Republicans. Yee's opposition along with the opposition of Democratic Senator and Health Committee Chair Sheila Kuehl led the NY Times to predict that California's healthcare bill would be effectively killed.