State Senator "There are laws to protect endangered species, but no laws to protect less powerful and less protected communities from becoming environmental dumping grounds." - Congresswoman Hilda Solis.
In 1994, Hilda made history as the first Latina elected to the California State Senate. As a state senator, Hilda gained a reputation she still carries today as a fierce defender of the environment, a stalwart ally of working families, and an unabashed crusader for women's rights.
Her extraordinary effectiveness early on in the Senate and her commitment to progressive values enabled her to rise quickly. After a very short period of time, Hilda was named chairwoman of the powerful Senate Industrial Relations Committee.
Hilda vigorously pursued a broad agenda in the Senate that emphasized a commitment to the strong progressive values that have come to define her career.
- She was on the frontlines in the fight to secure a living wage, leading the charge to raise the state's hourly minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.75.
- She authored a record seventeen state bills that targeted domestic violence.
- She stood up for California's students, co-authoring two major pieces of legislation that demanded class sizes be reduced.
- She actively pursued universal health care coverage before it was politically wise to do so.
However, it was Hilda's extensive legislative record on the environment that came to characterize her tenure in the state Senate and brought her recognition as a nationally recognized leader on the issue.
She was one of the first in a growing movement that identified and sought to address the issue of environmental justice. Long aware of the problems that were far too common in areas stricken by poverty or occupied by minorities, Hilda went to the mat every day to hold powerful industry and large corporations accountable for their flagrant violations of the standards of human decency as they used the neighborhoods and backyards of the politically powerless as dumping grounds for their waste materials.
Hilda found resistance in every corner as she tried to legislate her beliefs about the right of a community to access clean water and to breathe clean air even if that community is not as wealthy as others. However, her determination and willingness to stand strong, especially when facing great odds, allowed her to successfully usher in significant legislative victories that changed the very face of California.
Hilda's crowning achievement was a comprehensive environmental justice bill, SB 115, that redefined the way that low income and minority communities were assessed as potential locations for placing pollution and waste disposal facilities. Until this point, the decisions about where these sites would be placed would be made without the consent or knowledge of the very people that would be negatively effected by the environmental and health risks that they posed.
Drawing on the legislative skills that proved so effective in the past, Hilda garnered together a working coalition in the state assembly and senate to pass SB 115, besting the highly organized efforts of the powerful corporate and business interests that were used to getting their way in the state capitol.
However, even while gathering the necessary majorities in the legislature, the governor vetoed the bill. Undeterred, Hilda persistently pushed the legislation, successfully warding off numerous attacks by the cronies of big business. After several years of tireless work, the new Democratic governor, Gray Davis, signed SB 115 into law. It was Hilda's determination and unwavering advocacy for the principles behind the environmental justice bill that kept it alive and eventually led to its enactment.
Hilda had many victories in the California State Senate, achieving positive change on a wide array of issues and benefiting millions of people across the state. Her extraordinary work, particularly on environmental justice, led her to become the first woman in history to receive the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award.
After her success in pursuing her progressive agenda in the state senate, Hilda wanted to take her message of hope and progress to the federal level. Relying on the same grassroots support that got her elected to the state Senate, Hilda successfully campaigned for the United States House of Representatives in 2000, running on the same platform that she had run on all her life: fairness and equality for all.
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