Colonel J.S. Anderson, U.S. Marine Corps (retired), accepts a Senate Resolution from Senator Anderson during a “Freedom Walk” and 9/11 ceremony at De Anza Cove in San Diego. Operation Home Front was being honored for assisting the families of our service members and wounded warriors.

The American Legion – Department of California named Senator Joel Anderson as its “Legislator of the Year” for his work on behalf of California’s veterans and their families. Department Commander Mark Foxworthy recently presented Anderson with the award in the Eureka Room of the State Capitol.

Senate Joint Resolution 6, authored by Senators Anderson and Kehoe, is pending approval by the California Legislature . This measure would declare a day of support for survivors of torture living in California as well as urging the U.S. Office of Resettlement to recognize California’s role as the nation’s largest resettlement destination.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist and CBS Channel 5 political reporter Phil Matier interviews Senator Joel Anderson at the State Capitol about pending legislation to abolish the death penalty, allegedly because it costs too much. Anderson told Matier he opposes the legislation and believes California's drawn-out appeals process is what drives up the costs of enforcing the death penalty. "Death row was meant to be a temporary holding facility, not a retirement home."

Members of the Senate Republican Caucus met with the press to discuss the plan by Governor Brown and Democrats Leader to abandon bi-partisan budget talks and instead force a vote on a majority party-only budget proposal. A few days later the majority-party only budget was rammed through the Legislature with no Republican votes. Senator Anderson had this to say after passage of the budget: “This Democrat-controlled budget throws the most vulnerable, the weakest and our children under the bus. The Governor and the Democrat Legislators have sent closure notices to community correctional facilities while at the same time granting early release to criminals. They have traded those $44 per day prisoner beds for ones costing $68 per day and call it a ‘savings.’ They have installed funding ‘trigger’ cuts that close classrooms but prohibit even one public employee from being laid off. Only in the dark of night in Sacramento could this twisted logic exist. People outside the bubble of the Capitol Dome should be as outraged as I am. The only people this budget protects are public employees at the expense of all Californians.”